Don Johnson Letters and Journals
Norway (Hvoslef) Island
Part 14

[Also in the February letter to Bill Welsh, a progress report on the island project.]
About the financial end of it. As I think I told you in my last letter, the price was $5000 on time or $4500 cash. The time proposition called for $1500 down and a 6% interest on the unpaid balance. When we talked it over with Carl Harrison and Doctor Oliver, they decided that it would be a great saving for us all and a not too heavy drain on themselves if they put up the cash. They did and we are to pay them 2% interest. I get a lump in my throat when I think of it.
Now as to our progress as far as improvements are concerned. We have had the toughest winter in years with no travel by car on the ice since the middle of January. It is a 2 1⁄2 mile hike on snowshoes between the two places so we do five miles a day with out doing anything that is of permanent value. (Unless you count the toughening up we are getting). We are practically thru building the ice house, all of logs, and have one cabin well on its way. In addition to that we have done a couple of extra ice jobs and made $90 which will go a long ways toward paying for the lumber, windows, screen, etc. on one cabin. In a way we feel like we have done a lot and then again, we feel like we could have done more. One of our chief troubles lies in the fact that we haven’t had enough experience with this kind of work. When Vance and I were building the sailboat at camp he once said that we should name it “Stand-and-look” because we did that a lot more than we actually worked. That is pretty much true now, altho it seems like we are becoming a little proficient. It will be interesting to see how much faster we make the second cabin.
The Hvoslefs believed in getting the best of everything so the place is really well equipped. We certainly don’t have to spend much on the things that are here. Besides the tools, boats, furniture, etc. there are a number of things that are truly collector’s items. One of these is an old Edison phonograph which plays the cylinder type records. There are three boxes of records, covering a wide range of selections, but the ones we really get a kick out of are three by Harry Lauder. You would appreciate them and I hope it won’t be too long before you will.
[Don wrote to the Hvoslefs in February with reassurances that the Johnsons were treating the island with the kind of care the Hvoslefs had demonstrated over the years.]
You are probably wondering what we are doing to the island now that it is ours. First of all, be assured that we have no intention of mutilating it in any way. Whatever building we do will be in keeping with the natural surroundings. So far we have built an ice house and one guest cabin is well on its way. The ice house is entirely of logs and is alongside the root house where you had that tall pile of wood. We didn’t cut a single tree down on the site. I even put the door over in one corner to save a birch that otherwise would have been in the way. The guest cabin is on the west shore. There is an opening in the trees close by two large granite boulders. The largest tree on the island – a white pine – stands directly behind it. We didn’t have to cut down a tree there either.

[The following is from an oral history recorded by Voyageurs National Park in August of 1976. This was Don speaking.]
Dr. Hvoslef bought this island in 1925 and built the home where we now live, in 1927. He was an M.D. with his training in Oslo, Norway, and then he came to Minneapolis and practiced at the Deaconess Hospital for many years, but he had a severe case of asthma and used to come to Rainy Lake to spent the summers. Way back in the early days, 1912, 1915, that period, but after he built the house here, he used to spend all his summers here, and he was a very good friend of our whole family. Our kids used to come over here and work for him all the time. We got to know him real well.
I think I should tell you about his relationship, what he thought of my wife, Layna. One night we were over here for dinner and he looked at Layna and said, “Layna, you remind me of the ponies we used to have up in Norway. They were so strong, so healthy, and we used to keep them for the English tourists. They used to ride them up and down the mountain.” He realized he had gone a little bit too far when he said that, and he said, “Yeah, but they were pretty, too.”
By the fall of 1944, we had decided we couldn’t stand the Dahlbergs any longer, and we were going to take off on our own. As I said before, one of the guests had promised us a thousand dollars of business so we could run a firm basis, financially, to start a resort. This Hvoslef Island that we acquired is a mile and a half from the Dahlberg’s place.
A lot of people like to talk about their hardship and we’re no exception, but that winter between ’44 and ’45, our daily schedule would be something like this. I would get up in the morning and build a fire. Shortly after, Layna would get up, we’d have breakfast, walk on snowshoes a mile and a half over to our new property. The fall before, we had cut enough logs to build a couple of cabins and also an ice house so we had the materials on hand. We’d walk over in the morning, work all day on our cabins, and then walk back at night and repeat the process. One time the caretaker at French’s place was gone downtown and was sick for a period of about two weeks. At that particular period, I’d get up, build a fire, walk over a mile and half to his place, build his fire in his furnace, come back home, have breakfast, walk over to our island, work all day, go home, have supper. After supper, walk over and keep the fire going, so I was walking a total of 15 miles a day, not counting the work we did.
When I say “we”, I should make it clear that at that time, we had our three, we call it our first family, Buck, Byrne and Sally, and these kids were all willing and able to help. Altho they stayed in school, they boarded out and lived in town in the winter and went to school. On weekends they’d be home, and would pitch in, peeling logs and carrying rock, and things of that nature. There’s no question but that we never could have built what we did without the help of these kids. It was really a family affair. When we finally did get in business, they were a lot of help. The two boys guided and Sally, who was about 12 or 13 years old, helped in the kitchen. By the time she was 14, she was head cook.

[From Don Johnson interview with Jim Kimball, Minneapolis Tribune, July 27, 1975.]
Dr. Jacob Hvoslef, M.D., was an old school Norwegian and great admirer of Rainy Lake and its islands. More than 50 years ago, when he could have bought practically any island on the lake, he searched for just the right one, made his choice and bought it for $100. Most islands in that part of the lake run east and west - Norway Island north and south. According to his plan, the doctor built his home in the narrow south portion of the island with an excellent view of both sunrises and sunset. Each side of the island has a good harbor so boats can always be protected from storms, and the north end is wild and beautiful.
By 1945, after enjoying his island for 20 years, the doctor realized he would have to sell, and Don and Layna were eager to have their own home and build their own resort.
“The doctor has been dead for many years,” Don continued, “but more and more as I work and live on this island I feel the old man is with me. As I build something new or make some change I wonder - would the doctor approve of this? One thing for sure. Every time I look out of that window and see a sunset I am grateful to him for finding this island and for selling it to us. We named it Norway Island, partly because of the Norway pines but mostly out of respect for the old doctor, even if he didn’t like Swedes.”