SECTION THREE
PHOTO COURTESY OF DREW YOUNGEDYKE
L OO N S A N D F I N N S
Story & Photos By Drew YoungeDyke
“Aunt Elaine. The last of the greatest generation that filled this cottage with
laughter, intellect, and love for over a half century.”
F
or the first time in 16 years, I dipped my
paddle in the still waters of Cheney Lake
in Gogebic County. I was returning from the
week-long Association of Great Lakes Outdoor
Writers (AGLOW) annual conference at Lake
of the Woods, Minnesota. Before pushing the
final miles home to Ann Arbor, I spent the
night at my family’s cottage on Cheney Lake.
A black protuberance on the flat water caused
me to lay my kayak paddle across my lap. I
raised the binoculars finding a loon through
the glass.
Every summer of my youth was a pilgrimage.
With my parents and brother we came to spend
time with the Finnish side of my mom’s family.
Somehow I haven’t found – or made – the time
to visit since I was twenty-one.
In the middle of the last century, my
great-grandpa William “Bill” Lantta bought
an old deer camp on this small inland lake just
above the Wisconsin border to convert to a
summer cottage, (“mӧkki” in Finnish), for his
family. The first journal entry in the camp log
from 1961 concludes with a postscript noting
that “Grandpa Bill caught a beautiful 24 ½ inch
northern.”
My great-uncles Bill and Walt used to take me
fishing in the aluminum boat, though I don’t
remember reeling in many fish myself; some
things never change. What I do remember is
hearing the loon’s call, a haunting wail provid-
ing the soundscape of the Northwoods. Cedars
swoop before the enclosed cottage porch, and
a few sentinel white pines rim the lake amidst
Volume 02 No. 03 | 2018