Interview with Jean Hanson-Benson

Jean Hanson-Benson, daughter of Boots and Olga Hanson, sister to Barbara and Meme, recollections on 11/07/19.

This is the way I remembered my years at Many Point. Sometimes it is hard to go back to Many Point because it is not the same. And I expect it to be the same.

Recently going back to our house, oh, my gosh, we all lived in this little house.

Before moving to Many Point, our family lived in the Minneapolis neighborhood of Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue. We drove from the busy, noisy city, across the Prairie, and into the deep woods. It was December of 1946, and I was three years old when we moved into that house. Meme was only six-months-old. My clear memory was going from the Prairie into the woods and walking into our unfinished home. It just had a subfloor, and I could see the light coming from the basement through the floorboards.

A noisy, small gas generator located at the nearby Maintenance Shop also provided our house electricity. Two large generators operated during the summer. The power supplied by the generators ran our refrigerator. Our kitchen range worked on Low-Pressure gas while our house heat came from a big coal-fired furnace in the basement. Coal entered the basement by way of a chute through a window to the coal bin. We had indoor plumbing, a bathtub, but no shower. Mom had a wringer washing machine, with lines strung in the basement to hang the clothes to dry. In the summer, she had a clothesline outside.

At night, we had favorite radio programs that we regularly followed. On March 9, 1954, we got our first television. Our television was the first one in our area.

Neighbors came to watch and enjoyed whatever was on our tv that particular evening. Because at that time in history, programming was not an all-day event. I think most programs started during the early evening hours.

Dad spent a lot of evenings in his office with his paperwork. He kept a daily journal with the highlights of each day; weather, out of camp trips, projects being worked on in the Shop or around camp, the number of ice blocks in each ice house, etc. There were very few entries for the summer months. With no phone in the camp, his contact with the Minneapolis office was by letter. He kept three­ ring binders of the letters he received from camp directors, scout executives, Mr. Gaylord, etc.

We had a phonograph, and as the story records played, we listened and followed along in our books. Reading was another favorite activity. We had lots of Little Golden Books, and back then, they only cost twenty-nine cents. The Detroit Lakes Public Library would frequently send out a box of books, transported by the mailman to the country schools. When it was time for a new selection, the original box of books would go back to the Public Library, and a new box of books was delivered.

Activities we enjoyed as a family included playing games like Cootie, checkers, wahoo, Chinese checkers, and of course, card games. In the winter, we spent a lot of time outdoors, making snow tunnels, skating on the lake, and sliding down the hill on our sleds. If the conditions were right, we could start at the top of Ale’s hill and slide down to the lake. Due to the length of the ride, it was lots of fun going down, but a long way back.

In the Fall of 1947, Barbara, my older sister, started school at Round Lake, District #130 country school, where she was the only child in the first-grade. The school was about ten miles from camp, so Dad took her every morning and picked her up every afternoon.

The next year the country school needed a teacher. Being a certified teacher, and offered the job, Mom told them she would take the teaching position on the condition that I could start first grade at the age of five. So in the fall of 1948, Mom, Barbara, and I went to school. Dad was our driver, and my younger sister, Meme, went to stay with Mrs. Manners for the day. In the winter, Dad took us to school in the vehicle that had a snowplow on the front.

I went to District #130 country school for eight years and had my Mom as my teacher for six and one-half of those years. The school was about ten miles from camp. It was six miles to the edge of the woods, then about two miles South to Manners farm located on the West side of the road. Turning West from Manners farm going about one and one-half miles, then South about one-half mile to the school in the woods.

The Manners were our closest neighbors outside of camp. Their children were all older than us. A couple of their children did work at Many Point. Betty worked in the laundry, and Charles worked outside as a truck driver. Before we got a telephone at Many Point, Manners had the closest phone. Calls would come to the Manners for the camp, and they would drive out to the camp with the information.

At first, Dad had to go to Ponsford to get our mail. Then I think for a period we had a mailbox by Manner’s house and then at the edge of the woods. The mail was delivered to the camp in the summertime.

Round Lake School was a one-room school with one teacher and all the students in that room. The school was a square building. You would go up a few steps to a little porch, and inside the front door was a small room with two doors. The one straight ahead went into the classroom; the one on the left went into the cloakroom, which also had a wood box, a water cooler for drinking water, a washbasin for hand washing, and another door into the classroom.

