Some Things Change, One Thing Doesn’t

Things have certainly changed in the last 140+ years at Bonnie Beach Resort.

It all started when Ebenezer E. Corliss purchased the property on the north shore of Clitherall Lake back in the 1870’s.   By the 1880’s the property was a resort named Camp Corliss and was fully operational.  Ownership changed after 27 years and Eben sold to Tony and Emma Marheine in 1909.  

From 1910 to 1942 meals were served in the dining room. The camp was well known for their family style chicken dinners every Sunday during the summer, where guests were called in by the dinner bell.  Due to war efforts in 1942 things changed, and the dining room was closed and the dinner bell was melted down.  

In 1946 Emma sold Camp Corliss to Mr. and Mrs. Walter Miller who brought more change, re-naming the establishment to Bonnie Beach Resort after their daughter. Bernice and Charles Merten bought the resort in 1948 from the Miller’s and operated the resort until 1972. Fred Crow ran the resort for two years, then sold to Shirley and Dick Peterson who ran the resort for 14 years, and sold to Deb and Doug Baker in 1988.  Through all those years, fires, war, and additions continued to change the shape of the resort.

In 1996 my parents, Pat and Ron Sugden were ready for a change and literally sold the farm in Hallock, MN and bought the resort from the Bakers.  My life certainly changed that winter of 1995 when my sister Tara, was home from college and they gave me the final discussion to pack up and I would finish my last two years of high school at a new school, in a new town.  It turns out that the change was a big one.  After finishing those two years of high school, I went onto college, had a career in fashion retail, stayed connected with the dock boy, Justin Johnson, married the dock boy, started a family, and moved back to Otter Tail County to join my parents again at Bonnie Beach Resort. 

And change remains, as we continue to rebuild the resort.  Starting in fall 2012 3 cabins were taken down and my parents began building.  The cabins now have bigger beds, air conditioning, and dishwashers.  Certainly a change from the days of Mr. Corliss.

But there is one thing that doesn’t change.  The lake.  The sheer beauty of 13 feet of clarity that amazes us every spring the ice goes off.  And the excitement you can feel by watching a child emerge from their car after their journey and within minutes is submerged in the water.  You wonder if they wore their swimsuit the whole trip.  Or the excitement from a grown adult entering a fish into the catch and release contest.  So as things change the lake and resort tradition doesn’t and as was once described in Emma Marheine’s brochure from the 1930’s……………… “And for every member of a family, there is fun.”

Megan Johnson-Bonnie Beach Resort