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The summer was fruitful up on the Mallard. To begin the season, over thirty volunteers enjoyed working hard to put the buildings, books and island gardens in good shape for the season. This included completing a 3-year care rotation of Ober's book collection. By June 10th, the season rolled out, week by week, much as planned. It is amazing how well it works-- that folks do show up at Bald Rock right at the given hour each Sunday afternoon, and that the island welcomes the work or research or spirit or creativity of each group afresh. Mallard Island attracted bird banders, painters and photographers, musicians, healers, composers, flute students, students learning Ojibwe, and children's book writers. It also welcomed songbirds and ravens, red squirrels and the occasional weasel, nearby eagles perched high in Hawk Island white pines, and 2 or 3 resident whitetail deer who managed, this year, to devour most of the blossoms in Mallard gardens during the month of July.

In the weeks following their Mallard week, program participants often stay in touch via email or letter, passing photos back and forth, and supporting each other in a growing community of friends. There will be a gathering of Mallard friends on Saturday, October 27, at Open Book in Minneapolis (1011 Washington Ave)-- two o'clock pm. The focus of this year's gathering is the Centennial. As you've noticed in 2012, we are celebrating "one hundred years later" noting a 1912 epic canoe journey to Hudson Bay taken by Oberholtzer with his guide and friend, Tay-tah-pah-sway-wi-tong (Billy Magee).

Our biggest news since mid September is the complete restoration of the fireplace and chimney in Oberholtzer's main house on Mallard Island. This happened thanks to the Minnesota Historical and Cultural Grants Program of the MN Historical Society. It also happened thanks to three full weeks of very hard work by five masons from central Iowa, led by Harry Hytrek.

You'll be happy to know that in August, Dennis Jones, his wife, Laura Pawlacyk, and Dennis' mother, Nancy Jones conducted ceremony to protect Charlie Friday's spirit and its connection to Mallard Island.

-- written by Beth Waterhouse

Current Newsletter

Note: All newsletters are Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) files; they open in a new browser window. For previous newsletters, click Archive.

Winter 2013

Glacial Fireplace Restored in Style
Donors and Special Dedications
Bob Binger
Twenty-five Years of Work on the Island by Edith Rylander
Bob Jacobson Reflects on 1912 Canoeing Feat
The Mallard Island Summer Ahead
A Letter from the President - Thank You!

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Other Current News

Bound for the Barrens

BOOK LAUNCH: JUNE 7 in RANIER, MN

Bound for the Barrens will be the topic of readings and celebration in a book event on Thursday, June 7, 2012, at the Ranier Community Center. Jean Replinger (editor) will be reading, and other Oberholtzer friends and board members will be speaking. The event is co-sponsored by the Koochiching County Museum, and Mr. Ed Oerichbauer. Limited Edition prints from the 1912 journey will be on sale -- a rare occurrence. Books on sale! Photos on sale! Please join us! Time: 7:00 PM to about 9:00 PM. Event is free but bring your checkbook for books or prints.

This year, we are marking the centennial of the Ernest Oberholtzer/Billy Magee canoe journey to Hudson Bay and back. One hundred years ago, these two men in one canoe paddled an unbelievable 2,000 miles in one short season-- from late June to early November. They returned not only in good health but bringing with them six journals full of Ober's notes from the venture and about 150 photographs.

Now you can read Ober's day-by-day journals of that epic canoe journey. Our new book is entitled BOUND FOR THE BARRENS, edited by Jean Sanford Replinger with Nancy Paddock. Bound for the Barrens brings you 268 pages of excellent reading including those journals themselves-- more of Ober's writing than you have yet found in any one place. This book also publishes dozens of Ober's photographs plus excellent footnotes and afterword material to expand upon the story.

Bound for the Barrens can now be ordered on line, at www.lulu.com.

And for our northerly web-browsers, please mark your calendars for the evening of Thursday, June 7th-- a book launch in Ranier, Minnesota. Time: 7:00 PM, at the Ranier Community Center. This event is co-sponsored by the Koochiching County Museum.

