News – Page 3

Foundation Announces New Leadership

The Ernest C. Oberholtzer Foundation is pleased to announce its selection of Rebecca Otto as its next director beginning in January. Rebecca comes to the Foundation as a nationally recognized leader. Her leadership started as an entrepreneur in small business, then in teaching, followed by sixteen years of public service most recently as Minnesota State Auditor.

Otto’s first wilderness experience in Northern Minnesota was at the age of 14. She went on a 10-day trip in the BWCAW, which transformed her life and informs her leadership style and who she is today. She is deeply grateful to the life of Ernest Oberholtzer in working to establish and protect the BWCAW. “I am excited and honored to lead this legacy organization,” said Otto.

Rebecca brings strong experience in the area of environmental advocacy, which ties both to Ober’s intentions and to the crucial wilderness-saving work still very much needed today. She stated that she identifies with Ober’s leadership style, and that her time in 2019 on Mallard Island gave her “a clarity on what she wanted to do next– a role that is environment-related and ideally tied to Northern Minnesota’s wilderness. This new leadership role will bring me full circle,” said Otto.

Rebecca Otto is well known as one who has worked to protect our Earth. She says, “The next generation deserves clean water and air and to have the chance to experience that life-changing time in the wilderness.” Her personal goals mesh well with those of the Foundation and will bring new energy to the islands and to this century-old legacy. Winter months, Rebecca will work from a home office, and she’ll spend several weeks each summer helping to manage Mallard Island in Rainy Lake. She joins an active 12-member board of trustees, over a dozen active and well-trained island caretakers, and hundreds of individuals who volunteer or generously support this lasting legacy.

This completes the first formal executive search process done by this organization. Bob Norbie, chair of the search committee and incoming president of the Board of Trustees says, “The most important role of a board is to make a strong hire in its chief executive officer. The good news is that we have found that individual in Rebecca who we believe will carry forward a tradition of excellence as we foster our mission.”

Otto replaces outgoing executive director, Beth Waterhouse, who is retiring after thirteen years of leadership for the Foundation. For more information about this important transition, feel free to contact the organization.

Foundation Announces New LeadershipBeth Waterhouse2020-11-25T21:51:29+00:00

Our Island Summer

Mallard Island’s summer of 2020 is coming to a close. We were able to hold smaller yet successful weeks in the month of August including a modified week for Stewards of the Wilderness and their faculty ambassadors. Archives Week was attended by five and consisted of a deeper assessment of Ober’s maps, as well as a taste of Anishinaabe net fishing and traditions offered by Pebaamibines. Meanwhile, the hummingbirds stole the summer and successfully hatched two little hummies fondly named “Sissy” and “Buddy.” We watched them learn to fly and grow up quickly! We can tell that the animals noticed the lessened human impact, and we had sightings of otter and hare, whitetail deer and active songbirds and all bird life, including mergansers, loons, eagles, herons and ravens. Did others notice the improved water quality in this region? Program weeks officially ended on September 5th and now the close-up volunteers will do their work. We all sincerely hope that 2021 allows for easier sharing of Ober’s legacy: a lifetime of stories, values and the history on Mallard Island!

[Ober’s Big House, photo taken by Dick Isenhart, August of 2017]

Our Island SummerBeth Waterhouse2020-09-10T17:23:12+00:00

Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh

Mallard Island, in the southernmost reaches of Rainy Lake, is a next-door neighbor to the Ontario First Nations territory called “Treaty 3” governed by Grand Council Treaty 3. This Grand Council has recently re-elected Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh to serve another term as Ogichidaa or “grand chief.” The word, “Ogichidaa” means “warrior / veteran / strong-spirited leader.”

Kavanaugh, from Naotkamegwanning First Nation in Ontario, defeated Kathy Kishiqueb of Onigaming First Nation, and this will be Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh’s second consecutive term as chief and his third, overall. The term will last four years.

“I look forward to working with all the chiefs and the people of Treaty 3 serving another four years,” said Kavanaugh. “We have a lot of work to do with a lot of work we’ve started and can now complete. I am very serious about this commitment I’ve made.”

For current information about Treaty 3 territory and projects, click on this EOBER web site under the word “Anishinaabe.” This will take you to a link for Grand Council Treaty 3. (Source: CBC News, Oct. 2, 2019).

Ogichidaa Francis KavanaughBeth Waterhouse2020-01-20T20:21:28+00:00

Ober Exhibit Shown at MN History Center

An exhibit about the life and work of Ernest Carl Oberholtzer was on display for the public in the foyer to the Gale Family Library, second floor, Minnesota History Center for 3 months this fall. People saw displays about Ober’s life: his work, his books and photography, his camping and old-fashioned gear, and especially his and Billy Magee’s epic 1912 canoe journey to Hudson Bay (and homemade maps). Our thanks to Paula DeMars for her work on this in collaboration with Jennifer Huebscher, Curator of Photography and AV Materials at MNHS. There was more original material shared here about Ernest Oberholtzer than ever before!

