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From the Annandale Advocate Wednesday, November 4, 1985
Bungalow Island:just which legends are true & which are out and out lies ?
by John D. Fisher
The dining room at Cofield's hotel on Bungalow Island.
Bungalow Island in Clearwater Lake has marinated in rancid rumor over the
years. Tales still circulate about its merry and sometimes wild and
naughty past. Dillinger and his gang used to hide out there, some
whisper. The island was a hot bed of lawlessness many are convinced.
High stakes gambling, friendly women, dancing and booze around the clock,
moonshine still conceals in its shadows. Bungalow Island has had it all,
according to local lore and conventional wisdom.
But only a few of Annandale's citizens remember Bungalow Island
in its heyday, or have studies, abstracts and other original documents concerning
it. Only a few can say what the real Bungalow Island was like. The
account these few tell is different from what many would guess.
Although the real story of the island and its mainland
surroundings is not the wild, outlaw past many imagine (the gangsters were at
Lake Sylvia), the islands past is one marked by brooding secrets that include
murder and the macabre.
In the areas earliest accounts, the island was known as Eagle
Island, presuming for the birds that nested there. In 1912, Orin Lorenzo
Cofield, the son of well to do businessman Lorenzo Cofield, who owned the
elevator and a cement plant on Pleasant Lake, bought the island for $300,
according to real estate broker Jerry Mundell, who has studied the property
abstract.
Cofield got into the slot machine business and ran a gambling
territory, installing and servicing slot machines in restaurants and other
establishments. It was rumored that Cofield's doctor told him that he was
under too much stress as a traveling businessman and would die prematurely
unless he found a more relaxing way to make a living.
Soon after buying the island, Cofield established a ferry
from the nearest point on the lakes southwest shore to the island. He
built a "hotel" that provided a spacious dining room, kitchen, dance
floor, and billiard room, but no guest rooms. For the guests Cofield
provided a tent city.
"Cofield reasoned that people would like to camp in
tents during the summer"; said former Annandale banker Colin McDonald, a friend
of Cofield's. "Cofield was a great hunter and fisherman, who loved to
camp, and he believed other people enjoyed what he did."
Cofield brought in the best dance bands from Minneapolis he
could find, and for a short time the island resort drew large crowds. Many
vacationers arrived by train since other transportation was poor. Among
the guests to the area were Mrs. H. B. Reasoner from Iowa, mother of the famous
news anchor Harry Reasoner. The dances, especially on weekends, drew townsfolk
from Annandale and attracted guests from other resorts around the
lake.
"There may have been a small gambling room somewhere in
the hotel," conceded McDonald, "but any gambling that might have gone
on wouldn't have amounted to much. We just went out there to dance and
have a good time." For those looking for sin and illegal fun, Bungalow
Island had little to offer according to McDonald.
But a short distance across the lake at the Schlink
establishment where the Castaways Resort and Supper Club (today known as TJ's)
stands sin and moonshine were close at hand. "They had some pretty
wild times there," McDonald recalled.
Ole Olson Nyren, Big Ole, was Schlink's brother-in-law.
Big Ole was a powerful man who guided hunting and fishing parties. He
could grab a deer by the antlers and whisk it out of the woods with remarkable
ease.
Ole and Schlink quarreled one night. Ole, who had been
running his trap line, was armed with a point 22 rifle, and he left in
bitterness, heading home in the dark. Schlink followed. Ole must
have heard the footsteps. Ole, who had been a professional hunter most of
his life, now knew what it was like to be the prey. After trailing his
intended victim, Schlink raised his gun and fired. His shot missed.
Ole saw the flash of Schlink's gun. He sprang and fired. Schlink
reeled and crashed to the ground, shot through the jaw.
Not long after the shooting, McDonald stopped at the Schlink
place. Ole was there. He was changing the bandage on Schlink's
jaw. Peace among the two men had been restored almost as suddenly as their
violence had erupted.
But some encounters ended differently. Schlink's was
frequently the scene of poker games. George West was a familiar player,
according to McDonald, and when he failed to make his usual appearances, his
absence was noted. A man named Kewple, who lived on the north end of the
lake, was seen with some of West's belongings, a phonograph and radio.
When questioned, Kewple said he had won them from West in a poker game.
Since that seemed reasonable, no one questioned him further.
West's disappearance and Kewple possession of West's'
belongings might soon have been forgotten, except for the intervention of fate -
the return of George West.
West had spent the long winter at the bottom of Clearwater
Lake. In the spring as the ice melted, he resurfaced near a little island
off Bungalow. Around his waist was bound by fence wire and cement
blocks.
The small island where the body was found is known today as
Friendship Island, because it is used by Camp Friendship. But William Dobbins's
father, after he found West, according to Mundell, remembered the
island by a less heartwarming name - Dead Man's Island.
In those live and let live times West's murder went
unresolved. Everyone in the immediate area suffered a memory lapse.
No one could recall what happened to poor George West.
Prohibition came and went. The Minnesota legislature
outlawed gambling, and the wild times around Bungalow Island gradually became
memories. The island resort had long since fallen on hard times. The
difficulty of transportation and Cofield's miscalculation that everyone liked to
rough it had taken their toll. The island resort had slipped into a long
decline from which it never recovered. Cofield sold cabin sites to boost
his flagging business, but finally the hotel stood neglected, vandals ravaged
it. Cabin owners stripped it when the need arose for a door or
window. Today only the foundations remain.
