Diane Skelnick was the Mille Lacs Lake Community Library Branch Librarian from 1986-2002 in Isle, Minnesota. Founded in 1959, ECRL is the oldest existing regional public library system in Minnesota. Headquartered in Cambridge, it is a consolidated library system with 14 libraries and Outreach Services and serves residents in Aitkin, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, and Pine counties.
Silas Carter discusses the post office at Isle; carrying the mail from Mora to Isle; having a charter boat on Mille Lacs with his dad, and some of their passengers and freight; remembering a rumored Native American uprising; the tugboat Gracie Dee; working as a cook in West Superior as the docks and Minnesota-Wisconsin bridge were being built, and setting up a kitchen; getting a tip on a homestead near Tenstrike and going out to it; Farmer Hines; being hospitalized with rheumatic fever and not getting into the Spanish-American War; and Frank Dudley and his wife's slot machines. The recording is continued from bchs078a.
Silas Carter discusses his background before coming to the area; his father's experience as a contractor in Princeton; his father's homestead on Mille Lacs; his early job in logging on the Rum River; how logs were marked; how logs were sorted; how dams helped in a log drive; the [Quayle?] brothers; his role helping find bodies and secure homes after the Hinckley fire; naming Isle; and carrying the mail from Mora to Isle. The recording is continued in bchs078b
