If you can name the only lake within a lake in the northern hemisphere, you are either familiar with Cass Lake, Minn., or with "Ripley's Believe It or Not." Lake Windigo's special location earned it a notation with the folks at Ripley's, and accolades from everyone who has visited its shores.

Lake Windigo is located inside of Star Island in northern Minnesota. Star Island itself is plopped in the middle of Cass Lake.

Beware the windigo

Legends developed over the years about the island and its lake - some tales so fantastic that they seem antithetical to the area's beauty and sense of peace. One oft-told story describes an Indian princess who drowned on Lake Windigo the night before her wedding. Her canoe tipped over and a giant hand pulled her down into the water.

Another tells of a group of trappers on Star Island. One day, all but one trapper left their cabin. When they returned, the trapper who stayed behind was gone. The trappers followed his footprints in the snow but they soon changed into those of a giant bird.

These stories pale in comparison to bounteous tales of the windigo. A children's book called "The Windigo's Return: A North Woods Story," for example, tells the story of members of an Ojibwe tribe who begin to mysteriously disappear. The elders believe that a shape-shifting, terrible "giant of the forest" is the culprit.

Descriptions of the creature vary, but what they all have in common is that a windigo is not something you'd want to meet in a dark alley. Or Minnesota woods, for that matter.

One author* equated the windigo to a werewolf on steroids. "It stands more than six meters tall in its bare feet, looks like a walking corpse and smells like rotting meat. It has long, stringy hair and a heart of ice. Sometimes a windigo breathes fire. . . windigos can fly on the winds of a blizzard or walk across water without sinking."

Native American stories portray a gigantic spirit more than 15 feet tall that had once been human. It was said to have glowing eyes, long, yellowed fangs and incredibly long tongues.

Most descriptions claimed the windigo was a cannibal. Some believe the tale of the windigo was developed several hundred years ago as a warning against cannibalism, especially since the windigo allegedly lived in Canada and northern Minnesota where the winters were long and food often became scarce. Others believe the tale was spun to keep children close to home.

Stories of the windigo have not deterred people from visiting Star Island today. Many of the summer residents own cabins that have been passed down through the generations.

John Mosedale

John Mosedale has been visiting Star Island since 1930 when his mother rented a summer cabin for their family, which included Mosedale's two sisters. His mother thought that an island in northern Minnesota seemed like a good place to escape the summer heat. Besides, an aunt had heard it described it as "paradise in northern Minnesota."

The family bought a cabin on the island for $600 in 1935 and it has remained in the family ever since. Every year, when school let out, the family traveled to Star Island and stayed until Labor Day.

Without boats of their own, families tended to stay on the island all summer without any trips to town. A mail boat brought greetings six days a week, no matter how bad the weather. A "grocery boat" made trips to Star Island about three times a week. Today, property owners have their own boats.

Electricity didn't come to the island until 1952, so light came via kerosene lamps. "You entertained yourself in those days," Mosedale said. "You had no other options."

In his early days on the island, Mosedale remembers many teachers from the Twin Cities spending their summers there, along with the owner of a curio shop at Minneapolis' former Curtis Hotel, two college professors, a pencil salesman and the widow of a judge. Mosedale also remembers a family who traveled to the island from Shanghai during the 1930s. Another memory from the 1930s is seeing the wooden foundations of cabins that early trappers used.

Upon graduating from college, Mosedale worked as a newspaper reporter and later worked as a writer for the CBS Evening News in New York City. As a young man, he was convinced that he would remain a bachelor; he couldn't imagine a woman who was happy in the bustle of New York City feeling the same way about spending lengths of time on a small island in remote northern Minnesota.

Little did he know that a woman whose family also vacationed on Star Island had moved to New York City and lived six blocks away from him. And until a postcard from home mentioned the coincidence, Betty hadn't known it either. Betty had met Mosedale's mother, sisters and even his dog on Star Island, but not John. But that all changed when Betty decided to call him. The rest is Mosedale family history. As he described, "It was a blessed connection."

Today, Mosedale and his wife, Betty, spend the entire summer and early fall in their Star Island cabin, then retreat to their Manhattan apartment the rest of the year. He has only missed two summers on the island since 1930. His wife gave birth to their second daughter on June 30 one year and another summer he worked on a book. Even during World War II, Mosedale spent his leave on Star Island.

The Mosedales have four grown children who still enjoy visiting the family cabin. Their children are so enamored with the cabin that they are reluctant for their parents to make the most minor of changes. For example, they didn't want their parents to replace the cabin's worn blue linoleum so it was replaced with the exact pattern and color.

Mosedale remembers the postcard he received years back when one of his daughters visited Paris. She mentioned she had visited the Louvre and that, so far, she had seen nothing to equal Star Island.

Over the years, changes on the island have been significant but incremental. Mosedale grew up with no family boat and then acquired a boat with a low-horsepower motor. Today, most residents have a boat with around a 70-horsepower motor, and they spend more time boating to the mainland than in earlier days. "Yet, in an odd way, the pace remains unchanged," Mosedale said.

The Mosedales did add electric service when it became available, and grudgingly, at first, added a telephone, but they insist their island home will never have a television. One phone at the Star Island Lodge served Star Island families until phone service arrived in the 1960s.

During the times Mosedale stayed on Star Island during vacation from his job in New York City, he told his boss and coworkers that any messages had better be important. "I told them that the only accessible phone was past three miles of open water," he said with a laugh. Mosedale retired from CBS in 1991.

