ISLE ROYALE FAMILIES & FRIENDS MEETING

Saturday, January 31, 2004

This year we will be meeting at the  located at 1975 Rahncliff Ct.  Eagan MN, telephone (651)686-4605. The business meeting will begin at 3pm. At 6pm we will have a social hour, and at 7pm we begin dinner followed be a presentation. We anticipate the cost of the dinner to be in the $30.00 per person range.  For those of us staying at the hotel, the Hilton is offering a $69.00 per night rate. I have stayed at this  hotel and it offers some great amenities including a pool, free high speed internet connection, free transportation to and from the airport and Mall of America. Make your reservations early as there are a limited number of rooms available to our group at this rate.

I plan to come with my kids Matthew and Jenna, and I would really enjoy seeing a great turn out of young people at both the meeting and dinner. This is an opportunity to for kids and young adults to gather for the first time off the island, and begin to nurture life long connections away from the island based on the common history and heritage that we share. Like last year, we plan to have an informal get together and dinner on Friday January 30th. More details to follow. We had a great turn out last winter, but I hope we can get an even larger group this year. As most of you know, next summer may mark the end of up to 6 generations of history for the Johns, Eckel's, Sivertson's (Enar & Betty Storm) and Barnum's on Isle Royale if NPS does not believe this group is able to provide the benefits to Isle Royale that we are promising. Your participation in our meeting is the single most important thing you can do to support this organization and show NPS that we are serious and able in what we are doing.

As you know, planning this event is a great deal of work. Please help us by making  your reservation for dinner by emailing or calling me as early as possible, but no later than January 16th.

Kind Regards,
David C. Barnum
(847)639-2446

David Stokes, Stuart Sivertson and I went up to Washington Island in early October to do film some of the activities at  the last active commercial fishing operation on Isle Royale. David was able to get some great film of Enar Strom and Milford Johnson lifting and dressing fish. His filming followed the fish from net to fish house to Voyageur ll to the truck to Duluth and eventually right into the restaurant. David was able to use some of his film to do a story on the fishing which ran on KDLH in November. I will soon have the feed from this program on this site so that we can all see it. We were graciously hosted for a wonderful fish dinner by Enar and Betty.

As mentioned in earlier updates we plan to do more filming and interviewing on the island  next summer. This project is still very much a work in progress, but we hope to have a finished product by the summer of 2005.

We have incorporated in the state of Minnesota and have opened a checking account in the name of Isle Royale Families & Friends Ass. at Harris Bank and Trust. Membership contributions are currently not tax deductible, but we plan to apply for 5013c status soon. I want to thank everyone that has made their membership contributions to IRFFA. We have raised $1800 so far. That's a great start. Folks, I have to tell those of you sitting on the fence, deciding whether to send us a hundred bucks, please know that your contribution is absolutely needed to keep this organization and endeavor alive.  If maintaining this history, heritage and culture is important to you, please send us something, even if it is not the entire $100.  It will mean more  than you can possibly imagine. Send your membership contribution of $100 to:

                                                                                    IRFFA
                                                                                    c/o David C. Barnum
                                                                                    250 Briargate Rd.
                                                                                    Cary, IL 60013-2520

                              Our Mission Statement

To continue the over 100-year presence of family heritage, culture and rich human tradition on Isle Royale; to assure the preservation of historic family dwellings; to enhance the experience of NPS staff and Park visitors by serving as authentic links to Isle Royale's rich human history.

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Last modified: June 28, 2007