Sherburne History Center Blog

Fishing holds a rich and extended history in Sherburne County.   The first resort in the county, Brown’s Hotel, in 1855 advertised Big Lake as a premier fishing spot. In the last 165 years, fishing remains an important sport and pastime in the county.   Stories abound of landing that great catch, that trophy fish.   Yet, a detail of the sport, not often discussed, concerns the creation of that most personal of items, the fishing outfit.    Walter Gohman, in his memoirs, writes of the fishing kit he devised with hard work and a little creativity.   “I made a fishing outfit by selecting a very special willow pole,” he wrote.   “I skinned the bark from this pole and treated it with oil.   I found a wooden fish line spool and fastened this the side of the pole.   I made a crank handle with a bolt and used screw eyes to guide the line.”   Gohman went on to swear by the effectiveness of his outfit.   “We caught many fish of all ...

Strawberries and west Sherburne County seemed synonymous for a number of years.   At the highpoint, the Becker Strawberry Days Festival solidified the connection.   The lesser known memoirs of Sherburne County residents remain equally important to connecting the local strawberry crop and the county.   A brief paragraph in the published memories of Walter Gohman bear out this important connection: I remember vividly a strawberry feed.   There was a strawberry patch that went the full length of the garden.   The Gohman farm had some of the most fertile soil in Minnesota and the strawberry patch produced a large crop of luscious berries.   A big strawberry feed was in order.   In the morning when they separated the milk, a large pitcher of cream was saved.   The pitcher or cream was placed on ice in the ice house.   A long table was set up by placing planks on saw horses in from of the long porch.   We were each given a bowl and told to p...