"When people think of America, people tend to think of things they know," Mosedale said. "For me, America means Star Island."

Few properties on market

If you're a realtor in the Cass Lake area, you wouldn't want to make a living by selling properties on Lake Windigo, Star Island or even Cass Lake, for that matter. For one, no cabins or homes are located on Lake Windigo and virtually every property on Star Island is handed down to family members or passes to friends.

On nearby Grace Lake, typically one cabin or home is listed each year. Tomy Hegland, owner of Realty Sales in Cass Lake, grew up on Grace Lake and has lived on a different site on the lake since 1985. Ninety percent of his firm's business is resort sales throughout Minnesota, with one or two sales in Canada each year.

In his 35 years of selling real estate in the Cass Lake area, Hegland has sold only one cabin on private property on Star Island. "The rest of them stay in the family," he said. With much of the island forested, about 25 properties are privately owned and about 50 are leased from the government.

Eighty-eight summer homes on Cass Lake are on national forestry land, along with one resort. The Minnesota Chippewa tribe also leases property on the lake to cabin and home owners. Many properties on Cass Lake are handed down to family members. While Hegland has appraised quite a few properties, he has only sold 10 to 15 on Cass Lake in 35 years.

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History of Star Island

The earliest residents of Star Island are believed to be the Woodland people about 1,500 years ago. Pottery shards have been found near the site of an old Ojibwe summer village. According to "Star Island" author Carol Ryan, Native Americans lived on the island until the 1890s when the community reportedly was wiped out by smallpox. Today, many Native Americans believe the island is haunted.

Land was first made available for summer cabin development in 1909. Decades ago, northern Minnesota was advertised as a "curative place" for asthma and other ailments, Ryan wrote, and it otherwise was considered a great place for escaping summer heat.

The island is part of the Chippewa National Forest's "10-section area," protected from timber cutting since 1902. Hudson's Bay Company is believed to have had cabins on the northwestern part of the island. Zebulon Pike visited the island in 1806, and in 1832, Henry Schoolcraft came to the island to ask Chippewa leader Yellow Head to lead him to the source of the Mississippi River.

More than three-fourths of the island is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, including miles of hiking trails. Three public portages lead to Lake Windigo; one public campground is located on the island's south side.

The Chippewa Indians named the 980-acre island for its star shape. Cottages reside on all four shores of Star Island today. The island has about eight and one-half miles of shoreline.

As Ryan wrote, "You want to get away and you can get away much more when there are no automobiles, and when you're on an island in the middle of a lake. That's about the best you can do."

* Legion magazine, January/February 2003

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Read all about it

If you are interested in learning more about Star Island, look for the book named, not surprisingly, "Star Island." Published in 2000, island resident Carol Ryan wrote it as part of her doctoral research. It includes information from interviews with long-time island residents and an article John Moseby wrote about the winter he spent alone in his cabin on the island when he was three years out of journalism school.

"Star Island" can be reviewed at the Minnesota History Center, St. Paul. Moseby is an author himself. While out of print, his book, "The First Year: A Retirement Journal," can still be purchased. It includes descriptions of his time on Star Island.

The younger set may enjoy "The Windigo's Return: A North Woods Story," by Douglas Wood. The book is intended for children ages four to eight.

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Quick Clicks

Cass Lake Area Chamber of Commerce
& Information Center
www.casslake.com
1-800-356-8615

Minnesota Northwoods Tourism Bureau
www.minnesotanorthwoods.com

Chippewa National Forest
www.fs.fed.us/r9/chippewa/index.htm

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Local Points of Interest, Events

The Chain Reaction Festival
Largest fishing and spearing contest in the Upper Midwest
Snowmobilers can travel the Cass Lake chain to take part in "poker runs"
Cass Lake, Minn.

Cross-country, downhill skiing
Buena Vista Ski Area - strides the Continental Divide; 15 groomed downhill runs
Miles of cross-country trails in the Chippewa National Forest + 160 km of trails west of Cass Lake

Lyle's Logging Camp
Replica of an 1880s logging camp
Summer hours; opens Memorial Day

Cass Lake Museum (adjacent to Lyle's)
Elaborate logging collection, wildlife displays
Summer hours; opens Memorial Day

Cass Lake is located on the
Leech Lake Indian Reservation
and within the Chippewa National Forest

Eight lakes on the Cass Lake chain;
many trophy-size muskies, walleye and northern pike

Sand Trap Golf Course
Cass Lake, Minn.
9 holes, par 36

Golf Courses in Bemidji, Minn.:
Town & Country Golf Course (18 holes, par 72)
Castle Highlands (18 holes, par 69)
Greenwood (18 holes, par 58)
Mapleridge (9 holes, par 32)

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Star Island: Home of Beauty

Gently murmur the Norways
The birch groves whispering in tune
The placid water mirrors
The beam of the rising moon

Island home of beauty,
With nature's bounties blessed
Where trials of the city vanish
And we find content and rest

Back through dark trails winding
Old Windigo's mysteries brewed
Lake within lake, where unafraid
The wild fowl seeks their food

Island home of beauty,
Whose soil no despoiler has trod
Here we banish the things that are manmade
And live with things of God

Words by Winworth Williams circa 1930s
Music by Truman Rickard, who with Arthur Upson also composed Minnesota's state song, "Hail! Minnesota." Rickard became general manager of the Star Island Lodge in 1923.

By Barb Umberger

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