Saturday, March 31, 2012

Eagle Falls Lodge founders

While Carrie and I were in Milwaukee for the sports show in March we had the pleasure of visiting with Walt and Millie Rundle, the founders of Eagle Falls Lodge.  They had the foresight to build the lodge on the unique piece of property between Parker Lake and Red Lake.  The first group was hosted at Eagle Falls Lodge in 1985.  While the lodge has undergone many positive changes over the years we think it still retains the charm created by the Rundles starting in the 1980s.


My first trip to the lodge in 1995 was hosted by Nick and Wendy Mateja, but the Rundles still provided transportation to the lodge at that time on their houseboat.  I have always known them to be great storytellers and this trip was no different.  Walt & Millie both reminisced about their time at Eagle Falls Lodge and their lodge careers prior to that including time spent building Black Bear Lodge in the 1960s.

We certainly have it easier at the camp today thanks to the hard work of the Rundles, Matejas, & Aikens.  It is difficult to imagine building a camp from scratch in the 1960s or 1980s primarily with hand tools, hard work, and plenty of sweat.  Thankfully that's what the Rundles did and we are fortunate to enjoy the fruits of their labor over 25 years later at Eagle Falls Lodge.    

2 comments:

  1. I'm confused. I thought they lived in the Florida Keys?

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    1. Hi Ivan, they did live in the Florida Keys for a long time, but then moved to the Milwaukee area to be closer to their kids.

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