For 94-year-old evacuee, northern Minnesota wildfires are interrupting a long family tradition
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For 94-year-old Donna Arbaugh, wildfires in northeastern Minnesota are getting in the way of more than 70 years of tradition.
Last week, she had to evacuate the cabin she and her husband, George, built in 1955 as the nearby Camp Fire spread. Arbaugh is currently staying in a small house she started renting two and a half years ago in Ely, where she lives during the winter.
“I tell people that my cabin is the best place, but my little house in town is second best, so I'm OK," she said with a laugh.
The Arbaughs built the cabin shortly after they were married on Ojibway Lake, the same lake where George’s parents had built a cabin years earlier. Ojibway Lake is about 17 miles up the Fernberg Road from Ely.
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Donna and George’s lot didn’t even have a road to access it. So they got creative.
"My husband built a big raft, and we had the lumber delivered to his folks, and then put on the raft and floated across the lake," she recounted.
The 484-square-foot cabin was finished in a single summer, working fireplace and all.
For a long time, the Arbaughs lived in Tacoma, Wash. Every summer, their three sons, two dogs and one cat piled into a sedan and drove the 1,750 miles to Ely. With a car full, Donna said sometimes she and her husband drove straight through, taking turns behind the wheel.
The cabin by the lake was an escape from city life. For decades, it was completely off the grid, without electricity or plumbing.
“I tend to like the woods and nature and preserving nature and getting away from high-tech stuff,” she said. “But it’s nice to leave city life and know that you can survive in an atmosphere like that. We could always come to town for groceries and such.”
Donna and George took frequent canoe trips into the Boundary Waters. She even remembers visiting Dorothy Molter on her island on Knife Lake. The famed "Root Beer Lady" was the last full-time resident of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
“There she was with her root beer, and you signed your name in her little book,” she remembered with a smile. “And then the next Christmas, you got a Christmas greeting from her."
After George passed away in 2002, she bought a solo canoe and for years continued to spend time on the lake. Two years ago, she moved to Ely full-time. Over the 71 years in the cabin, this is the closest a wildfire has ever come.
“I can't imagine what it would be like to have the cabin burned to the ground,” she said. “That would be tough."
Still, she tries to stay optimistic about the situation. Her family has worked to prepare the property for a possible wildfire. Her son and his wife came out in early June and hauled away 18 loads of brush and dead trees.
Arbaugh says she hasn’t really thought too hard about what she will do when the evacuation orders are lifted, and she is allowed to go to her cabin again. But she said she’ll probably go in, sit down and make a cup of coffee.
She also said she might invite some friends and neighbors over for wine and cheese — an afternoon tradition she recently started.
