Tag Archives: Lake Minnetonka

Apple Wizard of Gideon Bay

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We take it for granted that people can grow tasty apples in Minnesota, but that hasn’t always been the case. Early settlers missed this fruit so much that some of them used to soak potatoes in vinegar to try and replicate the taste. After 15 years of toil and thousands upon thousands of failures, a Lake Minnetonka settler named Peter M. Gideon finally came up with an edible Minnesota apple. He named it Wealthy to honor his wife (that was her first name) and to symbolize all the hardships they had been through. Gideon had a reputation as an eccentric man with a colorful personality.

If you’d like to read the entire story about this historical figure for whom Gideon Bay on Lake Minnetonka is named, click on the link below. Enjoy!

The Apple Wizard of Gideon Bay. Tonka Times, Sept 2010.

Published version of the story posted with permission of the publisher of Tonka Times magazine.

A Little History on Big Island

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Big Island, Lake MinnetonkaWhen I started writing for Tonka Times magazine in 2010, one of my first stories was about the history of Big Island on Lake Minnetonka. This island has undergone many transitions over the past century, ranging from a Dakota Indian maple syrup site to a bustling amusement park hosting up to 15,000 daily visitors. Today, the western portion of the island is divided amongst numerous property owners, and the eastern 56 acres comprise a passive recreation park managed by the City of Orono. If you’d like to learn more about Big Island’s colorful history, including tales from the Scheftel family and their mother, Marge, who became known as The Queen of Big Island, click the link below to read the story. Enjoy!

Wetutonka: A Little History on Big Island. Tonka Times, July 2010.

Published version of the story posted with permission of the publisher of Tonka Times magazine.