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The Victoria Gazette Archives

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“The place was good duck hunting,” stated Norby, “and pheasants too, but there was no deer like there is today. We planted corn and alfalfa for the cows, alfalfa on the hills because it didn’t wash. We used to use two tractors to get up that big hill. There was a cranberry swamp on top of one of those hills. It was flat and like a bog up there. Kinda crazy. We picked a couple bushels of cranberries there for years. I was one of ten kids. We had 30 cows plus about 15 in young stock.”

Catherine Aretz, 91, of Victoria said she and her late husband Tony farmed 80 acres at Marsh Lake until it was sold as part of the Anton Aretz estate when Tony’s mother died in the 1940’s. She said Tony was born there, that his grandfather was also named Anton and more than likely homesteaded the property. Catherine helped Tony with the farming. She recalls that there were many renters over the years after they sold the place.

Randy Krautbauer, 56, of Victoria said his grandfather George Krautbauer had a 120-acre farm at Marsh Lake and that the Marsh Lake Lodge was a Krautbauer barn, but not originally. Randy’s father Donald owned it a short time, too, in 1954. It was not a new barn. Maybe someone by the name of Plocher was the builder or previous owner, they suggested.

In any case, it adds up to the 400 acres that are now the Marsh Lake Hunting Preserve: Derhaag’s 200, Aretz’s 80, and Krautbauer’s 120.

***

As already told, it was Mr. George Ruediger, the Big Island guy, who bought the 400 acres to raise and train dogs and birds. This part of the story is best filled in by Bob Swanson, that first 30-year manager of the Club who spends his winters down in beautiful and balmy Alabama.

“George was an interesting guy,” said Bob from that southern clime. “His Big Island German shorthaired pointers were known throughout the country. I met him in 1966. I was working a hunt club in Wisconsin and bought some dogs from him. He had a wooden leg from playing around railroad cars, as I understand it. His foot got stuck in the rails at the wrong time. But he rode horses and raised dogs and birds for the dogs. There are still some big incubators down in the basement of that lodge.”

How did Mr. Ruediger make his money to buy 400 acres in Carver County? “He had six or seven automotive parts stores in the Twin Cities metro area. That’s how he got his money,” said Bob. “He wasn’t that old when he died of a heart attack. Maybe only 68.”

George’s wife Bernice Ruediger then owned the Marsh Lake Hunt Club and leased it to a bunch of hunters. “She leased it to us,” said Bob, “the guys in our club. I was hired by the Board of Directors in 1970. There are 15 on the Board. In 1990 we convinced her to sell it to the Club. She died about a year later.”

And what are the roots of Bob Swanson? “I was born and raised in Hastings,” he said. “After the Air Force I went to the University of Minnesota and got my Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Management. When I started here we had 100 members. That was a good number and it kept everybody happy and we could pay the bills.”

And there were plenty bills to pay. Bob and his wife Karen not only raised birds and dogs; they raised eight kids. “Bob Schmieg’s mother and father cleaned the birds for us and when they retired, my family cleaned the birds,” he said. “We raised the birds ourselves for a year, and then I convinced the Board of Directors it wasn’t economically feasible, that it was more cost efficient to purchase them. We were at the mercy of the weather with those little chicks. If the electricity went out, we could lose a whole batch.”

Where did the Swansons live? “We lived in the club house,” said Bob. “When I came, the barn was already a club house. Geroge Ruediger had it remodeled already. The back half of it is an apartment. Karen and I lived there for 30 years. Our kids were stacked up in a bedroom upstairs and there was a bedroom downstairs.”

Click here to continue Hunters’ Paradise.

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