Across from the door, the large classroom had windows. There were blackboards in the front wall and one blackboard on the sidewall. There was a large wood­ burning stove in the corner by the cloakroom. On the back wall was a bulletin board. There was a little library consisting of textbooks and a few library type storybooks – a series of stairs that went into the attic. There was also a full basement that mainly held wood for the stove. One of the older boys would come to school early to get the fire started, so it would at least be starting to get warm by the time the other students arrived.

In the winter, when it was freezing cold and before the stove could do its job, we played singing games to warm up. We would move around the classroom to singing games like ‘The Grand Old Duke of York.’ Skip to My Lou.’ ‘The Farmer in the Dell,’ ‘Looby Lou.’ ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush,’ and ‘In and Out the Window.’

Recess was usually free play (not teacher-directed), so we could choose our own activities. The only equipment that I remember was a bat and a kittenball (large softball). So we played a little ball, prisoners base, red rover, anti-i-over, porn porn pull away. In the winter, we played Fox and Goose in the snow. We piled and repiled the outside woodpile into little rooms. The school grounds had a pump house that held the pump for pumping water and two outhouses- one for the boys and one for the girls.

Barbara was the only student in her grade all six years that she went to Round Lake School. When she was in seventh grade, she went to school in Cass Lake, staying either with our grandparents or with our aunt and uncle’s family. In eighth grade, Barbara stayed with the Manners family and rode the school bus to Park Rapids. Her freshman year, she went back to Cass Lake. When Barbara was a sophomore, I was a freshman, and Meme was in fifth grade, we all rode the school bus to Waubun. Due to a lack of students, I think Round Lake School was closed after my eighth-grade year. The few remaining students probably went to Park Rapids.

Dad drove us to the Gate Lodge every morning, where we met the Waubun school bus. We were the first ones on and the last ones off. We all three graduated from Waubun High School. I went on to Bemidji State College and graduated with an elementary teaching degree. My husband Wayne was in my class at Waubun, and he too went on to Bemidji State, graduating with an accounting and economics degree.

I spent some time reading in my Dad’s daily journal. Joe Nickaboine, Dad’s assistant started to work at Many Point on October 31, 1948. His last day on the job was September 19, 1952. A man named Melvin (first or last name don’t know) worked for only one week – Nov. 10, 1952, until Nov. 14, 1952.

Then Stewart ( I think his first name was Charlie) started work on Dec. 9, 1952. I don’t have any record of when his last day was, but Ale Niemi began working at camp on June 8, 1953.

During this time, Severt Rasmuson also worked at camp, although he lived with Anna, his wife, at their resort across from the Main Beach. He commuted by driving across on the ice as soon as it was safe in the winter. Then either driving around the lake or when the ice was gone boating across.

Ale and Irene Niemi had younger children than us. I babysat for their kids. Irene just turned eighty-seven years old and is in a nursing home in Detroit Lakes, where I volunteer on Mondays. I see Irene and her daughter, Olga, quite often. At Irene’s birthday celebration, I saw the rest of her family.

I enjoyed going down to the Maintenance Shop. There was always a lot of activity, and I liked the smell of fresh wood when Dad was using the saw. He would often take us with him when he had to go out and about, but sometimes we had to wait in the vehicle, depending on what he had to do or where he had to go.

Fishing with Dad was one thing I liked to do. He had rules: due to the size of the boat, there could only be three people in the boat. Usually, either Ale or Severt fished with Dad, so there was only room for one other person in the boat. My sisters and I took turns. Rule two was: One didn’t stand up in the boat, and rule three was, you didn’t talk unless it was necessary. We always fished right after supper. And, as soon as the sun reached the top of the trees, we were done for the night. I liked that there was a starting time and a stopping time.

We fished with minnows, and I had to put the minnow on the hook. If I caught a fish, I had to take the fish off the hook. Dad always got the line ready. We almost always still fished, so if the bobber went down, I knew I hopefully had a fish. If we caught fish, Meme liked cleaning fish so she would clean them, and Mom would fry them up right away. I don’t ever remember that we froze fish. We fished early in the season before camp opened and before Dad got too busy. Although occasionally he and Archie Baardseth (camp business manager) would get in a little fishing during the summer.

