Minnesota's Disappearing Fairylands
Fairyland Cabin Court Postcard from the 1950's
The Fairyland Cottages resort (AKA Fairyland Cabin Court) in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota was opened for business in 1938. The cabins were built to resemble the cottages in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that had been in theaters the previous year. The interiors were all similar, with knotty pine walls, two or three bedrooms, a family room and a kitchen outfitted with a stove and a refrigerator. It offered tourists a small piece of heaven for years.
Fairyland even had a claim to fame, having been one of the postcards shown in the opening credits of the National Lampoon's Vacation movie (seriously, YES - check it out)!
The resort was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, but that didn't matter to today's developers. In 2008, 70 years after it was built, I guess the world was desperate for a couple more condos, so they demolished this little treasure to make room for them. Unconfirmed, but I read on a local's blog that the Detroit Lakes fire department used them for a training exercise and burned them down. Regardless of the demolition method, souls all over Minnesota felt a pang when the deed was done.
Check out Forgotten Minnesota's piece about this place if you'd like to learn more.
Fairyland Cottages Detroit Lakes, Minnesota
Quaint little "mom & pop" places are disappearing fast and are being replaced by shiny new private and time-share condos that are out of reach for many people. Minnesota's best resort destinations will all eventually be exclusive havens for the wealthy if this keeps up.
View from Silver Creek Cliff of the former site of the Cliff 'n Shore Motel and Cabins
This beautiful spot next to Silver Creek Cliff on Lake Superior's North Shore near Two Harbors, Minnesota was once the site of the Cliff 'n Shore Motel and Cabins. Cliff 'n Shore was a beloved vacation destination for many people for many years. A woman named Anna Mae Peterson ran the resort by herself from the 1970's until a sewer assessment dispute forced her out in 2003 (according to her obit in the Minneapolis Star Tribune). From what it sounds like to me, the developers flexed their dollar-driven muscles and helped the powers that be make it too expensive for small operations like Cliff 'n Shore to continue.
Anna Mae grew up on Park Point in Duluth, but moved to Roseville after she and her husband were married. When he died in the late 1970's she ventured back north and lived her dream. Her obit quotes her as saying,
"Sometimes [Superior is] so awesome you can't go to sleep," Peterson said in 1994. "Maybe it's because you don't want to go to sleep but want to stay awake listening. It's almost like the ice is alive, making those sounds. And then you look out and see these beautiful fragile blue tones in the ice."
What an awesome woman she must have been! Though I never stayed at Cliff 'n Shore myself, I know people who did and they loved her and her little piece of heaven. Anna Mae lives on in the hearts of many, as does Cliff 'n Shore.
Developers have built condos on part of the land, but I have yet to see a human being in any of the new buildings there. I'm sure that they are there; just not in the numbers that once were able to enjoy this spot. The gazebo in the 2016 photo above and (I believe) one of the cabins are all that is left of Cliff 'n Shore. Shame, shame!
Postcard photo shot from Silver Creek Cliff of Anna Mae Peterson's Cliff 'n Shore Resort
The North Shore is an area where this issue is becoming an epidemic. There is a great article about it on the MidwestWeekends website called Seeking the old North Shore.
Mark my words - we Minnesotans will be sorely sorry if we don't get a handle on this mass-demolition of our history. People will talk about mom & pop resorts like they talk about the demolition of the Metropolitan Building in Minneapolis, where they say shame on our parents' generation for allowing the loss of such a treasure. This will be one of our generation's legacies in the "lost treasure" department if we don't wake up.
My Grandma at an unknown resort on the North Shore in the late 1950's or early 1960's
Sources:
Hatler, C. (2017). Forgotten Minnesota: Hollywood-Inspired Fairyland Cottages in Detroit Lakes. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from http://forgottenminnesota.com/2017/02/hollywood-inspired-fairyland-cottages-in-detroit-lakes/
Hughes, J. (1983). National Lampoon’s Vacation (title sequence) - YouTube. Retrieved April 1, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY9xZoKiBgU&feature=youtu.be
Walsh, P. (2012). Obituary: Lake Superior was Anna Mae Peterson’s life, living - StarTribune.com. Retrieved April 1, 2017, from http://www.startribune.com/obituary-lake-superior-was-anna-mae-peterson-s-life-living/158619355/
Gauper, B. (2015). MidwestWeekends: Seeking the old North Shore. Retrieved April 1, 2017, from https://midwestweekends.com/plan_a_trip/touring/scenic_byways/old_north_shore.html
Nelson, R. (2011). They paved paradise - StarTribune.com. Retrieved April 1, 2017, from