Forty friends of Mallard Island came together on Saturday, October 26th for a reception featuring this exhibit and at this location. A reception was held in the “Fraternal Congress Room” just off the site of this exhibit, second floor of the History Center.

Ober Exhibit Shown at MN History CenterBeth Waterhouse2019-11-28T17:08:24+00:00

Bird House 1926 to 2019

We restored an important architectural detail on Ober’s Bird House this summer. Built in approximately 1926, the structure celebrated its 90th birthday three years ago but without this key element of design– its balcony looking to the east. Somewhere in the early 1990s, the balcony had been removed for reasons of safety. This year, at long last, a sturdy and beautiful balcony has been built in the exact location of the old one. Here is a beautiful rendition of the so-far finished project taken by Mairi Doerr. We will add more balcony railings next summer. In the meantime, guests who live in “upper bird” are enjoying the step-out window (Ober style) and the view of the yard below. Our island renovations take us back in time!

Bird House 1926 to 2019Beth Waterhouse2019-09-11T18:13:37+00:00

Take a Look at What Isn’t There!

Gull Island was once owned by William Hapgood of Indianapolis, that is after the bear and deer and Indigenous peoples allowed him to purchase it. For dozens of summers, it was inhabited by Ted Hall, lifelong friend of Ernest Oberholtzer, and (thanks to Rody Hall) upon Ted’s death the Foundation acquired the beautiful island, complete with a houseboat, a shack of a cabin, and a 1907 Burlington Northern caboose! Ted’s powerful and creative energy was apparent on the island in many ways, and as that energy now sinks, dissipates, or is moved, we discover a “yin” energy that is just as powerful.

This past February and again in May, the cabin-turned-shack once fondly called the “LP” was carefully taken down and hauled away. What you find in its place is ancient energy in these beautiful rocks. Actually the spine of the island itself, these rounded rocks can now feel the warmth of the sun and feel the rain on their faces. On a summer day, I know they will be warm, and I can imagine them becoming a sacred meeting place or a spot for a nap in the sun. Sometimes we learn as we lighten the load.

Sometimes it’s what isn’t there that counts.

— Beth E. Waterhouse, Director

Take a Look at What Isn’t There!Beth Waterhouse2019-06-12T14:15:11+00:00

Spring is Coming North

This is one time of year when we can really feel the length of our state. Minneapolis is enjoying small leaves on trees; International Falls is looking to a lake with ice “mostly out” but no immediate signs of spring. The Rainy Lake One Stop “web cam” however makes me think that open water is truly happening!

Big news from the Mallard Island volunteers– we’re getting a new dock this spring! David Markwardt of Ely, Minnesota (long-time volunteer working with Pam and Darrell Rundell to open / close the island) is building an amazing floating dock. See photo from his Ely back yard! It will be rotated into place as the main dock, north of the Wannigan, while the Wannigan dock (with a lot of good life left) will rotate around to the Library channel. When you drive up to the island for the first time this summer, I know you’ll have a new feeling of stability, and the east winds whipping into that bay may be surprised by the strength of this new dock.

As for me, I think I’ll eat breakfast out there every sunny morning! — Beth Waterhouse, Director

Spring is Coming NorthBeth Waterhouse2019-05-09T22:26:14+00:00

Crew Topples Old Structure on Gull Island

Following a 2018 decision by the Oberholtzer Board of Directors, an old building fondly called the “LP” (for Low Profile) will be completely removed in the next year from its perch near the south shore of Rainy Lake’s Gull Island. Huge progress toward that goal was made this month by Facilities Management Chair, Michael Reid, and an intrepid crew of two others: Craig Fernholz and Doug Kelley, all three men of St. Paul MN. See photos of the building-down-flat and the three workers seated on a bench inside a traditional lodge.

Here is a brief history of Gull Island and this structure. It takes off from the ownership of William Hapgood in mid-Twentieth Century. A fire took an old cabin of Hapgood’s, and he notified Ernest Oberholtzer that he would like a replacement cabin by June of that year (we assume early 1950s). Ober was a busy man, and he solicited help from the local community but accepted the compromise of a re-purposed Wanigan in the style of our current kitchen boat. When Hapgood returned to see the placement and the makeshift structure, he rejected it, and his family apparently never used it at all.

Meanwhile and some decades later, Gull Island and its structures were purchased by Rosalie Heffelfinger Hall and her husband, Ted Hall, of Rainy Lake Chronicle fame. They enjoyed the small structure as a guest house while they mainly inhabited the floating houseboat that they and Rainy Lakers called “The Frigate.” The LP went into disrepair after the death of Ted Hall, and the entire island and any structures came into the ownership of the Ernest Oberholtzer Foundation, at the bequest of the Halls or the donation of Thomas Hall.