My Mom, in addition to teaching school, raising three daughters, and taking care of her home, was a very good unofficial Many Point Hostess. She entertained a lot of people and often at a moment’s notice. Dad was always bringing someone up for afternoon coffee. The coffee pot was always on, and Mom without exception had some goodies on hand, cookies, bars, or cake. Even being so far from a store, she could put a meal together with what she had on hand. We mainly grocery shopped in Detroit Lakes or Park Rapids.

In emergencies like milk or bread, we could go to Fasteen’s store on Elbow Lake or Masog’s store in Ponsford. Mom did have a vegetable garden, but it was mostly for fresh eating-she didn’t do a lot of canning. My Mom taught by example and was a perfect role model.

Before building the new Administration Building, all the camp traffic went by our house. On opening Sundays, all the troops arriving on the council buses and private cars unloaded by the flag pole, which was just down from our house.

There was a temporary check-in station there – a table with benches, a portable phone with a tarp over everything. Sometimes there would be scouts and luggage piled in our yard. The camp trucks would then take the scouts and their gear to their campsites. There was a lot of commotion for a few hours until everyone was safely in their campsites. After a summer with all the people and vehicles coming and going, it took a few days to adjust to the silence when the two large, noisy generators were shut down. Then it was just our family and Dad’s assistant and his family, so it was tranquil.

We didn’t have a telephone in the camp until after I got out of high school. Before that, if someone needed to contact someone at camp, they would call the Manner’s home, and someone from their family would bring the message to camp. When Dad had to make phone calls in the offseason, he would go to Osage or Park Rapids to call-probably because the Manner’s phone was on a party line. Before the arrival of phone service, the camp used ham radio to call the Minneapolis Scout Office. The ham radio was in our house, and every weekday morning at a designated time, someone from the Administration Building would come and talk to Minneapolis.

As children, we had a lot of pets. We once had a rabbit; always had a dog, a cat, and kittens. Our mother cat sometimes had two litters of kittens a year.

Sometimes we had raccoons and fox for pets. One time they were going to have ducks at the Conservation Lodge. The baby ducks arrived before camp opened, so we kept them penned in our yard. They were messy little things and would have to be moved from one area of our yard to another so they also could mess that up.

Our first dog was a black Labrador named Major, then a little dog named Fido, then Smokey, then Ginger and her six puppies. I think everyone enjoyed those six puppies. They made their way over to Tent City and entertained the staff with their little puppy ways, probably not so much when they were fighting and interrupting the boy’s sleep. They would go as they wanted, but they always would return home for their meals. We kept Rusty, one of Ginger’s puppies, and the other five were given away.

I don’t ever remember being afraid of wild animals or people. We always had a dog, and they were good watchdogs, barking when animals or people were around. One time a person who came to our house often came when we weren’t home. He later told my parents that our dog wouldn’t let him near the house. So he slowly got in his vehicle and left. Dad kept a gun in the corner by our front door. He told us it was loaded, and we were not to touch it. We never touched it, and I don’t know if it was loaded (In later years it was over the front door.) Through our parents teaching us, guns were weapons, not toys; and you never pointed a gun (even a toy gun) at a person. We never had toy guns – even when our cousins got cap guns for the Fourth of July, we didn’t get any.

As for threatening weather, because we lived in the woods, we were sheltered from atrocious snowstorms. The snow didn’t drift in the trees, so until we reached the Prairie, we wouldn’t know how bad a storm was. We were never stranded because Dad’s jeep had a plow, and if the snow was too deep, Dad would put the V plow on the big truck. Because of all the trees, we didn’t see much of the sky, so we didn’t see storms approaching. Although, I do remember the unusual color of the sky when Fargo, ND, had that big tornado in June of 1957.

My sisters and I had the run of the Main Area when the camp wasn’t in session. We explored the Buckskin trails, like finding our way to Sunset Point, the little point in Buckskin where the turn is into Fishhook Bay. We would go into the woods by ourselves; I don’t think our parents worried about us. We never got lost and always came home to eat. We liked following the creek from the beaver dam to the lake. There was a trail on both sides of the creek, but sometimes the trail on one side would be pretty steep, so we would have to cross to the other side. That was fun to cross over on a log or rocks in the creek and not get our feet wet.

