Lake Vermilion Resort Association

This story comes to us courtesy of Ed Tausk of Vermilion Dam Lodge:

Bella, Ed’s 3 year old yellow Labrador Retriever, has had a difficult and amazing life. As a pup, Bella was a favorite of the guests and staff. She picked up commands quickly and was using her natural talent as a retriever for grouse and duck hunting. Unfortunately, around the time Bella turned one, she was struck with the often fatal illness of Blastomycosis, called simply “Blasto” by most. Blasto is a spore like disease that can get into an animals lungs through inhaling or sniffing the ground, or even through open cuts.  Once in the lungs, the mold grows fast and spreads throughout the organs.  Unless treated quickly, the dog usually dies. 

As in many cases, the mold attacked Bella’s eyes and caused severe pressure, leading to permanent damage to the nerves that control the eye sight.  Bella went from being a normal sighted dog to total vision loss within a month.  She stayed on medication for six months, and is now cured of the Blasto.  Ed took Bella to several top vets and had her eyes tested, but the prognosis was always the same - she will never get her sight back.

In spite of this, most resort guests have no idea that Bella is blind.  She gets around with no trouble at all, running full speed behind the resort atvs and slowing down when they do, following kids over 100 feet out onto the dock and sitting down right at the edge, and still retrieving anything from a stick thrown into the lake to grouse, using her front paws as her eyes.

One story Ed tells…A while back a lady was staying at the resort who fell in love with Bella. The lady would bring treats for her each day.  One morning, the lady came into the lodge with treats looking for Bella, who was still upstairs in Ed’s apartment. She said she would come back later because she was going to take a walk along the river to the bottom of the falls (about 1/4 mile from the lodge).  The lady had been gone about 20 minutes when Ed brought Bella down to the lodge. Bella picked up the lady’s scent and wanted to go outside.  As soon as she was out, Bella tracked the lady’s scent all the way down to the bottom of the falls and found her. The lady was amazed, but said she knew Bella was looking for her because she watched Bella work her way down the path with her tail going very fast, and using her nose along the trail.

Ed hopes that Bella’s story will give hope to people whose pets have failing eyesight and are worried about what the quality of their lives will be.

As the days get steadily warmer and the snow dwindles, thoughts turn to “soft” water activities like fishing and boating.  In the meantime, however, we need to get through this period of the year where the ice is melting.  There are many factors that contribute to the rate of melting, but I will not get into the science of it here.

Each year resorters and other property owners watch anxiously watch the ice conditions on their part of the lake.  Wind can pile up ice, easily taking out docks or supports.  Even rocks and boulders along the shoreline can be moved by the power of the ice.

You can watch the progress of the melting of Lake Vermilion on our webcams:

www.lakevermilionresorts.com/webcams

If you’d like to view a chart showing all the dates for ice out since official records began in 1910, continue here  -

Continue reading ‘Ice Out!’

As author/editor of this blog, I would like to start by sharing a little about my first experiences with Lake Vermilion.  I came to the Lake as the result of a devastating event (for a 16 year old).  Near the end of my 10^th grade year, the parents of my best friend announced that they had purchased a resort in Minnesota and the family was immediately moving from their Ohio home.  Our 12 year long friendship was suddenly going to be separated by 900 miles!  Her parents, I think in part to help keep my friend from declaring all out war on the family, invited me to visit.

That summer I spent about 3 weeks at the (long-gone) Isle of Pines Resort.  The following year I stayed for the whole summer to work at both the resort and at their second business in Tower that had been purchased during the winter.  I greatly enjoyed my visit that first year, but it was during the second summer I fell in love -  in love with Lake Vermilion, with Tower, and with my now-husband of 35 years  -pretty much in that order J.

I can still vividly recall snapshots in my mind of that summer – Big Bay completely awash  in moonlight; trolling around the island dragging a Lazy Ike on warm sunny afternoons to catch a few walleye for the Friday night resort fish fry; trips to Tower by boat; camping in the woods behind the resort;  stopping on the way home from work to get a 5 cent “baby root beer” at the drive-in (because we each only had 5 cents!); catching a rock bass off the dock and immediately fileting and frying it for a fish sandwich for lunch; spending evenings in the lodge listening to the adults having a sing-along around the piano while us teens played ping-pong, cards or shuffle board and got to know the week’s resort guests better; picking blueberries for a super fresh pie…so many great memories.

The summer of 1972 found the song “Rocky Mountain High” at the top of the charts.  I related the sentiment of the song to my experience, and it wasn’t hard to change a few words around to make it my own.   Cue the music - “It’s the Minnesota, Lake Vermilion high…”.

I invite you to come and start your own love affair with Lake Vermilion.