GREENWOOD TWP- For the second year in a row, the Tower-Soudan Historical Society, in conjunction with Gruben’s Marina, hosted a summer bash event. The event is a chance to share Tower-Soudan history with our area’s many summer residents, who often have long-time ties to the lake, but not as much of a connection to the area’s history.
The event is also a fundraiser for TSHS. The silent auction featured a variety of artwork, gift baskets, and Lake Vermilion experiences. The most popular was a afternoon sail on Val Leciejewski’s Rock Lobster sailboat. In addition, Gruben’s is donating 10-percent of the proceeds from the wine tasting sales to TSHS.
TSHS member Mary St. Onge came up with the idea last year. A longtime summer resident of Pine Island, she was excited to see so many other island residents visiting the event.
“There are more people here than last year,” she said. “We hope to do it again next summer.”
Generations of families stopped by, including one family, with a cabin on Gold Island, proudly introducing their youngest, KJ Harris, who at one-years-old is the seventh-generation of the family visiting the cabin now owned by his grandparents, Michele and Jeff Ernst. KJ’s parents inherited their family’s love of the lake, and their young family spends as much time as possible at the cabin each summer.
Visitors were buying raffle tickets, and several even became new members of the historical society.
The event was also a draw for shoreland neighbors. Families from Isle of Pines, right across the bridge, walked over to get lunch at the food truck, Emma’s Kitchen, serving Mexican treats and other fair food. Chessica Reicher-Olson was busy keeping up with all the business in the store, which was scooping up ice cream at a furious pace to keep up the demand on the warm summer afternoon. The wine tasting, which is usually held on holiday weekends, Memorial Day, and Labor Day, was also hugely popular.
The event was also a chance to share Lake Vermilion history and trivia. Families worked together on trivia game which featured questions like:
• What were the three purposes of the historic fire hall building in Tower?
• In 1893, Tower’s population was 3,000 and growing due to the mining and lumber industries. How many bars were issued that year?
• Name three of the species of ducks that live at Lake Vermilion.
• Name four of the nine streams/creeks/rivers that flow into or out of Lake Vermilion.
• What four-legged brown animal was stranded on Potato Island in the mid-1970s for two weeks?
Trivia answers: fire station/jail/city hall; 22; and three of these- mallard/wood duck/blue-winged teal/hooded merganser/common goldeneye/ring-necked duck/bufflehead; Pike River/Armstrong River/Vermilion River/West Two River/Mud Creek/Bear Creek/North Creek/Black Creek; a moose.