Jesse James gang supposedly visited Beaver Lake on way to Northfield bank

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The second part of a three-part series on Beaver Lake takes an expanded look at more history of this Steele County fresh water lake.)
Beaver Lake, located, 2 1/2 miles northwest of Ellendale, has a history of being a good fishing lake, a fun boating lake and an enjoyable swimming lake.
Norrine and Ed Jensen have preserved much of the history associated with the lake by keeping scrapbooks and written manuscripts.
Some notable visitors have supposedly stopped at Beaver Lake. According to Norrine’s writings, she said Hubert Jiroushek, a local farmer, claims the Jesse James gang stopped at the Ellis blacksmith shop on the east side of Beaver Lake, just east of where Norrine’s old family home stood.
The James gang reportedly was on its way to rob the Northfield bank in 1876. According to Jiroushek, who died at age 99 in 2006, one of the gang members wanted the shoes put on his horse’s feet backwards so the posse couldn’t tell which way the gang was going. “Clever or not?” Norrine wrote.
The Beaver Lake Park and beach area on the south side of the lake was the location of a holiday resort established in the late 1890s. In 1910, a launch was built to carry passengers around the lake in comfort. It reportedly cost $1,100 and held 80 passengers.
Two ice houses reportedly stood at each end of the lake. Harry Christiansen owned and operated the one on the west end, and Norrine’s father operated one on the east end.
Norrine said it was in the 1920s that Beaver Lake became the summertime entertainment center of the area. She said livery stables in Ellendale did a big business on weekends and holidays, renting teams and rigs for a festive trip to Beaver Lake.
Ed Murtaugh built a large, long rectangular building on the south beach with dressing rooms where black wool bathing suits could be rented, Norrine writes. Murtaugh also had a boat rental business and in 1926, the Murtaugh brothers built a water coaster which consisted of a four-wheel cart that rolled on the track down into the water. The coaster lasted until the late 1930s when it was torn down for lumber.
The Murtaugh brothers owned and operated a boat rental and casino ballroom on the south side of Fountain Lake in Albert Lea. Jack and Frank Lonnergan took over the boat and beach rental business from the Murtaughs.
Norrine’s father Noel bought the boat rental and equipment business from the Lonergan brothers in the mid-1940s, tore down the long bath house and built a boat house that still stands on the Jensens’ lakeshore property today. Norrine’s parents operated the boat rental and bait business until they discontinued it in 1968.
Boat rentals were 25 cents an hour, Norrine writes, and minnows cost 25 cents a dozen. “My father never wanted to raise his prices and over charge anyone,” Norrine said.
Norrine said her parents spent many hours at the lake, sometimes from 5 a.m. to 11 at night. “We ate fish four times a day, for breakfast, at noon, for supper and at 10 at night,” Norrine recalls.
“I grew up on Beaver Lake crappies,” Norrine said. The lake reportedly is well populated with walleyes and crappies. “I don’t fish; I don’t have the patience,” Norinne reflected.
“When I served fish for breakfast to my newlywed husband, he thought I had lost my mind,” Norrine said. “I thought it was the normal thing to do,” she said.
Norrine’s parents quit the boat rental business rather than to fight the disturbance caused by large speed boats touring the lake in the late 1960s.
Norrine writes that Jim Burnes provided popular picnic grounds on the south shore. Band concerts, political speeches, fishing, boat and relay races, swimming, family reunions and softball games were all popular activities at the Beaver Lake Park.
One of the food stands was on the Jensen property until recently when it was donated to the Steele County Historical Society to sell food in the Village of Yesteryear on the Steele County Fairgrounds.
A dance floor and roller rink were located at the Beaver Lake Park from 1934-42. The World War II years slowed many of the activities on the lake.
 
NEXT: Beaver Lake is popular swimming beach.