News From The Frontier
Love to get these sort of stories!
From Ivy Hansen of Twin Alligators Island, Namakan Lake:
When we started giving tours for the Voyageurs National Park, I quizzed Dad, Bill Callies, about
people and places on the lake. This is as he told it:
The Frontier Resort was the first resort built on the Ash River. It was turned into a resort in the 1930’s by Bill Palmer.
When it first had guests, Dad guided for Palmer and so did Frank Mickey. Frank later built Mickey’s Resort up the river
from the Frontier. It is where Ash Ka Nam is now. Dad said he never had any trouble getting fish for everyone.
Fishermen mostly hired him so they would not get lost. Dad would take the fishermen out for the day and cook
and serve a shore lunch for $5.00 a day.
The limit was 8 walleyes per day and 12 in possession. They would come in each day with 12 for each man in the party.
Bill Palmer would bury the 12 from the day before and put the new 12 on ice.
Bill Palmer built boats that were copies of bateaus. The bateaus were built with a deep “V” shape and the hulls were formed by overlapping cedar boards. The cedar boards were ½ an inch thick, 6 inches wide and they overlapped. The boats were 24 -26 feet long. There were two pegs for oars to set in and there were two men in each seat to row. The boats were made to row but Bill
Palmer added 22 hp Johnson motors on the back. Dad used these boats to guide for Palmer into the 1940’s. Besides
Dad and Frank Mickey, Ed Nelson and John Slatinski guided for Frontier Resort.
During deer season, Dad said that the first day of deer season, in the morning, there would be 70-80 deer piled up.
Dad told a story about Charlie “Dutch” Messenger (Old Dutch Bay namesake who shacked on the Callies property
at the mouth of the Ash River – the property later was bought from Gramps by Darst). Gramps called
Dutch “Charlie the Mooch” because of some of his tricks. Dutch would go into the Frontier Resort and
ask who shot a certain deer. He would bluff the hunter up and ask how many shots it took to kill the deer.
The hunter might say only one. Then Dutch asked what kind of gun the guy had and no matter what
type it was, Dutch would tell him that was just like his gun and Dutch really needed shells for his gun.
Dutch would get lots of shells and then trade them later for things he needed.
There are lots of Dutch Messenger stories. The Conservation Volunteer magazine in the 1964 wrote an
article about him and called him a “genuine terror”. Dad said he knew that Dutch killed two men. One was
Alec (Squaw Alec) Anderson. He wasarrested for that murder but was found not guilty – he pled self defense.
Back to the bateaus – Dad said the owners who bought from Palmer talked the owner into letting them take the boats out for
deer season. The ice on the lake “sawed” the bottoms off the boats and they sunk.
Hi Debbie,
My name is Greg, I was the guy that called you onThursday (5/16) giving you my story about being stranded in Hoist Bay with a
lower unit out on my boat. I got your name from my wife's co-worker (Brent) who just stayed at your resort and
he said he was talking to you about my trials only to find out that you were my Guardian Angel that day! Thank You!
The painful story had a happy ending as the Park Service showed up about 4 hours after I talked to
you and heshuttled me to Ebel's where I rented a kicker for my boat so we could at least enjoy part of the
week and still get back to the boat landing to go home.
My old college roommate and I have enjoyed Voyageurs for years and have had nothing but wonderful memories
of your area up there. Being we are both from the cities down here getting away to camp in a secluded
place like Voyageurs is an annual treat for us. Now we have a much different story to tell everyone
and I now have a name (and resort) tied to our successful return to the mayhem.
Thank you again for all you did, and we will probably be up there again this fall and we may stop by to say hi.
Take care and I wish you the very best this summer season.
Greg Gorvin
My name is Greg, I was the guy that called you onThursday (5/16) giving you my story about being stranded in Hoist Bay with a
lower unit out on my boat. I got your name from my wife's co-worker (Brent) who just stayed at your resort and
he said he was talking to you about my trials only to find out that you were my Guardian Angel that day! Thank You!
The painful story had a happy ending as the Park Service showed up about 4 hours after I talked to
you and heshuttled me to Ebel's where I rented a kicker for my boat so we could at least enjoy part of the
week and still get back to the boat landing to go home.
My old college roommate and I have enjoyed Voyageurs for years and have had nothing but wonderful memories
of your area up there. Being we are both from the cities down here getting away to camp in a secluded
place like Voyageurs is an annual treat for us. Now we have a much different story to tell everyone
and I now have a name (and resort) tied to our successful return to the mayhem.
Thank you again for all you did, and we will probably be up there again this fall and we may stop by to say hi.
Take care and I wish you the very best this summer season.
Greg Gorvin