Local History
(by L. Leonard)
When my son Jeff was 3 years old, I returned home one day to find him and his babysitter playing together. They weren't playing "house" or "school", they were playing "Lanky's"!!! The babysitter was the "customer", and Jeff was taking her order and counting her money. As Jeff grew older, his admiration of Lanky's continued. As a teenager his all time favourite was a chiliburger. For several winters the then owner of Lanky's prepared an ice cream bucket of frozen chili to help Jeff make it through until next spring.
(by L. Leonard)
One summer, Manitoba artist Ludella Brown rented a cottage in Grand Marais. Day after day she sat in an old wooden boat on the shore and painted. While painting, she would put her brushes in the holes in the side of the boat. At the end of the summer, her last act was to paint the boat. I have that painting in our home. I would like to learn more about Ludella Brown and what she is doing now, but she seems to have vanished from the art scene. If you have any information about her, please forward it to the GMPOA.
| No Finger In The Dike |  |
| (As told by Betty Linklater) |
There was a time when flooding was quite common in Grand Marais. Especially the low-lying areas around the South end of Grand Marais Boulevard, they flooded every spring and any time the wind blew hard. The dikes have protected us for more than forty years now, but in 1966, we didn't have any dikes, and more than the area around the South end of Grand Marais Boulevard was flooded. The wind howled from the north that Labour Day long weekend in '66, and on the Sunday, September 4th, we flooded!
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My husband Les, daughter Eva, dog Timmy and I lived on Donald Street, in behind the yellow store. That Sunday we woke to 18 inches of water in the house. Ruined my old piano! I phoned Henry Reckseidler and told him to get to his store, but it was too late. He had to sell, and we had to buy, mystery food; the labels had washed off. Ha ha. We had to evacuate to my Mum's place in Traverse Bay, for seven days. We had just put a pig in the freezer for the coming winter, and we worried it would spoil because the power was gone. But that old freezer was so full and built so well, that nothing thawed. Even after 7 days!
We need you! Please of the history of Grand Marais. Stories, photos and other memorabilia about the community's inception, developments, disasters, local characters, etc. will be compiled and published here on our website. Contributors will be acknowledged on the website.