Sachs, Lamont & Pearl (by Pam Sachs)

Sachs Family History

By Pam Sachs

The Sachs family which included “Monty” Pearl, Lamont Jr., Pam and Sandy moved to East Gull Lake in the middle of winter, 1958.    Lamont and Pearl moved to the Brainerd Area when they first married, settling in Crosby-Ironton. 

Monty had been running a successful trucking business that involved brokering grain and hauling it to Duluth and the Twin Cities for shipment. A rather drastic move that saw Monty buy a large fleet of refrigerated freight trucks from another trucker in the Crosby area did not work out well.  The failure of that move, along with a serious accident that almost resulted in his death, caused him to sell everything he had to become a resident of East Gull Lake.  However, he had a considerable amount of debt that he wanted to repay, so he took a look at the 80 acres and the house on Gull Lake that he purchased from Rudy Rudbeck and decided to try and develop the property. 

He made one other major decision at the same time, giving in to his daughter Pam’s request to have a horse “now that they lived in the country.”  He bought two and brought them home.  The house on Green Gables Road which was located next to the big “rock” that every boater needed to be aware of when out on Gull Lake, was soon sold and the family moved off the lake to the farm.  When people kept stopping and asking to rent the horses, Monty decided to start a Riding Stable in order to provide needed income.  He alreadyhad two horses and rounded up a few more by leasing them from some neighbors and Monty’s Riding Stable was born 1n 1959.  Son Lamont Jr. and daughter Pam were the stable hands and everyone including Sandy did chores like haying. 

Sandy was very fortunate as she had the opportunity to attend the East Gull Lake Country School.  Her basic education there allowed her to go on and become a National Merit Scholarship finalist, making her eligible for a college scholarship.  Pam learned everything she needed to know about horses the hard way and continued her love of the animals.  She attended college and came home to teach and help out her parents who were being forced to give up all the land including their home.  There have been horses by “The Channel” for well over 50 years.

The Channel was modeled on the Ginny Simms developments that had sprung up in places like Breezy Point.  Monty gathered up a partner, John Burgstaler, who owned the Deep Rock Station in Ironton where he had done a considerable amount of business and got the last permit in the State of Minnesota to alter shoreline. 

In l961 a local heavy equipment owner, Clifford Pickar, arranged to dig the first part of the channel in from the lake.  It took 85 loads of dirt to get the dragline through the swamp and out to the main lake.  The channel was “L” shaped and the plan was to make it “U” shaped eventually. The original cost for digging the channel was $52,000. The wooden bridge was built, the area was platted, and Pearl Road was created. 

Another partner, Harold Johnson, got involved.  Harold was a wealthy farmer from Appleton,  Monty’s home town.  Monty had hauled many a load of grain from the Johnson farm.  Harold actually moved to Brainerd and built the home that is on the corner of the channel.  John lived there also for a time and built the original house that was next door.  That house burned after Rollie Kollodge and his family moved in and Mary now lives in a different house at the same spot.  Harold lived to be almost 100 years old and after his death the whole area was sold by Mr. Burgstaler  to several different people. 

The Channel did not become a successful development, according to Chuck Steinbauer who was the attorney of record, because of poor timing.  Before it could be successfully promoted and sold, the zoning and building regulations changed and it was no longer possible to sell 50 foot lots.  As of today, it will continue being difficult to “develop” because it is old river bottom with the water table very close to the surface. 

Both Lamont and Pearl died of cancer in the early 70’s.  Pam continued to live in East Gull Lake and utilize the channel property for the horses as per the original agreement made between the partners. Even though the family only retained a small portion of the original 80 acres, that agreement stated the property could be used for the horses until it was developed.   She retired from teaching school in Motley for 32 years and is very active volunteering at Confidence Learning Center and with the Brainerd Area Sertoma Club.  The channel continues to be a hot spot in the spring where many fishermen who don’t have boats and even some that do come on out to try their luck. 

Monty was truly a “character” of East Gull Lake.  He first saw the area when he was delivering meat to the old Gull Lake Resort that was a “hotel” rather than housekeeping cabins.  The photo included with this story is the only picture of dad on a horse.  It is very special since it was taken just a few weeks before he died.  My nieces were visiting and Grandpa was helping get the horses ready.  His old horse “Choya”, a true kid horse,  was saddled.  I wanted to take some pictures but my good camera was broken so I dug out the old Kodak Brownie that had been our family camera when I was growing up and bought some film for it.  The camera actually had what turned out to be 20 year old film in it and this photo was taken with that film.    I persuaded dad to get on the horse so she could use up the film instead of wasting it and thus took a perfect “last” photo of the man who put his initial (L) on the map of East Gull Lake.

Pam Sachs