FOUND: LOST LAKE LODGE

A  NORTHERN MINNESOTA RESORT EXPERIENCE FROZEN IN TIME

Sunday, July 2, 1995
Section: Travel
Page: 6F

By: By Kate Parry, Staff Writer

Human beings found Lost Lake a millennium ago.
     The Woodland People, ancient Minnesotan's predating American Indians, made annual stops around 400 B.C. Weary from winters of gathering food, they carried their dead to bury in mounds on this hauntingly lovely peninsula.
     More than a thousand years later, Minnesotan's still make annual pilgrimages to Lost Lake. Weary from winters of gathering paychecks, they head north from the Twin Cities in search of a summer memory endangered by development: The classic Minnesota ma and pa resort.
     The 75 acre forest around Lost Lake is among the last land in the Gull Lake Chain near Brainerd to escape the lust of developers to divide and conquer the forest into small lakeshore lots or large modern resorts with expansive golf courses (there are 139 holes of golf within 30 miles of Lost Lake).
     But for those seeking a simple northwoods experience within a few hours of the Twin Cities, with a bit of nostalgia for circa 1950’w cabins and simple but sublime food, Lost Lake Lodge provides that and more.
     My two young daughters and I found Lost Lake by thumbing through a resort guide published by the Minnesota Office of Tourism. Our requirements: No more than a four-hour drive for small children to endure. A place where mom could get a real vacation from cooking, cleaning and maybe a few quiet hours to read a book on a beach. Not too pricey. The more eccentric the better.
     Lost Lake Lodge jumped off the page. A bit more than 3 hours north, it offered a complete package of cabin and meals for about $120.00 a night per adult ( depending on the season), including maid service. Kids were prorated less, but here free the first two weeks of the summer (meals and nature programs supervised by a naturalist included). What a deal.
     We took a chance, despite the vaguely eerie name. Would Lost Lake Lodge prove to be a resort only the Adams family could live, a Bates’ motel with knotty pine paneling?
     That was three years ago – three years of resisting the urge to write about something perfect. When I told fellow guests I was going to break the silence, one hissed " well just don’t ruin it for the rest of us." Not likely. The present owners are careful managers not only of the forest but also of a Minnesota resort experience frozen in time. Tim and Cindy Moore own Lost Lake Lodge along with Tim’s brother, Kieran Moore (who doubles as a gifted chef). The Moore's managed nearby Grand View Lodge for years and emerged savvy business people by the time tiny Lost Lake Lodge came up for sale.
     They bought the lodge in 1988. "Our mission, is to protect it and hopefully make a few bucks doing it," Tim says.
     Not everyone has been so careful with this little treasure. Loggers cut the white pine forest early in this century, leaving debris that fueled major forest fires.
     But for the past 50 years, lost Lake has been blessed with successive owners mindful of restoring the forest. Birch and aspen have sprung up between the scarce white pine. Loons have been lured to the lake. Bald Eagles careen high above Lost Lake.
     The little resort was built in 1946, and the two original cabins are still in use. It was bought in 1970 by Bill Carter, a deeply eccentric inventor who patented an array of Rube Goldberg-caliber devices. Most notable is the Screwball – a sieve cleaner used in grain mills all over the world today. It quickly earned him the nickname "Screwball" Carter.
     He Built a grist mill at the resort, centered on a salvaged "Queen of the South" mill make in 1844 and used for years on Rondo Avenue in St Paul. It still operates, moved recently to a building that walks visitors through the story of Carter’s ingenuity.
     The flour goes to Kieran Moore’s Kitchen, where he concocts the breads and muffins around which the lodge cuisine revolves. Hearty breakfasts of wild rice pancakes, nutmeg muffins, eggs, sausage and fruit launch guests on a day of lounging on the neatly groomed sandy beach, paddling canoes and rowboats or trying a pontoon – like contraption powered by two bicycles strapped on top.
     Kids head out with the naturalist for a few hours of tracking animals in the woods, or learning about water creatures in nature programs infused with a subtle environmental message.
     Nature trails are marked all through the woods. One skirts lost lake, with signs telling the natural history of the 10,000-year-old lake. Another trail leads through the woods to burial mounds of the Woodland People, where archaeologist have surveyed 23 mounds built about 400 B.C. Naturalists have labeled the trail to educate visitors about the sacred nature of the site.
     Those who prefer traditional tourist attractions have many options: Paul Bunyan Land amusement park, Deerland petting zoo, and a giant water slide are nearby.
     On Wednesday afternoon, kids race turtles in nearby Nisswa (Buy a turtle for a couple bucks, sell it back for half price at the end of the race). This oddly sedate derby has been a weekly attraction for years.
     Back at the lodge, dinner awaits: Imaginative salads, the ever present homemade breads and a choice of three entrees ( on a typical night that might be fresh grilled tuna sprinkled with slivers of carrot and fresh spinach with coconut clam sauce, Cajun pork chops or chicken breast stuffed with spinach and cashews).
     The meals reflect Kieran Moore’s view of what his guest need: "The kind of cooking they would do at home if they had the time."
     Classic American desserts as delicate as French pastries follow: a crumbly strawberry shortcake on one night, a lofty banana-cream pie the next.
     The day ends in the simple knotty pine cabins – some original, most with fireplaces. All have a deck from which to watch the sunset, listen to the loons and continue the age- old tradition of restoring the human spirit on the shores of Lost Lake.