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General description of ArdenhurstTownship
Ardenhurst
Township is located in northwestern Itasca County, Minnesota. Population, based on the 2020 U.S. census, is
165. The entire township is within the
statuary boundary of Chippewa National Forest.
Portions of Blackduck State Forest are also
contained within the township. The
township is blessed with large tracts of public land open to outdoor
recreational activities such as hunting, hiking and other activities. More than half the land area within the
township is owned and managed by either the U. S. Forest Service or the
Minnesota Department of Natural resources.
Two state designated snowmobile trails and additional ATV trail riding
approved roads and trails are also available.
Blue Rock Lake and Fiske Lake waterfowl refuges are located near the
southwestern corner of the township.
The
predominant geological feature of the township is Island Lake which is the
headwaters of the Popple River. The 3,100 acre lake has excellent fishing
with five resorts which primarily serve customers interested in fishing for
walleye, panfish, bass and northern pike. The township also contains all or parts of
nearly a dozen smaller lakes, the largest of these being Moose Lake on the
eastern border.
Ardenhurst
Township has a community park located on the west shore of Island Lake on
Island Lake Road and a community cemetery located on County Road 31 one-half
mile east of State Highway 46. The
township hall is located on State Highway 46 and also serves as a community
event center.
The City of
Northome, located two miles north of the township border, serves as a
commercial center for the area.
Northome has a medical clinic, grocery and hardware stores, restaurants,
service station, craft store, public library, lumber yard and municipal liquor
store. Volunteer fire and emergency medical
services for Ardenhurst Township are provided from Northome. Many Ardenhurst residents serve as volunteer
members of the Northome Library, Northome Fire Department and Northome First
Responders.
Local events
of interest include an annual township brunch at the Ardenhurst Community Park
and a Winterfest Kid’s Fishing Contest on Island Lake. A summer farmer’s market and the Koochiching
County Fair in Northome also are well attended by township residents and summer
visitors.
Ardenhurst
Township History
At
one time, the Ojibwe gardened on Elmwood Island in
Island Lake in Ardenhurst Township and followed trails around the lake and from
Island Lake to Bartlett Lake. The land containing Ardenhurst Township was
purchased from the Ojibwe by the Federal Government
by the Treaty of 1855. The area was surveyed in 1896 and opened for settlement
in 1898. The township was first organized in 1903 and the first recorded
Chairman was A.C. Anderson. By 1910 about 120 people lived in Ardenhurst
Township. Half of the township residents were born in Minnesota, one-fourth
came from other states, and one-fourth were immigrants – mainly from Norway and
Sweden.
The
community on the north shore of Island Lake was first known as “Cunningham” and
that on the south shore was called “Bergville.” Edwin and Wallace Cunningham
opened the first store in 1899 and added the first post office in 1901. In 1904
a second post office was established at Bergville with Albert K. Berg as
postmaster and the Bergville School opened in 1909 with fourteen students. The
Cunningham School was built in 1910 and served from five to nineteen students
in eight grades with one teacher.
Of
the many sawmills once operating in Ardenhurst Township, the largest was the Ellingson Mill, which was built in 1913 on the west side of
Island Lake and could cut 40 thousand board feet of lumber per day. The first
resort in the township was Danola Lodge, which opened
on the north shore of Island Lake in about 1915. By
the 1940s, tourism had replaced logging as a major industry in the region and
about fifteen resorts were in operation around Island Lake. This was
facilitated by the construction of Highway 46 in 1935.
Although
the first telephone line was installed in 1914, (mainly so that residents could
report forest fires) electric service did not arrive around Island Lake until
after the Second World War. The whole community would turn out in the winter to
cut ice for the summer.
For
further reading, try Northome Community
Centennial History, by Faye M. Estabrooks, and A Distant Record, by Carol Avelsgaard. Both books are available at the Northome Library.
The
website www.skoe.com also contains a treasure
of historical information and photographs.
Ener Skoe
homesteaded on the south shore of Island Lake in 1901.
Bergville
Store