During the pandemic, one St. Paul family took on a very big project: They bought a resort.

Molly Guthrey, Pioneer Press
Updated ·12 min read
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Remember those pandemic projects of 2020?

We spruced up our back yards to create outdoor living spaces … we painted after noticing all those scuff marks during lockdown … we learned how to make sourdough bread.

Anne and James Dougherty of St. Paul took it a bit further: They purchased, renovated and reopened a vintage lake resort for seasonal vacationers to northern Minnesota.

“Who does that?” says Anne with a laugh.

The Doughertys, that’s who, and the story of the Wambolts Cabins is as Minnesotan as a loon on a lake, tater tots in a hot dish and a ride down the Giant Slide at the Minnesota State Fair.

Cabin culture

If you grew up here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, you might take our “cabin culture” for granted, assuming that every state has a version of this Memorial-Day-to-Labor-Day tradition, that everyone has a dream that involves a lake and a place on it.

Not exactly.

“It’s never even been a daydream of mine,” says James, who grew up in New Jersey. “Even owning a cabin seemed crazy to me.”

He spent his childhood summers on the Jersey Shore.

“If you were really lucky, you had a cabana,” he says.

A cabana?

“At beach clubs in New Jersey, you’d have a cabana with two walls and a screen,” he says. “The beach was steps away, and it was a place to nap, a place to keep a grill and a fridge. If you had a cabana, it meant you didn’t have to lug your beach chair a mile every day.”

But, after settling down with a Minnesotan, James adapted to life “Up North” in the summers, going from the Atlantic Ocean to Lower Bottle Lake.

Summers at the lake

As a Schneeman growing up in Minnesota, Anne didn’t think it was crazy to buy a cabin — or a resort.

“My parents bought a fishing resort — six cabins — with another couple on Lower Bottle Lake three years before I was born,” Anne says. “It was a co-op we shared with family and friends; I moved up there every summer.”

This seasonal Minnesota getaway — located about 200 miles from St. Paul, on the Mantrap Chain of Lakes between Park Rapids and Nevis — is near the resort she would one day purchase.

“It was a sleepy little resort that was a 10-minute boat ride away, on Upper Bottle Lake,” Anne says. “I remember fishing for walleye with my dad in front of the resort. I remember the log cabins, right on the water. The place looked sleepy and mysterious, like it was fading back into nature a little bit.”

Curiosity that sparked a dream

Many years later, Anne — now an entrepreneurship and business teacher at Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul — has continued summers on Lower Bottle Lake with her own children. James, who works in revenue operations for a software company, joined his family on weekends.

And then the pandemic hit.

“At the time, both of us were working from home,” Anne says. “The kids were not as busy. We had a lot more time.”

More time to notice real estate listings — like the old resort at the lake, which was now for sale.

“The last of the best seems to be the only way to describe this historic fishing camp,” the listing stated. “Once you visit Wambolt’s Camp, you’ll understand why it’s been a favorite since 1900. While the 15 cabins have been updated, the charm and integrity of time has been kept intact.”

The property, situated on Upper Bottle Lake, included 60 wooded acres as well as plenty of lakeshore footage.

“Don’t miss this rare opportunity to own this timeless property,” the listing beckoned.

The Doughertys didn’t miss the opportunity — although it was mostly neighborly curiosity that enticed them to book a showing.

“We’ve been boating by the property as long as I can remember,” James says.

“By then,” Anne says, “it had been for sale for a long time.”

It was charming, but …

“Who is really the right demographic for this?” Anne asked in the first video she took from the property, sounding like she was giving a lesson in business and entrepreneurship.

James and Anne walked away. But the entrepreneurship possibilities followed them home.

Sure, some of the oldest of the cabins needed an intervention — one was held up by coffee cans and cinder blocks — but the resort infrastructure was solid: The seller, Blazing Star LLC (associated with Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota), had not operated the property as a resort, but it had been a good steward, updating the vintage plumbing and electrical systems as well as the utilities, reroofing the cabins, rebuilding six porches and much more.

