AN EARLY HISTORY OF CINOSAM
Written by Cinosam Resident, The Late Ruby Fitch, About 1990
In 1864, a grant was approved to transfer land from the United States Government to the Northern Pacific Railway Company for aid in construction of railroads. Subsequently, the property was owned by the Gull River Lumber Company and its North Home Lake Shore Company.
Only a single unidentified structure stood on the grounds in 1916. The property was then purchased in 1920 by Albert G. Evans and Benjamin Drake, business men who were Freemasons, from the Twin Cities.
Cinosam Club was formally platted on October 1, 1925, and Cinosam Tracts to the southwest were platted on May 28, 1932. Lots on these plats were originally sold only to Masons (hence the name Cinosam – “Masonic” spelled backward) and Eastern Star members in good standing. This has since been relaxed (especially since WWII) and is now open to anyone. Some of the owners in the 1920s and ’30s include the following families:
George Bester, Braden, Cadwell, Cottrell, Crawford, Cole, Donaldson, Drake, Evans, Tom Fawcett, J.C. Friend, Holloway, Kittell, Shirley “Mac”McGuire, Betty Nicol, Olson, K.A. Paine, Minnie Paine, “Judge” Piek, Dan Petersen, Elmer Rowlands, Smythe, Spear, Robert and Rose Topel, Benjamin Ward, and “Doc” Whitmore. Later generations of several of these early families still live in Cinosam.
In the 1920s and ’30s, the present street arrangement was mostly on paper and only partially a visible reality. Brainerd Street (now Cinosam Road) was there, two dirt ruts in the early years, with an island (near the entrance) of several beautiful Norway pines. The road divided and went around these trees. After a long battle, those wanting to save the trees lost to progress, and Brainerd Street became straight, wide Cinosam Road.
Later, some wanted the roads cut to lot lines, while others wanted the woodsy lanes. Originally, the grounds were crossed in random pattern of old logging roads, (see the 1913 county plat map) and these substituted for the platted roads. The logging roads were gradually built across, fenced off, and eventually disappeared. The widening of Brainerd Street destroyed two unusual trees that grew alongside an old Indian trail. These two trees had a six-foot section that grew at quite a slant from vertical, then the trunks angled straight up to the skies. It was thought at the time that they were the result of a large tree being blown down over these two saplings. However, Indians deliberately bent young trees to mark their trails.
A clubhouse was built in 1925 as a restaurant and meeting place roughly midway between the Gull and Round Lakes. Mrs. Linda Nicol and her children operated the clubhouse in the 1930s. The annual club meetings were held there on Labor Day weekends. In the earlier years, the founders often held club business meetings in winter at various offices and lodges in Minneapolis.
All shoreline originally had been the founders’ property, but later most was sold to individuals, making the previous front line cottages second liners along Paine Avenue. Some shoreline was reserved as club property not long after the clubhouse was built. The club land, Cinosam park and three outlots on Gull Lake and Round Lake Park are is still in Club Ownership. The club also had an icehouse, a shed, and a dozen rowboats. The shed housed the club rowboats during the winters.
The Cinosam Store was operated by Ernie Cadwell, a retired fire chief from Minneapolis. The Cadwells had a cabin on Donaldson Street, but he lived in the back part of the store. Later, the store was run by Mrs. Grace Ward, widow of an early director. Operating rights were later sold to James Smythe, who had it until the Highway Commission condemned the building. Like the other stores in the area, they had a number of slot machines. Despite being illegal, three of the machines flourished as late as the World War II era.
The Smythes built a number of cottages on the shoreline of Round Lake after the Club effectively lost that property when Hwy 371 was widened from two lanes to become a divided highway. These cottages are still there, in spite of dire predictions that ice jams would knock them down. The grounds included a part of an Indian cemetery that extended from Brainerd Street southward for several blocks. Most of the bodies were removed when the Indians were relocated to the Mille Lac reservation, but many were left where they were. Most of the burials were late and used wooden coffins with no artifacts buried with the dead.
In the Club’s earlier years, there were two campgrounds for any Mason or Eastern Star who cared to use them. Prospective buyers tried out both campgrounds to get the feel of the area. The most used properties were on Round Lake where the Smythes’ cottages now stand, and on Gull Lake on the west end of Brainerd Street. Later, more lots were added to the north and south of Brainerd Street on Gull Lake. As one camper put it, “There’s a million kinds of bugs here, and they all bite!” The Gull Lake grounds were used only by the most hardy, and not for long. Probably more prospects were driven off than attracted. If the mosquitoes didn’t drive them off, the howling of the brush wolves did. The latter were only curious and never troubled anyone.
Before Cinosam’s founding, the loggers skidded logs into Gull Lake through a large gully that can still be seen near the Gull Lake – Round Lake channel. The logs were rafted across the lake, and taken out at a sawmill. Scuba divers report a number of the old waterlogged logs remain on the bottom of the lake.
Several features of the grounds have been obliterated. One was a rifle range; the famed duck pass. A wooden diving platform well out from Cinosam Park lasted only a short time. The Lily Lake bog paths have rotted into the bogs. The bog was floating, and the trail was a real experience to walk on. One could pick a wild cranberry now and then, observe the muskeg at close range, and generally see a marsh that was unreachable otherwise.
The wild flowers have largely disappeared. At one time, the beautiful stemless pink moccasin grew in abundance. Richard Crawford, second generation of the Crawfords, has made an interesting study of this delicate flower. These plants require many years to get to blooming size, and picking the flowers usually kills the plant. A plant with several blossoms may be twenty-five years old or more. They do not feed upon the soil, but depend upon a complicated special feeding train that produces the fungus they must have to live. It is rare they can be transplanted. Clearing the grounds has wiped out most of the wild flowers native in the 1920s.
Cinosam had its full quota of personalities. The Petersen brothers were carpenters and general handymen and most of the older cottages are their handiwork. Ed Petersen was the hunter and fishing guide. Dan’s family had nightly musical get-togethers, with everyone playing any one of several instruments. Dan built a cabin that his family still lives in. Ed converted a 1919 Dodge truck to an original motor home.
Lambert Spear was always called “Papa” and was an entrepreneur and inventor, having co-founded a cheese company that sold out to Kraft. He invented packaging machines and built them in his own workshop. When he did anything, it was always by some new and original idea. He cleaned out a clogged well point with hydrochloric acid, which worked fine except the water was unusable for quite a time. He was very fond of Buick cars and touched them up to a fine point, getting one up to 93 miles per hour.
Frank Skillman was a natural merchant. After retirement, he would set himself in front of his cottage on the highway with a chair, clock, or what have you, and by evening it usually was sold Cinosam has been in a constant transition since first developed in the early 1920s, but still has plenty of old world charm.
A special thanks to Richard Crawford, Mr. and Mrs. Evans, Betty Nicol Rose, and Lyla Petersen for their contributions for this early history of Cinosam. –Ruby Fitch