We are now happy to open up the airspace near a lovely sandy cove, and to enjoy the island without this old structure. No specific plans have been made about further development of Gull Island; we appreciate its natural beauty. Meanwhile, more work will be done this year to clear the area, and eventually that site will come back to nature, complete with a lovely spine of rock that once flowed under the stilted structure.

Enormous thanks to the workers for facing the cold of the North and for managing to get us this far with this project.

Crew Topples Old Structure on Gull Islandfionareid2019-04-25T23:16:57+00:00

Don D. Maronde

Don D. Maronde 1935 to 2018

Way back in 1983, before there were solid roofs on the Oberholtzer cabins and before much was happening as far as “program weeks” on Mallard Island, Don Maronde was introduced to the books in Ober’s collection. Don went on to share his knowledge, muscle, tools and hopes with Mallard Island for nearly 30 years. On October 19, 2018, Don died of congestive heart failure. His was a warm and loving heart, but no heart lasts forever. We can look back and thank Don Maronde for roofs on Cedarbark and Front House and the Library, for a strong south wall on Cook’s House and for the entire 2001 re-build of Artists’ Room, now a coveted individual space near the channel. In 2003, Don also installed the Clivus Multrum composter, a structure that changed all our experiences on Mallard Island and that has made continuous program activity possible each summer. If you’ve been on Mallard, you’ll know that each of these repairs was artistically done and in such a way that it often looked “older and better” after Don got done with it. Don Maronde, since 2004, was also married to Executive Director, Beth Waterhouse, who says that without Don she would never have embraced the job in the way she currently understands it. Don’s quiet ways, dry humor and pie-for-breakfast eating habits will be sorely missed on our favorite isle. A memorial service for Don will be held at Judson Baptist Church in South Minneapolis on Saturday, November 24, 2018 at two o’clock p.m.

Don D. Marondefionareid2018-12-17T22:55:14+00:00

Organization Receives Cultural Heritage Grant & Tim Heinle

Organization Receives Cultural Heritage Grant

In late February, the Oberholtzer Foundation learned that it will receive a Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grant through the Minnesota Historical Society to update the Oberholtzer photo collection. Specifically, we will be creating a database and expanding upon an inventory of the photo images that was first established by Ray Anderson of International Falls. We have hired, on contract, an Archivist ~ Historian who will help design a collection inventory with standardized fields, help volunteers perform that inventory this summer, and begin the process of improving both organization of and access to the collection of images. Oberholtzer took black and white images and later transferred his skills to colored slide photography. Ober’s work was both documentary and artistic in nature. The image of the swimming moose (shown here) was taken by Ober in 1910.

For this new effort, we have continued and expanded upon our relationship with Ms. Paula DeMars, “Archivist, Historian, Researcher” who manages a small business for herself to do “custom creation, design, and maintenance of document and archive management systems.” You have read Paula’s words in the last two Mallard Island Newsletters, and she is also writing about history of Indigenous Peoples in the far north. We are eager to continue this professional relationship and to get a better understanding of this part of the archives, held by the Foundation. Ernest Carl Oberholtzer lived a long, interesting and far-reaching life, and he documented and enhanced a great deal of it through his love of photography.

Tim Heinle 1939-2017

It is with heavy hearts that we share with you the sad news of the death of our great friend and long-time Treasurer, Timothy M. Heinle of International Falls. Tim died on September 13th, one day shy of his 78th birthday, of various and overlapping health issues. He had been hospitalized in Duluth and died in the Solvay Hospice there. Tim’s memorial service was held in International Falls on Monday, September 18 to a standing-room-only group of friends and family.

Tim lived life with a go-getter attitude, and with the strength and will to get jobs done. He loved hard work. He spent decades in a leadership capacity at Camp Koochiching on Rainy Lake, and he left them a far stronger organization. The Oberholtzer Foundation welcomed Tim to its board in 2004, and we can certainly say that he also left us in a stronger and more sophisticated financial position. Plus, he made his mark in so many areas including building and wall maintenance, as a member of the “Inaakonigewin” (Anishinaabe) committee and as chair of the Finance and Fundraising Committee. It’s also true that the way that Tim “was” leaves as much of a mark as all the things he accomplished. Here was a man who was always smiling, constantly welcoming, continually cheering us on. “Need any help?” he would always ask. He accepted change, and he gently taught people about conflict resolution. “Tim was as good as they come, and I am forever glad that I got to work all those years with him,” said Executive Director, Beth Waterhouse. “He often ended his letters with the phrase, ‘seek the joy of being alive,’ and I believe he lived that philosophy to the fullest.”

Tim’s family graciously named The Oberholtzer Foundation as one recipient of memorials in Tim Heinle’s name. We are honored to accept them, though we would far, far prefer seeing Tim’s smiling face just one more time. There will also be a memorial event for Tim sponsored by the Camping and Education Foundation in Cincinnati in November. And there may well be more ways to celebrate Tim’s life, as time goes by. He will surely be missed.

Organization Receives Cultural Heritage Grant & Tim Heinlefionareid2019-09-18T22:56:54+00:00