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Bob Hilke and Les Oystryk return from their Tour in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Stay tuned for stories of the return to the Barrens.

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Mallard Island Loon Hatches Successfully in June

Just a few weeks after ice-out, someone noticed that there was a loon nest on Mallard Island this year, not far from the stone steps down to the swimming beach. Don Maronde, who was caretaking that first work week, asked people to be very quiet near there and installed a "loon nesting site" sign on the trail. Shortly after seeing the nest, folks noticed that where there were two eggs, now there was only one. The loons grew fairly neutral about our quiet comings and goings down that trail to Japanese House. Each week of program people watched it closely and hoped (prayed, meditated, sang...) for a successful hatch.

Finally, on the windy Sunday morning of June 19, Jim Fitzpatrick thought that the loon looked a little ajar and fluffed up on her nest. He even related that he had heard a special call the night before. The next morning, a Mallard artist and photographer, Margie Weaver, reported spying a baby loon. Below, you'll see one of Margie's photographs.

Since that time, the loon chick has become everybody's baby, and island goers report back and forth about it -- is it still there, is it threatened by the eagle overhead, is it healthy and is it learning to fish? For the first week or so, the mama loon let it swim up inside her open wing and climb onto her back. She raised her wing shoulders and created the greatest little cradle. This behavior, of course, will protect the young from predators under the water! A certain call helps protect the young from the sky. At first the papa loon feeds both mother and chick, knowing that neither will dive. Later on, both parent birds dive and the little one will hustle toward whichever one comes to the surface first. Lately, we hear that the parent birds are teaching the chick to dive.

One amazing fact about loons is that after a whole summer of protecting and teaching their young, they abandon it and fly south. The young might then coalesce with others of the same generation and, depending entirely upon their DNA, they also fly south. They spend a full two years in the south before maturing enough to return to the northland to find a mate and reproduce. We're happy to be part of the life cycle of this little chick. For more information, try what was gathered by the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at
< http://www.mercerwi.com/loons.htm >.

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Hydro Development Threatens Sturgeon in Border Wilderness

Proposals are underway to build a series of hydroelectric dams along the Namakan River in Northwestern Ontario, a critical link between Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota and Quetico Park in Ontario. The falls at risk are the highest and the river the largest remaining undammed in the region, and its free-flowing waters provide habitat for the strongest population of Lake Sturgeon in the continent.

Our organization opposes the proposed development which threatens an internationally renowned wilderness area, the Namakan River ecosystem, the ecological integrity of the adjacent parks, species at risk such as the endangered Lake Sturgeon, and the historic Quetico-Superior canoe route
network.

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Executive Director Beth Waterhouse publishes "An Intimate Point of View"

An article about Ober, photographing moose, and Ober's legacy, in Conservation Minnesota at http://conservationminnesota.org/news/?id=5133

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New DVD on Mallard Island now available

This is a short and beautiful DVD-video production (5:35 minutes) that takes a viewer through a June week on Mallard Island, Ernest Oberholtzer's former home on Rainy Lake. Other than Barbara's lyrics to the music, this video is without narration. Mark Stanley's beautiful images do much to capture the color, form, and texture of room interiors and building exteriors on the island as well as the natural flora, rocks, and water of one summer week.

The DVD has recently been duplicated and made available for $10 (plus $2 shipping) from the Ernest C. Oberholtzer Foundation. See the Store/Donations page for purchase information.

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Mallard Island 2008 Photo Note-cards

How can we capture and share beautiful images of our favorite island with more people?

This past summer an idea was “born” to create photo note-cards. We now have thirty exciting images of Mallard and its buildings, flowers, waters and landscape. Each blank card is handmade and features a 4x6 photo matted inside natural (and recycled) cardstock. The photographer is identified on the back of each card. We will send you five cards in assorted images for $15, plus $2 for shipping, $17 total cost.

Call Beth Waterhouse at (952) 401-0591 to receive a shipment of cards. These cards would make a great gift item!