"Many people want to know when the old hotel
burned," McDonald said, "it didn't."
"Cofield told me he destroyed it himself," Mundell
said. "He said it was being vandalized so badly that he went out and
pushed it down. The foundations are still in good enough shape to rebuild
it."
A few cabin owners still spend sleepy weekends under the
spell of the islands sleepy charm, but to the vast majority of area residents,
Bungalow Island is little more than a mark on the water scope. Some
actually claim to never have heard of it. All that changed two years ago
when Bungalow Island made the news, the site of a macabre discovery.
"Two years ago Jerry and I were with some friends that
lived next door to us," said Joan Mundell, Jerry Mundell wife.
The Mundell's are weekend residents of the island. "They had been
excavating the side of a sandy hill that ended abruptly in their yard.
Jerry was standing against the hill, and he pulled out a long bone that had been
exposed by the digging. "That can't be a dog or deer bones," we
said. "It looked like a human femur. We kept digging and we
found more bones."
Authorities were soon scouring the site. The remains of
two bodies were found that were 50 to 100 years old. One was a male 42 or
43 years old. The other was an 18 year old girl, according to Joan Mundell.
Speculations were rampant. Stories of the Dillinger gang were
retold. Some thought the remains were those of Indians. Others
suggested they were gang land victims. The age and condition of the bones
made it impossible to be sure.
Circumstantial evidence would seem to rule out Indians.
The skeletons were found at the bottom of a hill. Indian burial sites in
the area have traditionally been on hilltops overlooking water. The bones
were mixed together, not laid side by side, suggesting that the bodies may have
been dumped hastily, one on top of the other, for quick burial in the dead of
the night.
One question especially baffles authorities. There were
two bodies, but only one had a skull. What ghastly story remains untold
? What dark secret does the island still harbor ? What is the story
of the bones of Bungalow Island ?
Bones found on Bungalow Island
by John D. Fisher
Bungalow island in the middle of Clearwater
Lake gave up
some of its dark secrets last week. A pile of human bones, what the Wright
County Sheriff's Department believes to be a "complete set of bones from
two human bodies," were discovered in a sandy spur on the west end of the
island Sept. 11.
According to Deputy Bob Kammer, the bones have been sent to
the state crime laboratory for testing and dating. No identification has
yet been made, Kammer said, and law enforcement officials have no suspicions
about whose bones they might be.
"It's possible that we've found an Indian burial
ground," Kammer said. "Who knows ? It could be anything.
There is another more interesting possibility, as well,
Kammer said. Bungalow Island has long been associated, in local legends and
folklore, with gangsters and organized crime. It's hard to sort out which
of the stories are true, Kammer said, "but the island definitely was some
kind of retreat for Mafia types and the like."
A large hotel, which once stood on the east side of the
island, was considered to be a safe retreat area for Chicago mobsters,
including, according to local legend, the John Dillinger gang. But Dr.
William Braasch, whose family has lived on Clearwater Lake for many years,
admitted that no one seems to know the exact extent of gangster visits to the
island. The stories, he said, might simply be local exaggerations of what
really happened on the island.
Nevertheless, the Sheriff's Department is not discounting the
notion that the bones might be gang-related. Kammer said. "We
just don't know". And we won't know until the results come back from
the lab." He said he hoped the results would be ready within the next
week or two.
Researchers at the state crime laboratory were unavailable
for comment Monday.
According to Kramer's account, the bones were discovered on
the evening on Sunday, Sept. 11. Sheriff's deputies were called to the
island and given a grocery sack full of bones, including one full set of teeth
with no fillings. The bones were found in the side of a "washed out,
washing out sandy hill," Kammer said.
Last Tuesday, deputies returned to the island to search for
more bones. After sifting through the sand, Kammer said, "we dug up a
complete set of bones from two bodies."
The bones appeared to belong to a man and a woman, Kammer
said. In any case, the varying sizes of the bones indicated that one of
the people was considerably larger than the other.
Asked whether foul play was suspected, Kammer said:
"If there was any, it was so long ago that it doesn't matter any
more. Those bones are probably 50 to 100 years old." One thing
does trouble the deputies, however: although they found the bones of what
were apparently two people they could uncover only one skull. "That
does trouble me a little." Kammer admitted.
From the Annandale Advocate Wednesday, October 19, 1983
Lab reports identities of those Bungalow Island Mystery bones
by John D. Fisher
The mysterious bones found on Bungalow Island a month ago
remained mysterious last week. But some of the questions surrounding the
bones were answered in a report from the State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension
Laboratory.
The report confirmed that all 21 of the bones and bone
fragments were "of human origin." It also confirmed the
suspicion that the bones once belonged to two people: one a male in his
mid-40's and the other a female between 17 and 20 years old. "Several
factors," the report said, "indicate a very long interment."
Wright County Coroner, Dr. L.H. Bendix, said the bones were
"at least 100 years old" and added that "there's no way we can
identify the bones any further." The case of the mysterious
Bungalow Island bones is closed, Bendix said. There will be no further
investigation.
The bones were discovered on the evening of Sunday, Sept.
11. They were found in the side of a "washed out, washing out sandy
hill" on the west side of the island, according to Wright County Sheriff's
Deputy Bob Kammer. There were 21 bones or bone fragments, including a jaw
from one body and a full skull from the other.