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Old postcard of the east entrance
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The depression in the '30s put a damper on travel and
vacationing. Suddenly no one had any money, and a vacation was the
first luxury to by abandoned. The hotel company weathered two
years of practically no business and then went bankrupt. The '34,
'35, and '36 seasons it operated poorly under receivership.
In the spring of 1937 the new owners of the Birchmont,
Alex and Max, had their own resorts to run so they sent Max's son Don up
to Bemidji. The job of restoring a run-down property, rebuilding a
clientele, and getting the business back into the black fell on rather
young shoulders. Don, age 21, had just graduated from the
University of Minnesota. He brought several of his fraternity
brothers to Bemidji to help and it was a roaring success from the start.
Don soon bought the resort from his father and uncle. In 1944 Don
married a Bemidji girl, Lucille Forester. They had two
children, Randy and Sally. Sally has since moved to Florida, but
Randy, who now operates the resort with his wife Tina and family, is the first of the fourth
generation of Ruttgers to continue in the family tradition of
Minnesota's premier resort family.
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Randy and Tina Ruttger
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The Birchmont has seen a lot of changes in the 60-plus
years since Don Ruttger first moved to Bemidji. The Ruttger's have tried
to maintain the charm of the grand old summer resort on the north shore
of Lake Bemidji while making the continual improvements that are
necessary to keep up with the changing times. One thing will never
change though, the friendly hospitality of four generations of Ruttger
family ownership.
Don
Ruttger, founder, Ruttger's Birchmont Lodge
c.1960 |
Ruttger's Main Lodge as it is today.
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Of the five original Ruttger Resorts in
Minnesota, only two remain: Ruttger's Bay Lake Lodge in Deerwood,
http://www.ruttgersresorts.com/baylakelodge/
and Ruttger's Birchmont Lodge in Bemidji. Two new resorts have
been added, Ruttger's Sugar Lake Lodge near Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
http://sugarlakelodge.com and
Ruttger's Pine Mountain Camping Resort near Backus, Minnesota. http://ruttgerspinemountain.com The
Resorts are owned and operated independently by cousins (All great
grandsons of Joseph Ruttger). Chris Ruttger at Bay Lake, Fred Bobich at
Sugar Lake, William Ruttger at Pine Mountain, and Randy Ruttger at
Birchmont. |
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