Lundeen built the wheel and was considered the owner of the boat. He says three people built the boat – his father Herman, his uncle Leonard (who was married to Herman’s sister), and a blacksmith from Spencer Brook named Andrew Lundeen. Griep perhaps knows about as much as anyone about the paddle wheel boat. One lure was an antique wooden type and the other was a metal one from France that could be adjusted to cause different actions in the water. He found two old lures attached to the paddle wheel. Some of that is in the form of antique bottles from the 1920’s, many anchors and sometimes old fishing lures, he said. That revelation was reinforced by the stories people had told him about the paddle wheel boat when he first moved to Blue Lake.Īctually, going below the surface of Blue Lake and exploring with scuba gear is much like “going up into grandma’s attic,” he said. But when he saw its width was five to six feet and saw the remains of the paddles that had been attached to it, he realized it was a paddle wheel. “I was on my way over to look at the fish when I saw this big wheel.”Īt first Netka thought the wheel, with a diameter of about six feet, was from a wagon. “The only reason I found it was because the lady I was diving with wanted to show me a big bass underwater,” Netka said. Netka, who is a custodian by night and often enjoys spending time during the day going back and forth over the lake in his pontoon boat and scuba diving, first saw the paddle wheel in July 1996. Now the paddle wheel sits by itself below the surface of Blue Lake, down about 13 feet, according to scuba diver Netka, though Clayton Edling, who runs a seasonal trailer campground at the lake, estimates it to be in shallower water. “Everybody all the time has talked about it, the parties on the boat,” said French, referring to the paddle wheel boat and how there were dances and parties on it when it was on the lake many decades ago. One intriguing tale she tells is about her father and his moonshine business and how it was visited one day by the “feds”. Then to spice things up a bit, you can sit for a while in French’s house that she and her husband Wes have that overlooks the lake and hear her stories that add to the lake’s history. The imagination continues to stir as one finds out that Netka, a scuba diver, has gone down to the bottom of Blue Lake next to Lundeen’s Point and examined the paddle wheel of a boat that is so much a part of Blue Lake’s lore. Long gone are the sounds floating across the surface of Blue Lake southeast of Princeton of people laughing and dancing on a boat as it was lazily pulled by a steam engine-powered paddle wheel boat.īut after talking for a while with 86-year old Hugo “Ole” Griep of Crown, and Blue Lake residents Bud Netka and Pat French, one can get to thinking about those happenings on that lake occurring again. Scuba diver’s discovery of paddle wheel on bottom of lake stirs interest in lake’s history Sherburne County, Minnesota Navigation, primaryīlue Lake’s lore includes paddle wheel boat, moonshine still ![]()
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