Resort life filled with memories and hard work

By Brian Hansel | The Daily Journal

Published Wednesday, July 9, 2008

DALTON — Bill O’Donnell’s memories of the resort his parents started and owned on Stalker Lake for 53 years are mixed. He remembers a lot of good times, and he remembers a lot of plain, hard work.

Today the retired postal worker is a manager of Norway Beach along with his wife, Gwen. Joe Stewart, Gwen’s son, has been helping them run the place this summer.

O’Donnell has known Stalker intimately for a good share of his life. As a kid, he fished the lake and knew several of the best spots. He no longer does much fishing but he still enjoys having the lake has his link with nature. He watches a giant, white pelican come in to fish off the dock every morning. He watches a family of Canada geese below the office.

Norway Beach is the last of the three mom and pop resorts that operated on the east shore of Stalker Lake. Green Gables has been closed for many years and Sleepy Hollow closed a few years ago. The new owners of the Norway Beach property intend to operate it as a Common Interest Community in the future.

Bill and Olga O’Donnell started Norway Beach before Bill Jr. was born. They bought their land from a farmer for $3,000 and started their resort in 1950. One of the first years they owned the place they decided to spend some time there in the winter in an old log house. It got so cold one night that a bucket of water froze on top of a fuel oil stove. That cooled their desire to visit the resort in the winter months.

Norway Beach (Norway was one of Olga’s nicknames) became a fixture on the lake over the decades that followed. The O’Donnells turned the everyday management of Norway Beach over to Olga’s sister, Agnes Benhardus, who died two years ago. Norway Beach boasted a store and booths. From the store, people could look down a long slope to the lake below. Because they sold pop and ice cream, the store was a very popular place.. During the summer, church picnics were held at Norway Beach.

“This place was full every Saturday and Sunday,” said Bill.

When his family operated their resort, some families would rent their cabins for 2-3 weeks at a time in the summer.

“We used to come up on the weekends and work here,” said Bill, who was born in Minneapolis. The O’Donnell’s moved to Norway Beach permanently in 1975 when Bill Sr. retired from Pittsburgh Paint and Glass.

Bill Jr. had a lot of chores around the resort. He was the guy who put the docks out in the spring, who brought the resort’s wood boats up on land to be sanded and painted, the guy who did the plumbing, who painted and shingled the cabins, who mowed the grass and who took out the garbage. O’Donnell can testify that a resort is a lot of work.

“You gotta catch on fast,” said O’Donnell with a grin.

He was not an electrician so that was handled by Agnes’ brother, Robert Hoff, an electrical contractor. The O’Donnells also got a lot of help from Milo Haagenson.

“He would come over and fix things if I couldn’t,” said O’Donnell.

The store is now closed and the long, sloping access to the lake has been seeded to prevent erosion. A house sits squarely atop the old softball field and picnic ground. The future of the property, which is under new ownership, is that of a Common Interest Community.