Growth of Cascade Lodge tells story of the North Shore

LUTSEN, MINN. -- Cascade Lodge comes into view northeast of Lutsen, where Hwy. 61 bends down for yet another hug from Lake Superior.

By then -- two hours out of Duluth -- the traveler is well charmed by the shore's siren song of water, rock, forest and sky, played for the eye in perfect harmony.

It faces the lake from the opposite side of the highway -- a stately 2 1/2-story structure on a large lawn. You glance at the shutters and twin gables, the split stones and half logs, and you half expect to see a Model A roadster in the drive, suitcases strapped to its running boards.

The old place seems to belong to the landscape, like a white steeple in a New England valley, or a faded red barn in a sea of Midwestern grass.

Named for the river that tumbles there into the big lake, Cascade Lodge has had a long time to become part of the shore; the business, which includes a restaurant and cabins, has been celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

The milestone inspired Gene and Laurene Glader, transplanted Twin Citians who have owned the place for 21 years, to document Cascade's story. They dug through archives and interviewed old-timers.

The history of their place is intertwined with the story of how the North Shore evolved into one of Minnesota's most popular tourist destinations.

Over the next five decades, the land was traded among speculators and leased to fishermen and other settlers. Tragedy struck two of those early residents, Hilmer and Ole Smuland, on Thanksgiving Day 1924. The brothers were setting their fishing nets when Hilmer, a husband and father, got tangled in some weighted lines and was pulled overboard and to the bottom. Ole died trying to save him.

In 1887, the first treacherous road up the shore was finished. The first documented automobile trip was in 1912. The Duluth Herald said:

"Fully 15 to 20 windfalls were cleared from the roadway, and an equal number the Ford was forced to climb over. . . . Large boulders caused by the washing away in numerous places were apparent."

In 1922, Edward Ogilvie of St. Paul bought a portion of the land (the rest is now a state park) and began building a resort, which his son, Burton, was to run. But Burton fell ill, and in 1926 his father sold the property to Grand Marais businessman Morris Olson for $11,000.

Olson formed Cascade Lodge Inc. with two other men, including 26-year-old Charles Rogers of Forest Lake, who loved the North Shore and invested part of his inheritance.

The grand opening featured a band called the "Toe Ticklers -- The Snazzy, Jazzy Five." The Gladers believe construction of the resort's first three log cabins also was done in this era.

By then, a passenger bus made the daily round trip between Duluth and Grand Marais.

Bust and boom

The Depression brought hard times. Rogers, who had covered losses from his own pocket, became the sole owner in 1930. A bright spot in the gloom came in the fall of 1933 when the North Shore highway was fully paved.

Rogers' wife, Ruth, disliked raising the couple's three children in such rusticity. The family returned to Forest Lake in 1933. The next summer St. Paulites Herbert and Minnie Neudahl managed the lodge, and they bought it in 1935 for $8,000.

The Neudahls continued the tradition of lodge dances (one band was called the North Shore Aircooled Orchestra) and offered horseback riding. Their brochure touted opportunities for "Kodaking," and said the highway was "Macadamized." Room rates in 1938 were $2 to $3.50 per day.

In 1935, a statewide organization began promoting the North Shore as the "Hay Fever Haven of America." It boosted tourism for decades.

In 1938-39 the Neudahls replaced the lodge with the one that exists today. It featured steam heat, modern bathrooms and 10 guest rooms. In the tourism boom following World War II, they built a coffee shop and gas station. That building is now the restaurant.

By then, skiing and leaf-looking were helping attract people to the shore. The Lutsen ski area opened in 1948. The Neudahls' brochure described a "friendly atmosphere and beautiful surroundings of this wilderness resort of luxury and good comradeship."

Trails blazed

They sold the business in 1969 to Minnetonka residents Michael and Sharon Rusten, who hired her parents, Carl and Mae Odmark, as managers. Gene Glader is Mae Odmark's cousin. In 1973, the Rustens bought the El Ray Cafe in Grand Marais. Renamed the Bluewater Cafe, the eatery is still owned by Cascade Inc.

In cooperation with the adjacent state park, Carl developed a system of cross-country skiing and hiking trails, including one to Lookout Mountain. In 1976 Cascade began renting cross-country equipment and snowshoes.

The Gladers, then of Shoreview, had been looking for an opportunity to change careers and lifestyle. She was a nurse and he was a professor and coach at Bethel College.

"We had a dream to operate a resort where we could provide a nice, wholesome place for people in beautiful surroundings, and run it with Christian values," he said.

In 1981 they bought Cascade Inc. and moved north with the two of their children who weren't grown. Despite the hard work, they say they've never regretted it.

They too have improved the place in historically fitting ways while making concessions to convenience, including in-room televisions and telephones, a satellite dish and an Internet site http://www.cascadelodgemn.com

The Gladers have presided over Cascade's sixth and seventh decades of continuous growth, fueled by the ever-growing popularity of the North Shore. This has required some adaptation.

About a decade ago, in the midst of a booming economy, North Shore businesses began running out of workers to wait tables, cook meals and clean rooms.

The shore's solution was to hire foreign students who were seeking a cultural experience in the United States and some valuable U.S. dollars. Cook County had more than 100 of those workers last summer, including 25 who worked for Cascade Inc., either at the resort or the cafe in Grand Marais.

It's just one of the latest in the array of changes the North Shore has seen since Cascade Lodge opened 75 years ago. Change can be a scary thing to shore lovers. They take comfort in primeval water, rock, forest and sky, and in familiar old facades of half-log and split stone.