We May Have to Do This Again

We knew Wambolts’ 125th anniversary deserved a full week of celebration. What we did not know was just how much fun it would be or how many people would help make it happen.

Like most things at Wambolts, it came together because people showed up, pitched in and made a little go a very long way.

A special thank you to Mike and Kathy Cook, our Chief Wambolters, for making all the behind-the-scenes work look like nothing. Friends, family, neighbors, former owners’ families and guests joined in too, carrying tables, sharing stories, helping with food, music, photographs and cleanup, and stepping in wherever they were needed.

A little went a long way.

We opened Cabin 10 and watched people lean over old guest registers, search family photographs and point out cabins, relatives and summers they remembered. We gathered for fishing stories with Jason Durham, coffee and caramel rolls. We shared a fish fry, welcomed runners and walkers for the anniversary 5K, and ended the week with music, barbecue and a full resort on Saturday night.

Each event was different, but the same thing kept happening: people found one another.

Former owners’ families met current guests. Neighbors talked with visitors who had driven hours to return. People who had not seen one another in years picked up old conversations. Our children listened to stories about other children who once spent their summers running through these same woods.

For one remarkable week, 125 years did not feel like history.

It felt present.

The Park Rapids Enterprise helped us share the anniversary with the community that has surrounded Wambolts for generations. Then the Minnesota Star Tribune told the larger story of a resort that closed, survived and, against the odds, welcomed families back again. The Star Tribune shared some addition video of Kim Hyatt’s resort tour on social media.

Seeing that story in print was surreal.

Most days, we are focused on the ordinary work of running a resort: putting gas in boats, mowing trails, stacking wood, cleaning cabins, fixing screens and keeping everything moving. It is easy to lose sight of the larger meaning when you are standing in the middle of the work.

Anniversary week gave us a chance to step back.

Wambolts matters because it holds memories, but also because it continues to make new ones.

It matters that the old photographs and guest registers are still here. It also matters that new families are taking photographs on the same porches.

It matters that we can tell stories about Bud and Amelia Wambolt, the Arnolds and the Mauers. It also matters that children are still jumping off the docks, wandering through the woods and asking how soon they can come back.

The newspaper coverage helped tell the story of Wambolts’ history and revival. The anniversary week showed us something else: this place has always depended on people who care enough to carry it forward.

That was true 125 years ago, and it is still true now.

We are deeply grateful to the Arnold and Mauer families for returning, sharing photographs and helping us understand the chapters that came before ours. Thank you to the Turleys for sharing their family’s Wambolts story and helping bring a beloved piece of resort history home.

Thank you to Karen Mauer, Noel and Terry Arnold, Linda Arnold, Todd Arnold and everyone who opened family albums, answered questions and helped us put names to faces and stories to buildings.

Thank you to Jason Durham for celebrating the fishing history that started it all. Thank you to Emmaville Inn and Cafe, Big Blue Grilling, our musicians, our 5K runners and walkers, and everyone who helped cook, serve, set up, clean up, carry something or make someone feel welcome.

Most especially, thank you to Mike and Kathy Cook, our Chief Wambolters. You helped make the entire week feel easy, joyful and completely Wambolty. We could not have done it without you.

Thank you to our Upper Bottle Lake neighbors, the Park Rapids community, our guests, friends and extended family. Many of you showed up for more than one event. Some of you showed up for all of them.

You filled the resort with exactly the kind of community we hoped the anniversary would celebrate.

Thank you to the Park Rapids Enterprise and to Kim Hyatt and Anthony Souffle at the Minnesota Star Tribune for treating the story of a small family resort with such care.

The week was beautiful, emotional, exhausting and far more meaningful than we expected.

We thought we were throwing a party to celebrate the past.

Instead, it became a gathering of the people who have helped carry Wambolts forward.

The people who built it.

The people who cared for it.

The people who worried about it when it closed.

The people who came back.

And the people who are just beginning their own Wambolts traditions.

One hundred twenty-five years is an extraordinary milestone. But after a week like this, it does not feel like an ending.

It feels like momentum.

Like many things at Wambolts, a little went a long way.

And after such an incredible week, we will probably have to throw another epic party next summer.