Schroeder Area Historical Society

Newsletter

December 2009

Volume 15 Issue 3

The North Shore Hotel – A Family Affair

By Linda Lamb

This article is compiled from information taken from an Oral History of Joyce Krueger and Joyce Taylor October 2008 and information from Becky Krueger Falch, Conrad Krueger, Betty Krueger and Rodney Krueger

The North Shore Hotel in Tofte was certainly a lively ‘family affair’.  In 1926 it was owned and managed by Ray and Lillian Krueger.  Later their sons, daughters-in-law and grand children were actively involved in running the business.

As a young man in his late teens, Ray Krueger worked at the Oak Grove Hotel (next to Loring Park) in Minneapolis, helping his step-father, Charlie Hubbard run the place.  This was before World War I. He met Lillian Carlson a nurse working at Eitel Hospital, also in Minneapolis.  They were married in 1919.

 

In the early 1920’s Ray traveled by boat from Duluth and got off  at Lutsen Resort. Ray liked the relaxation, hunting and fishing he found on the Shore.  In the summer of 1925, Ray bought land from Fred Dickey, a good friend of his step-father Charlie Hubbard.  Chateau Leveaux now occupies this site. Later that fall, a forest fire burned and destroyed land all the way to the Lake Superior shoreline.  In the spring of 1926 Ray’s brothers, Theodore and Fred came from Arizona to start building the North Shore Hotel.  At that time, Ray and his wife Lillian had 2 children Betty age 6 and Stephen age 3.  The Krueger’s youngest child Rodney was born in September of 1926. “Conrad Krueger, Ray’s cousin who also helped build the resort recalls: “There were no trees to obstruct the view.  Looking north across the road into the woods, tall branchless birch trunks towered up in thick groves.”

 

In 1927, the North Shore Inn ( as it was first called)  opened with one or two cabins.  Originally, the hotel had one story.  The following year a second story was added with 12 sleeping rooms and 2 bathrooms.  Some cabins were built about the same time.  In the early days, Ray pumped water from Lake Superior.  That arrangement was OK ‘back then’.  There was a spring just above Highway 61 on the fire tower trail (Leveaux Mountain).  This spring tended to run low in August.  Later on, a well was drilled through a lot of rock.

 

After World War II Joyce Krueger and Joyce Taylor married Ray and Lillian Krueger’s sons Stephen and Rodney. Both families lived in small cabins on the hotel property.   Rod and Joyce T. and their family of three, Debby, Becky and Jenni, decided to live year round in Tofte.  Joyce T. described the first winter in Tofte “as pretty rough”.  “The first year we carried water from the well.  Jenny was still in diapers.  We did have a toilet and we managed to flush it by a pail of water from the well.  We had to keep a light bulb down in the well so it didn’t freeze up during the winter.  Rod had a sign painting business but  with it being very seasonal, Rod got real interested in skiing up at Lutsen Resort. We were very good friends with Patty and George Nelson so eventually we got into skiing.  Rod was on the ski patrol and that was his job in the winter.”

In 1927, the North Shore Inn (as it was first called) originally had one story. The next year a second story  was added.