Peterson's Point on Presque Isle Lake

In the early 1900s, the Swedish Fishing Club of Chicago owned land at the end of Point Road in Presque Isle. Eventually it was sold and two brothers bought several lots of Sellstrom's Subdivision. The first vertical log cabins were built in the early 1920s, and eventually six houses would be built for the growing family. As of 2024, three homes remain in the family.

In the early 1900s, brothers Eric and Elof Peterson immigrated to Chicago from Sweden. Eager to find land similar to their homeland, they joined a Swedish Fishing Club that owned land on Presque Isle Lake. In those days, around 1920, it took them 17 hours to drive over gravel roads to make it from Chicago to Presque Isle. Eventually the club disbanded and the land was divided into several lots listed as Sellstrom's Subdivision. Eric Peterson bought the point that divides the bays from the "big lake," and Elof bought several lots east of his brothers, curving around into the bays.

Eric and Elof were both carpenters and used their skills to build vertical log cabins with vaulted ceilings using the resources around them to build their cabins. Elof built his in 1924 when there were about two dozen houses on the lake. In those days, the family would take daily trips across the bay to fetch spring water. They came up in the winter to cut ice from the lake and store it in the side of a hill lined in saw dust to have a place to keep things cold through the summer.

Family lore recalls the first outboard motor on the lake coming up from Chicago - a twin cylindered Lockwood on a large, flat-bottomed boat, big enough to hold a string band. Story goes they would go out in the lake and play instruments. Legend says an old piano was sunk in the bays at one point.

Eric's cabin was built at what is now 7710 Point Road. The land is privately owned, and as of 2024, the cabin is still standing, though not inhabitable.

The original log cabin that Elof built at 7726 Point Road. It was sold to his son Bill who added another house on the property. Eventually his son Ralph bought it and remodeled the house Bill added. Every year the family would have to stuff the spaces between the vertical logs with moss, and eventually it was replaced with concrete. Younger kids were sent crawling under the floors to run wires when electricity came to the Northwoods. Eventually a bathroom replaced the outhouse. Unfortunately, the original cabin was showing it's age and could no longer be preserved. It was torn down in 2020 and an updated cabin was built in the same spot.

Elof married Edith and had seven children. When they married and had kids of their own, Elof built another cabin for himself and Edith on the next lot over (7730 Point Road). That red cabin sitting on a peninsula is still there, now owned by some of Elof's great-grandchildren.

Elof's son Mel wanted to build a house, so in 1965 Elof sold him the land at 7720 Point Road. That house was sold in 2012.

The last house built in the Peterson Family was at 7734 Point Road, a home built for Elof's daughter Eleanor and her husband Jim Bjorkman. That was sold in 2023.

All of these homes are on private property, but can be viewed by boat on Presque Isle Lake. From the Presque Isle Boat Launch off of Bay View Road, go south along the shore line. When you reach the end of the peninsula and have to turn east around the bull rushes, you'll be rounding Eric's property. Next comes Mel's, then Bill's. Elof's original cabin was at the top of the stairs behind the boat house, and his second house was on the peninsula that sticks out as you go into the bay. Once you get past the no wake buoy, you'll be near where Eleanor's house was built at the top of the hill.

Peterson, William Elof. "Remembering." Lakeland Times January 1st, 2005. .