Ann Lake Watershed Allinace 68 year history

THE ANN LAKE WATERSHED ALLIANCE (ALWA) 2009 - today

     In 2009 the Ann Lake Sportsman Club began planning to support the clean water restoration plans that would emerge from the Ann River TMDL.  The organization changed it's name to the Ann Lake Watershed Alliance (ALWA) to better reflect the focus that would be needed on the watershed and not just the lake, and to encourage residents in the watershed to see ALWA as a way to support clean water initiatives.  The long awaited TMDL study has now been published and will soon be approved by the EPA.  Once that occurs, plans will be developed to restore the lake water to acceptable levels.  The members of ALWA have been engaged in these activities while waiting for the larger plan to emerge from the TMDL

1. Annual fund raising activities (Ice Fishing Contest, Easter Ham Bingo, and selling Turkey legs at the Kanabec County fair)
2. Spring clean up of Highway 47 and Ann Lake Drive
3. Removing debris from the ice in late spring so it will not become "bottom of the lake junk."
4. Summer water testing
5. Logging location of Curly Leaf pondweed and spot treatments
   
6. Working with county departments to eliminate storm runn off ersosion directly into the lake
7. Shoreland restoration projects

THE ANN LAKE SPORTSMAN CLUB (ALSC) 1954 - 2009

• ALSC was formed November 1954, with the main objective to get a dam built.  By Oct of 1955 the club had 149 members, 1965 club had 232 members
• ALSC started work on the dam in 1956 and dam completed in December of 1965 raised the water level 2 feet
• 1963 no carp in the lake
• Winter of 64/65 snow was so deep many deer died.  Club rented a snowmobile to assist with reaching deer that were "yarded up"
• Pheasants and ducks raising by Ogilvie FFA were sponsored by the club
• Fire arms safety course
• Summer of 1065 Ammonium nitrate used to blast holes around the lake to provide habitat for ducks
• Installed plaque on the control box to commemorate all the work Bill Peel did but he never lived to see the fruits of his labors. 
• Keith Brodin speech at the dedication told members to keep working, there was a lot to be done
• Public access put in June of 1969.  First fishing derby was jan 26, 1969.  Club lost $100
  
• 1973 Mille Lacs County Board of Commissioners considering putting an "on land dump" on NW corner of the reserve.  Club fought it  by writing multiple agencies and getting Sen HH Humpfrey and other to oppose
  
• 1973 Mille Lacs refuge deer were in need of brouse.  Club paid a private contractor with bulldozer to knock down brouse in DNR specified places. 
• March 1975 ALSC won MCF Presidents award

                                                                            HISTORY OF THE ANN LAKE AREA

EARLY HISTORY 1659-1837

• Two French fur traders (RADISSON AND GROSEILLIERS) spent winter of 1659-1660 at Knife Lake with a large band of Huron and Ottawa Indians
• 1750 Chippewa drove Sioux away from area in BATTLE OF KATHIO.
• Chippewa's lived in a camp on Ann Lake till early 1900's.  On Indian Point there was a small Chippewa Indian burial ground of about 12 graves.  Dug up by relic hunters about 45 years ago[get year].  Not much of significance was found, just trader items like blankets, tin cups, beads, etc.  Graves were about 2 feet deep, body wrapped in a blanket and then in birch bark.  Spring water was found west and south of the mouth of Trout Creek.  It is possible that Ann (the lakes name sake) was buried here.
• Kanabec is the Chippewa name for snake.
• Sioux named their enemies the Chippewa "snakes" and the river that came from that area was the snake.  

 LOGGING TIMES - 1837-1899

• ANN LAKE received name from Indian squaw named Ann by area loggers
• ANN RIVER LOGGING COMPANY floated logs down the ANN RIVER watershed
• Headquarters for ANN RIVER LOGGING CO was on old BRONSON farm (ELLIOTT farm).  logs floated to mill at STILLWATER, MN
• Headquarters for ANN RIVER LOGGING CO was on old BRONSON farm.  logs floated to mill at STILLWATER, MN
• 1837 Kanabec Gov of Wisconsin Territory bought Kanabec Co land from Indians for $4648.32 or 1-1/3 cents per acre for 344,320 acres.
• Timber could not be sold until  survey was done in 1851, but there were two logging camps in the Fish Lake area operating in 1846.  Prior to the survey lumbermen had built many roads and dams on rivers required to get logs down to Stillwater mill
• First lumber concern to acquire timberlands in Kanabec Co was the Maine syndicate headed by Samuel Hersey.  Other members were Isaac Staples and Charles Bean.  In 1875 Staples left the firm taking with him the Ann River Timberlands.  Lumbermen dominated the affairs of the County for 20 years.  Headquarters were in Stillwater.  All supplies shipped overland from there till 1870 when the railroad was built through Pine City. 
• DEPOT camp was located on Ann River close tot he Ann Lake-Mora Road [get location]. 
• BRACKETTS camp was located just south of Ann Lake where Ed Christenson had the gravel pit.  [get location]
• HEADQUARTERS camp was north and west of Ann Lake located on Camp Creek, on the road west of the "Nugget: [what/where is Nugget?]
• Last drive and camp was in 1899
• LOGGING CAMP
• Game was plentiful in Kanabec Co although game laws were not observed.  Venison and Partridge were purchased by storekeepers and shipped to St Paul. 
• Fall of 1883 one could see platform at Mora depot covered with partridges tied in bundles for shipping to St Paul. 
• When they started enforcing game laws the partridge was shipped as "chicken" and the venison shipped as "mutton".  Thousands of partidges and untold deer were shipped this way in 1880's. It tapered off in 1890 when game laws became more rigid. 
• Kanabec Co [need date] organized at instigation of Hersey, Staples, and Bean Logging Co to control tax levy and expenditures and it could do so as most residents were employees.  The County Auditor was the Company's clerk and bookeeper. 
• Logging Co kept control until 1870's when Swedish immigrants and homesteaders came
• 1860 Kanabec Co pop was 30, 1865 = 31, 1873 = 93 1875= 311 from Swedish immigrants.
• Homestead Act in [1862] gave 160 acres to any one who had never taken up arms against the US 
• First Homesteader in Kanabec Co was Benjamin Norton Sept 22, 1868 on land a mile east of Brunswick. 

EARLY SETTLEMENT 1900-1930

• ANN LAKE TOWNSHIP separated from Knife Lake Township July 13, 1904
• Not many settlers in 1904....logging companies owned most of the land, no roads, settlers were:  A.M. Bergren, E.B. Wright, JW GRUVER, HANS EDSTROM, JH ELLING AM ELLING, AE ELLING, OJ MOLIN, HANS E HELLGREN, JOHN ROIMARK AND EMIL E JOHNSON
• KANABEC township was separated from Arthur township August 28, 1896.  Named after the county because Kanabec River (Snake River) does not touch the township
• Kanabec Township had a fine stand of timber, most of which was run down the Groundhouse River to Noah Adam's shingle mill at GROUNDHOUSE which is now Ogilvie.
•  Marion Anderson came to Kanabec in 1912 when she was 11 years old. 
• Marion remembers seeing the FLOATING BOG come down Little Ann River in 1914.  The bog floated in and started growing [what is floating bog]
• Three Dance Halls on the Lake Albert Elling, Bill McCall, John McCall.
• 1915 Lake residents were MC McCall, EL McCall, Carl Brettingen, Nettie Hill, Oge......
• The road leading to Ogilvie was only a [corduroy road]
•