One time we did go when there was still snow and Meme slid into the creek. One of us stayed and hurried Meme home, while the other one rushed home to fill the bathtub with hot water (to warm her up quickly). We were afraid that she might die. Meme complained the water was hot. Thankfully, she didn’t get sick. By the way, our parents weren’t home, one of the very few times we were left alone.

Also, in the spring of the year, when the suckers were in the creek, Meme and Barbara would reach in and pick them up with their hands. They didn’t keep them; it was just like catching and releasing.

One of our close friends at the lake was Severt Rasmuson. He at one time owned a resort, which he sold to Henry Weick. Over many years, Severt helped at the camp using his log building and furniture making skills.

Some other men who worked for my Dad early on were Dallas and Donald Lindsay. Ted Bakken was Irene Niemi’s father and worked with my Dad. Nester Hendrickson and his wife Olga also worked at the camp.

Mr. Robert Gaylord was one of the landowners that sold his Many Point property to the Viking Council. Before.there were telephones, when Mr. Gaylord would come to camp, he would write a letter to my Dad, telling him to open up the cabin, get it cleaned, etc. Mr. Gaylord would say his help would be up on such and such a date. Berta was the cook, and Dewey was the chauffeur and butler.

We girls went to the Gaylord cabin when Dewey and Berta were there, but not after Mr. Gaylord came. The Gaylord site, in addition to the main house, had a boathouse, ice house, three-sided garage with a small sitting/bedroom with a little porch on one end where the help stayed. There was also an outhouse. Berta cooked on a cookstove. Also, there were iceboxes on the porch and a hand-pump in the yard for drinking water. At that time, I don’t think they had electricity. Dad and his crew cut ice in the winter for the camp ice houses (Main Area, Gaylord’s, and Family Camp). I only remember seeing Mr. Gaylord once. For some reason, I went to his cabin and he was out in the yard target practicing using his pistol. He scared the life out of me. Whoa. We girls always referred to him as Mr. Gaylord.

Orly Thornsjo talked about a Secret Hill. Although I’m not exactly sure where Secret Hill was, yes, there was a Secret Hill. At the end of each period, the Buckskin Scouts had their closing campfire at Secret Hill. The troops would gather at the flagpole (while it was still down from our house). When it got dark, they would line up single file behind a staff person with a lantern-very quiet, no talking, – staff families would be at the end of the line. We followed a trail that started over by where the warehouse is now. When we arrived at an opening in the woods where a large campfire was burning, we sat on logs. When the campfire was over, we went back the same way -single file and quietly. We didn’t cross Beaver Creek, so the Secret Hill was somewhere between the creek and the camp road.

To refresh my memory about ‘momism,’ I checked with Barbara and Meme. Here are a few: ‘Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.’ ‘Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.’ ‘Golden rule.’ ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.’ ‘Nothing ventured nothing gained.’ ‘Good, better, best, never let it rest, ’til the good is better and the better best.’ Also, she always told us to stand up straight. If we said, ‘I can’t do that,’ she would reply, ‘don’t say can’t say I’ll try,’ and ‘you’ll have a lot of acquaintances, but few friends.’

My Dad offered: ‘It’s not how many people you know, but who you know.’ ‘Be careful what you wish for.’ A penny saved is a penny earned.’ You get what you pay for.’ Summer or winter, our Dad pulled a lot of people out of the ditch, and he would never take any payment when offered. He would tell the person to ‘pass it on and do something for someone else!’

What encouraged me to become a teacher? At that time, there weren’t a lot of options for girls -secretary, nurse, teacher-of those three being a teacher seemed the best fit for me. I think my Mom, being a teacher, may have had an influence, although she did not sugar coat the job: long hours, bringing your work home, etc. She didn’t encourage or discourage me. Mom was a fantastic person to take three small children to the wilds of Minnesota.

The Many Point I remember growing up was likening it to a little city in the woods in the summer…complete with a fire truck, fire warden, and deputy sheriff. When the camp was open, two CITs lived in the Gate Lodge for two weeks at a time.

