Dennis McCann: Stopping in Star Lake to visit the sisters

Originally published Sept. 12, 2008

What does it say about someone - or in this case two someones – that when their time is done their friends get together and preserve a minnow shack in their honor.

It says they performed a service, an essential service given the northern need for bait, and did it well.

I passed through little Star Lake in the Vilas County lake country the other day and, as always, stopped to see the minnow shack at the water’s edge, the onetime - and longtime - business place of Edith and Hazel Fredrickson. For most of the last century Edith and Hazel were beloved fixtures in Star Lake, selling minnows and fishing supplies, candy and ice, renting boats and sharing stories of old Star Lake with those who came to see them.

Star Lake gave them lots of stories to tell, of the heyday of lumbering when their Norwegian immigrant father, Fred Fredrickson, walked from Minocqua to Star Lake looking for work and stayed to marry and raise a family, of the railroads that brought life and prosperity until they went away, of the recreation era that followed. The sisters – “the girls,” as many knew them – lived in a turn-of-the-century house and operated their minnow shack decade after decade.

Edith lived to 95, while Hazel made it to two days short of 99 before she died in 2000.

Friends who knew and loved the sisters have maintained their old site. "Like a historical landmark kind of thing," one friend told me some years ago. "They were definitely a big part of Star Lake. No one came here without stopping to see the sisters. They were such a big part of Star Lake I didn't want them to be forgotten."

The shack is faded, as are the letters offering “Boats for rent, worms, tackle, knitted handwork.”

It’s not often you’ll find a bait shop with knitted handwork. But the shack serves as both memory and monument, standing along the lake’s edge just a few paces from a memorial in the sisters’ honor. Next to an old fishing boat filled with flowers a bronze marker reads:

“Dear Edith and Hazel,“Now your little green minnow stand sits quietly by the shore.You were a friend to all who entered your door.Always warm greeting with smiling faceYou gave us good reason to slow our pace.Your simple way of life with no place for want or desireIs the greatest legacy you’ve left for us all to desire.It’s hard to accept your era has come to an end.Grand ladies you were so much more than friends.We each cherish our own memories and hold them close to our hearts.Thank you, your friends."

Funny thing. The sisters have been gone for some years now, and still people stop to visit their shack. That's a legacy, all right.