“Without those kinds of updates,” Anne says, “we would never have been able to buy the property.”

“We went from, ‘Someone should buy this place’ to ‘Maybe our family could buy this place’ to ‘Oh, my gosh, maybe we could buy this resort!'” James says. “We kept expecting something to stop us … it never did. And here we are, two years later — resort owners, loving life.”

‘Labor of love’

The Doughertys, with the enthusiasm of their five children and the financing of Citizens National Bank of Park Rapids, purchased the property at the end of 2021.

It wasn’t just a sale of buildings and land; it was about each party respecting the history of life at the lake.

“When the Blazing Star team found Wambolt’s, we were excited to have the opportunity to steward such a beautiful property and preserve a small sliver of Minnesota’s heritage by revitalizing this original fishing camp,” said Mike Allmendinger, spokesperson for Blazing Star, in a statement provided to the Pioneer Press. “We are endlessly grateful to the Doughertys who clearly share the passion of caring for this wonderful place and inviting new generations to experience it.”

The work started by Blazing Star has been continued by the Doughertys, from rehabbing the oldest log cabins to adding new container cabins to cleaning up the swimming beach to forging trails in the woods. Besides sweat equity, the family has had assistance from a crew that is growing larger by the season — ranging from a local log cabin restoration specialist to friends with day jobs as plumbers and general contractors.

One of those friends is Luke Anderson, vice president of operations of Solid Rock Construction in Ham Lake by day and grill influencer @bigbluegrillin at dinner.

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“I met Anne and James when they were designing their container cabins because my wife Jeni and I were building a container office at the same time,” says Anderson. “And then when James found out I was into grilling, he asked if I could help find grills for the cabin. We became good friends.”

The cabins are now outfitted with Weber gas and charcoal grills in their outdoor spaces, and the Andersons (and their three kids) are headed to the resort over Memorial Day weekend to help with that to-do list that needs to be completed before the resort opens for the season on June 11 (and to fire up some of those grills to feed all the helpers).

Actually, it’s the family’s second consecutive weekend of helping — but it’s no chore.

“It’s like a storybook version of cabin lake life — with modern amenities,” Anderson says. “You can sit in a 120-year-old log cabin looking at the lake and work on your laptop if you want.”

1899

In 1899, Minnesota had been a state for 41 years. William McKinley was serving as the 25th U.S. president. Ten pounds of cheese cost $1.61 at Sears. And Alexander “Bud” Wambolt built a fishing camp he called Fisherman’s Lodge on Upper Bottle Lake.

It was the start of a business that was continued by several owners through the years.

“Wambolts is one of Minnesota’s oldest and most classic resorts,” the Doughertys report on their website, Wamboltscabins.com, which is filled with historic photos and stories, as well as online booking options (prices for week-long stays start at $665, before taxes, for studio cabins).

Last summer, after hearing about the resort through local friends and neighbors on Facebook, Mara Castillo-Nalezny of St. Paul decided to make it the destination for a get-together with extended family.

It’s a simple place — you will not be cruise directed — but there’s the lake for swimming and rental boats for outings (including a solar cruising boat), books to read and board games and yard games to play.

The cabins were the draw for Castillo-Nalezny and company.

Read more: Years before the Doughertys bought the vintage lake resort, it belonged to another family.

“We didn’t want to rent one cabin, we wanted to be able to break away into individual cabins if needed, especially with eight kids and different nap schedules,” she says. “This was perfect; it was awesome — we’re going again this year, and staying longer.”

Wambolts is not the only mom-and-pop resort in the area — Whippoorwill Resort is on the same lake — but this one had not been functioning as a resort for a long time. So what does the community think so far of the “new” old resort?

