Another season begins

Soon Manninen’s Cabins will open for its 86th season.

In 1937 when my grandparents Ilmari & Flora first opened the cabins, World War II was about to begin and would dominate the news and global conscience in the years to follow. It was the year Joe Louis became heavyweight champion in boxing, and copper mining production in the Keweenaw turned upward.

The melt is on!

Other 1937 news highlights:

🔘 Amelia Earhart mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a circumnavigation flight

🔘 The German airship Hindenburg burst into flames while attempting to moor at Lakehurst, New Jersey

🔘 Walt Disney premiered Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

🔘 British author J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel The Hobbit was published

🔘 San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge officially opened

It would still be another two decades before the Mackinac Bridge would open to allow the free flow of traffic into the Upper Peninsula from the lower reaches of the state.

I think about the entrepreneurial spirit that my grandparents must have had to build seven log cabins on a remote inland lake, hoping to attract tourists and fishermen to the U.P. of Michigan.

With Otter Lake in flood stage at this time of year, I also thank them every spring for building the cabins on a hill, keeping them safe and dry to be enjoyed by countless lucky souls to follow.