They tended the gate – opening it and closing it when vehicles entered or exited camp. During the day, one to the guys would come into the Main Area for a work detail. Their means of transportation was walking. They usually could get a ride in the morning with a delivery truck – but going back at night, the chances of a ride weren’t great. They would often borrow our bicycle-then they were also assured of wheels for their next day’s commute.

Main Area was the city center – the assistant ranger’s home was the first building one saw, then the ranger’s house down the hill (our home). As a child, when asked what my Dad did, I proudly said he was a Camp Ranger, Fire Warden, and a Deputy Sheriff. Just down from our house, in the middle of the road, was the flagpole – with large boulders circling it. We girls like jumping from boulder to boulder. In addition to sliding down this hill in the winter, I remember going down that hill in a wagon. Not the best ideal I remember a lot of skinned knees.

To the left of the flag pole and up the hill was Tent City, where the Main Area Staff lived. Off to the right was the Maintenance Shop, Dining Hall, and the Health Lodge. The hub of the city was the Maintenance Shop…always, a lot of activity there. It was also the Garage for the camp vehicles. The trucks had specific personalities, and the drivers often named them. The drivers had a busy daily schedule – starting in the morning with the first of three hot stack runs (delivering hot meals) to the staff in the areas around the lake to Family Camp. On the third run, they also brought the evening meal to the troops in Ten Chiefs and Flintlock as well as to the staff. In addition to those trips, they delivered groceries, equipment, mail, and ice to the troops around the lake, picking up garbage on the way back to bring to the Main Area garbage pit.

The garage also housed the fire truck, road grader and caterpillar, the generators, the tool room, and the Shop.

There was also a big truck, a big Chevy truck. If I remember right, that was used to make trips back and forth to Minneapolis to pick up supplies and maybe also to take things down to the city. This was the truck that the big V-plow attached to in the winter when there was LOTS of snow. Sometimes in the winter, the road from the edge of the woods to Manners’ farm had snowbanks on each side of the road that were taller than our car. Anyway, in the summer, that truck took the staff to Detroit Lakes on their Saturdays off. The staff rode in the back on benches on the sides. Later on, I think they used a bus for that purpose.

Continuing down the hill from the flag pole, the Administration Building (old Ad bldg overlooking the lake), with the post office, telephone switchboard, library, offices and a bunk room for the staff), Boat House on the Main Area Beach, the Trading Post with a grocery on one side and an outfitter on the other and an Ice House outback. Across the road was a Public Latrine and down the road, and up the hill were eight little cabins and a wash house (with toilets, showers, and a wringer washing machine) for the married staff and administrative staff.

Further down the road were the Catholic Chapel and the Conservation Lodge, complete with a “zoo,” museum, and across the road, the rifle range. Gaylords was at the end of the City Center. The camp road continued around the lake – following the lake wherever possible – driving through Ten Chiefs and Flintlock – the road was one way from the top of the Ten Chiefs hill to the Flintlock headquarters. After crossing the Ottertail River, the road made a sharp right staying close to the lake and went directly behind the Moberg’s cabins and continued to Pioneer and Family Camp.

My last summer at Many Point was 1963. The next spring, I graduated from college, got married, and moved to St. Paul Park, where I taught first grade. We came back to Many Point a lot to visit my parents. After Dad retired and they moved to Detroit Lakes, I would visit Many Point with my Dad. I still go back occasiona Ily.

I have a lot of good memories, and it was a wonderful place to grow up. We went to work with our Mom, and Dad was just down the hill in the Shop. We met a lot of people, a lot of interesting people. Through the years, I have occasionally met people with connections to Many Point. The most surprising was when volunteering at the nursing home a few years ago, one of the other volunteers told me about a female resident named Charlie, who went to country school with me. I couldn’t imagine who it might be because I didn’t go to school with any girl named Charlie.

Curiosity got the best of me, so I went down to her room. Charlie was Joe Nickaboine’s oldest daughter, Rochilda, who I hadn’t seen since the 1950s. I didn’t recognize her but recognized the picture she had of her parents. Her family had moved to Texas, and she had recently moved back to this area. What a small world.

These are my memories growing up a girl in a boy scout camp. I checked my Dad’s day timers for some clarifications on people and dates and also talked with my sisters. However, my sisters and I don’t always remember the same things, and we sometimes remember them in different ways. And that is okay. This is the way I remember my years at Many Point.