The Lindner's Settle in East Gull Lake (Fall 2013 newsletter)

It’s the mid 1960’s . . . My brother Al Lindner had just returned from Vietnam and I, Ron Lindner with my family of six kids along with Al were living in Mahtomedi, MN (near White Bear Lake). We just got hit with the disappointment of our lives, having made a bid on a resort-type property in Northern Wisconsin (the Hayward region) where we were going to start a guide business along with a tackle company with the resort as a base of operations; but we were outbid. In a panic mode we struck out for Minnesota, thinking we might find our DREAM locale there.

From our base in Mahtomedi we scoured Northern Minnesota but could not find exactly what we were looking for (at the price we could afford). We spent the entire winter driving to and looking at just about every resort area in the state. We found a tempting one in the Alexandria area and another near Grand Rapids. Yet nothing looked right.

In April we were looking again in the Brainerd area, which we liked because of its proximity to the Twin Cities, located in the center of the State and, of course, it’s fishing waters suited us to a tee. Research showed us that in a 60-mile radius there were some 400 lakes, two major rivers and just about every kind of freshwater fish species one could wish for.

By this time we were fast running out of cash and we were digging into the money we had as a down payment for our dream. It was then (almost serendipity) that the Realtor told us of a home that had just been listed on Gull Lake. It was big, with multi-bedrooms and baths, and could house our whole clan; Al, me, wife Dolores and our six kids with one on the way.

It seemed that the Freemans, who were schoolteachers, had just retired and wanted to move south and move quickly. The house with six bedrooms and 3 baths, needed a lot of work, but it had 165’ of lake frontage and was selling for $19,500 (a bargain we were told). Our family had been on the move seemingly constantly for the past two years so we decided to put down stakes, stay for a year or so, get jobs and then restart our search. By this time we had already invented the Lindy Rig, it just wasn’t called this yet, and were making and selling a few of them (as well as some other lures). So we bought the house and moved in.

Dutch Cragun remembers the first time he met the Lindner brothers. “I was working around my resort and I happened to look over at the house that was owned by the Freemans (so I still thought) and saw these two shadowy forms through the window. So I went over there with a gun thinking they had intruders. Here were these two guys bent over a gas stove, melting lead and pouring it into molds to make sinkers. They invited me in, introduced themselves and when they heard who I was offered to be guides for the resort. They explained they were in the process of making and selling lures. I told them, ‘This will never work; you guys are wasting a lot of time and money.’ And Ron keeps reminding me of that, Al too. Anyway, we go back a long ways.”

We would print a bunch of posters and hang them up all over for our guide service and continue to make lures in the basement for the next year or so. The lure would become the Lindy Rig and sell in the multi-millions.

Ron Lindner, East Gull Lake resident

Ron and Dolores Lindner still live in this same house on Gull Lake almost 50 years later – and Dutch and Irma Cragun still own and operate Craguns Resort a few doors down.