“They think it’s great that they’re refurbishing the old cabins and keeping the historical nature of the resort intact,” says Joey Kaseman, vice president of Citizens Bank. “That doesn’t happen all the time.”

Indeed, from the shores of Lake Minnetonka to the suburban lots of Edina to the acres of cabin country, people are more accustomed to hearing about old cabins, houses and other properties being cleared before the land is divided and redeveloped.

This was a particular concern for Anne Dougherty on this quiet lake in Hubbard County that her family considers their second home.

“A few weeks into the process,” Anne says of the family’s research into the property, “after I called Hubbard County and discovered that someone could tear down the cabins and build nearly 200 units, we felt more serious. I think it became clear there wouldn’t be many prospective buyers who wanted what we wanted for the cabins. We believed we were the right family for this.

“It’s a business, for sure, one that is meaningful to the community,” says Anne. “But it’s also a crazy opportunity for our family to do something together. Now that our oldest is in college, we like having something to hold us together. It could be a legacy for us and for them.”

Karen Mauer, who grew up at the resort when her family owned it, is also part of that legacy of this lake.

“My greatest hope is they develop friendships and memories just like my family did during our time as the owners of Wambolts,” Mauer wrote in an email. “May their improvements enable this beautiful place to last another 100 years (or more).”

The Doughertys hope to make new friends and memories this summer: They will be working hard to show guests of “this beautiful place” the magic of life at the lake in Minnesota.

Anne thinks back to her childhood summers spent on these lakes. She remembers:

“Fishing with my dad, canoeing around the creek, making forts in the woods, reading,” she says. “Lots of summer reading with my mom. She used to put lemon juice in my hair — such a funny memory. Summer reading tastes like lemons to me.”

“I spent my childhood barefoot at the lake. We can provide that here: Going barefoot on the beach, swimming in the lake, hiking at Itasca.”

“It’s a chance to unplug and to be away, be away in nature,” James says. “Is there enough of a market for what we’re selling? We had happy folks last year.”

(The resort, just in case you can’t or don’t want to unplug, does have Wi-Fi.)

204 miles

If you drove to a cabin, a resort or a campground in northern Minnesota this weekend, you might be part of that summer traffic that clogs Interstate 94 heading west at the end of the workweek.

If you’re heading to Wambolts Cabins, that’s the first leg of the journey, too, before getting off the interstate, onto U.S. 10 and then taking a series of highways and roads that lead you to the resort in Hubbard County, located about 20 minutes from Itasca State Park and the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

By Google’s estimate, the 204-mile route from the family’s St. Paul home takes about 3 hours and 45 minutes — less if you are speedy, perhaps, but more if you stop for gas, snacks and bathroom breaks (and construction delays); it’s all part of the collective “Up North” journey.

Anne, 47, and James, 46, and their kids — Seamus, 19; Finn, 17; M.J., 16; Thomas, 11; and Paddy, 8 — are used to this journey, but Seamus and his dad are already at the resort for the summer. James is still working remotely from their family cabin, so he manages resort duties in his spare time, but Seamus works on their to-do list all day before going to his part-time job at a local restaurant in the evening.

“Today, I’m painting floors,” Seamus said, cheerily, during a recent phone call.

He doesn’t mind, especially because he has just finished his freshman year of college at Fordham University in the Bronx in New York City.

“After nine months of intellectual work, I’m into doing intensive labor,” Seamus says.

There are other perks, too.

“I love that this is a family endeavor,” he says.

Later, he hopes to focus on the wildlife here, and to tend the trails. For now, the sky is enough, especially after the bright lights of the big city.

“I missed the stars so much,” Seamus says. “Being able to see the stars is such an amazing thing.”

Wambolts Cabins

Follow the Dougherty family’s adventures in resorting “Up North” on Instagram at Instagram.com/wamboltscabins.

See photos of the cabins, get more info about the resort and book online at Wamboltscabins.com.

Read more memories of Wambolts at TwinCities.com.

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