Title

Rena Larsen Eidnes

Creation Date

August 2 1968

Description

Oral history interview with Rena Larsen Eidnes 1968 by Ade Toftey. Tells of arriving in Grand Marais where her father was a minister. Early Grand Marais, 1897?
OH-0037-1968

Oral History, Rena Eidnes, Grand Marais in 1897
Published in 1974
Rena Eidnes

This week we continue with a bit of Cook County history based on recorded tapes made for the Cook County Historical Society some years ago. Our interview in this article is with Mrs. Rena Larson Eidnes.

Ade Toftey: This is August 2, 1968, and tonight we are at the home of Mrs. C.G. Eidnes. I know Mrs. Eidnes has a lot of interesting things to tell us about Grand Marais. How long have you been in Grand Marais Mrs. Eidnes?

Rena Larsen Eidnes: Well, I came here with my folks in the spring of 1897. In fact, it was about the first week of May, because I had my sixth birthday just after we came. We came on the only means of transportation we had here on the shore at that time, by boat, and it was the Steamer Dixon. When we arrived here it was during the night - I can remember that well - but I am told that when we got off the boat and on to the dock, I found that walking on that dock was very rough and it was so dark that I insisted that we wait for the streetcar, which, of course didn't come! The first winter we were here, we stayed at a sort of stopping place for people who came. They had three or four bedrooms on the second floor where people could stay if they came for overnight. The next spring we rented a few rooms on the west side of the bay. Incidentally, all the white people except the Mayhews lived on that side of the bay at that time.

Ade: Sort of a little colony on the west side of the bay.

Mrs. Eidnes: Yes, and the Mayhews, of course you know Mr. Joseph Mayhew was the first lighthouse keeper, lived in the building which now is the Museum. It was built for him, and that's where the family lived. The people on the west side of the bay were fishermen. They fished in the summer, but they also had homesteads on Good Harbor Hill, so they lived on their homesteads in the winter.

Complete transcript available from the CCHS.