MBL – 70 Years Ago

This 8 x 10 inch black and white image dates to 1949, and shows how MBL looked seventy years ago from the air. A lot has changed!
In the lower left corner, the old Cameron Road trail leads to the MBL Campground, but someone has pitched a tent on the hill behind Cabins 7 & 8. Lakefront cabins 21 and 22 are less than two years old, and sit on the recently reclaimed land beyond the Gull Lake beach.
The cottage of Bob and Sadie Beeney is visible in the center right section of the photo. Within a decade they will move across the Bay to Beeney Point (formerly known as Truax Point), and the Wunkers will purchase their property. It will become MBL Housekeeping Cottage # 25.
Behind the MBL Rec Hall the “gravel pit” that will become the site of The Governor’s and Grandma’s House is visible. A new wheel track driveway extends to Cabin 19, and the home of Bob and Mary. (When built a couple years earlier, the only access to their home was beside the MBL tennis court).
The chicken house at the back of the now volley ball court is still standing. It will be destroyed in a fire within a couple years.
The concrete top of the recently constructed water cistern is clearly seen, and holds a bench – as it is a good vantage point for looking out over Gull Lake. Over the years, trees will obscure that view, and the “open” areas around the property that had been kept clear of brush by the herd of cows will fill in the landscape.
Russ Wunker
September 2019