Nelson, Cully, Lydia, Fred, Karla; Cully's Resort (By Karla Nelson)
Nelson, Cully, Lydia, Fred, Karla
(Cully’s Resort: 1953-1967 by Karla (Nelson) Nelson)
My brother, Fred, and I have awesome memories of our parents’ “Ma and Pa” Resort on Gull Lake!
Our dad, Cully Nelson, met with the resort’s original owner, Bill McNaughten, at a friendly bar in Brainerd on a Friday in 1953. Bill was planning to list the resort with a realtor the following Monday. With a “dollar down and a handshake” dad purchased our Cully’s Resort!
My mom, Lydia, was working at our Tavern on Oak Street (Cully’s Inn) when Bill McNaughten walked in there later that same Friday.
Mom said, “Billy, do you still have that nice little resort on Gull Lake?”
Billy replied, “No, Lydia, I just sold it to your husband!” After the initial shock, mom was as thrilled as we were: then the work began!
Our humble resort consisted of one Tavern/Lodge/Living Quarters building and four very definite “fixer-upper” cabins with no electricity or inside plumbing. We worked hard to modernize and we built two more cabins and a central shower.
Cully’s Resort brochure listed the following amenities: no hills to climb ~ inner spring mattresses ~ abundant walleye fishing ~ supervised play daily (that was me babysitting for 25 cents an hour) ~ playground (one swing) ~ recreation room (pool table and juke box) ~ fishing guides (my dad and brother). We loved mom’s enthusiastic embellishments!
The cabins rented for $30 to $50 a week. When we sold, our most expensive cabin was our “new” cabin with a shower and it rented for $70 a week: Gull Lake in 1967!
We enjoyed fourteen fabulous, fun, friends making, forever in our hearts years at Cully’s A-Go-Go (my nick name for our resort) and were sad when it became Cully’s A-Went-Went! It was sold in 1967 to George and Eleanore Gmeinder and became part of Gull Lake Resort. We love what they did with the addition of our resort to their already existing business in a prime location and we’re so honored to be part of the legacy.
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The above was written by Karla (Nelson) Nelson, August 2016. When she met with history committee members, she embellished her story by sharing additional memories and history:
Back then, area resort owners would get together after the busy seasons ended. From the time the Nelson family purchased the resort until the day they sold it, they spent every single seasonal day on site except for 4 in late August of 1967. Fred got married and the family left to share in that celebration. Neighbors Gerhard (Gay) and Lorraine Olsen, who owned Brainerd Cleaners and Laundry where the resort linens were laundered weekly, came from around the bend of Government Point where they lived in Pike Bay to be caretakers that weekend.
Karla recalls painting the inside of cabins every spring, using whatever colors were available wholesale at the time. Ice was cut from the lake in the winter and stored in sawdust to be used in cabin iceboxes since there was no electricity. Their resort had a player piano, and during 'happy hour' beers could be purchased for $1 and soda pop for 10 cents. Their property included one acre of river frontage and they could walk across the river. Billy McNaughten lived on the other side near the Corps of Engineers. He had a pink boat and a 3 legged dog.
After graduating with the class of 1962 from Washington HS in Brainerd, Karla attended Beauty College in St. Cloud and was employed for awhile as a beautician at Madden’s. She boated across the lake to work during those summers. Eventually she returned to school and has since retired from teaching in the ISD 181 School System.
In 1975, Karla married Lee Nelson, and the two settled shortly after in a home near the shores of Love Lake where they still reside today. They have an adult son, Michael married to Angie who have two boys Ryan and James. Their daughter, Marci, and son-in-law Andy Segner have twins, Jimmy and Julia.
(Addendum comments by history editor Linda Olsen Engel.)