I visited Happy Landing Lodge several times in the late 90's and early 2000s, before the last owner took over. Barb and Geordi (sp) owned it when I visited with their son, Rob, and daughter, Riley, helping them run the place. It was a fantastic place to visit while they owned it. Then around 2002 or 2003 a man (Matt) from Minnesota, Grand Rapids area I believe, took over. He had been caught on trail camera stealing from neighboring cabins in the dead of Winter which I believe led to some legal problems for him re-entering Canada. I think it was the following Winter when the main lodge mysteriously burned down. I have nothing but great memories of the place, very sad to see it in this condition. I've stayed in at least one of the cabins they walked into. I will be visiting the area (Yoke Lake) in June, I might just stop by and check it out.
Yea it’s a shame what happened there. Not too far to get into from where you’re going, pretty easy walk really worth checking out for some old memories!
I just got back from our yearly trip to pipestone. We obviously did not stay there but another lodge on the lake. We used to stay at Happy Landing in the mid 90's through the early 2000's. We were very sad to hear that the main lodge burned down because it was a very beautiful lodge and the staff was great. The first Cabin is the one we always stayed in when we were there. Thanks for the video it brings back some great memories.
Some background for everyone: The camp was built up and ran extremely well by the Stahn family. They sold it and the place began to trend down (I think there actually might have been 2 owners in between them and the government). When the main lodge burnt it was never rebuilt and the camp was likely on its way out anyway by then due to various reasons. He eventually let it go back to the government for tax reasons. Anything of real value disappeared not long after that. In fact since the gov takeover 2 cabins have not so mysteriously ended up on other lots on Pipestone Lake. At this point it is essentially a worthless camp on a semi decent chunk of property. (it is bordering Pipestone and Yoke if anyone wants to Google Earth it). The gov tried selling it for approx 8 times what it is worth and I'm sure can see how that turned out. The cost of teardown far exceeds the value of the lot by now. As it turns out the cabin takers actually ended up doing the gov a favor by reducing the garbage cabins by 2. I'm sure if you a Google search you can find what it looked like in its hayday (Happy Landing Lodge Pipestone)
I can assure you it did not "trend down" after Larry Stahn sold it to my family, we expanded the resort, upgraded everything from boats, to generators, docks and cabins. The slide started soon after we sold it, and I challenge you to find one person to substantiate your claim of it going "downhill" after we purchased it.
@@robroy4074 Apologies. I was unsure of how many owners there were between (I did note that thought there were multiple owners between but for sure when I reread it it does look like I'm saying that the immediate next owners were an issue). Sorry for the inaccurate info.
Thank you! Will be some stuff coming out from Emily up in northern Saskatchewan soon and I have a tour of some old gold mining history in the area in the works right now
I was the second owner of Winchester Lodge it was purchased by Dr.Winchester in 1905- was a lumber camp originally - I restored many buildings then destroyed just as many still known as cottage north
After watching the video I was interested in trying to find more information and photos on the Lodge. My search on the internet found the website that has the same still photos you show in your video. I was able to correspond with him the last few days after I sent him the link to the video. He was very knowledgeable on some of the history of the lodge as he told me his father started going there in the 1960's. According to him, Emily was correct in mentioning that the Gazebo was where the fish fry's took place and the big patio deck was where many would stand around and visit telling fish stories and so forth. So sad to see a place like this fall into this state of disrepair.
It’s even worse now unfortunately . There’s a canoe company that their groups travel through the lodge on their portage and the kids seem to like to destroy the place every time they go through smashing windows and breaking whatever they can
@@darylgilbertoutdoorsevery summer the b'nai brith (spelling in sure) groups would have 2 groups of canoers utilize the portage, lol as lame as it is to say, after 3 months on the water, we looked forward to their appearance as it gave us a day to talk to someone other than ourselves and guests 😂
That lodge must have been something special in it's day! I wonder why it didn't get rebuilt after the fire? Kinda sad seeing someone's dream business abandoned like this. I can imagine the good times & memories made there. Thanks for showing it to us!! Congrat's; The wait is over - The border is open as of this morning!! Game-on this fall!!
I heard something along the lines of insurance problems but not sure the real story. Seemed like a nice place, it's very unfortunate! Hopefully it stays open and we will see you soon enough in the duck blind!
I still go to a friend's Lodge on the Manitoba Ontario border 70 years old and same scenario running out of clients and money is on its last legs ,government lease so probably can't sell it for nothing. it's a shame but there's lots of them all over the North. Cool video spent most of my life in some Fishing lodges like this
The old Happy Landing Lodge on Pipestone. Fun fact....the owner of the lodge during the "mysterious" fire also owned Camp Manitou on the Lower Manitou. Not soon after the fire that lodge also went bankrupt. That area is now owned by the Manitou Weather Station. Lots of rumors swirling around , but all of them revolve around money issues.
Breaks my heart to see this someone’s dreams that didn’t turn out the way they hoped. Looks like at one time this was quite a resort. Wish they could’ve made a go of it.
They are the ones who actually own it now and priced it way out of reality so nobody would touch it when it was salvageable. So we can blame them for another thing
There is zero pollution of any substance on Pipestone. It is a spring fed lake that many of us drink right of with zero filtering at all. You can see 35 feet down and it tests very well.
This was my home for 15 years, I'm the Rob mentioned in one of the comments. I'm sitting here crying over the loss of all the hard work my family and friends put into this jewel. So many treasured experiences, not only ours, but of guests who would up up yearly if not more. The newest cabin you see there on the top of the hill was number 7. My father, friends and I built that one summer with lumber that we logged and milled ourselves. To see what was at one time such a gorgeous location and home to so many memories is heartbreaking. Thank you so much for this video, and your others, being able to pinpoint where you're fishing (and where i would be 😉) brings back so many memories. If you have any questions regarding the history, or stories of any of the surrounding lakes please don't hesitate to send me a message. Im hoping to make it back up there next summer and would love the chance to say hi, and maybe even trade some tips. Yoke lake is still my favorite lake ever, and since then I have fished extensively over NWO. Keep your lines tight, ROB
There is a similar place West of Thunder Bay and East of International Falls on main trans-Canada hwy. Common layout for many old fishing camps up there. Trying to be vague as I don't know the status of it and haven't been there in years. Best times I ever had in life. Generaly they had a small store in the main bldg and you could buy your permits there to fish too. Also milk, beer, stamps, postcards, etc. They'd have a loop about for boats and cars. A fish cleaning shack, and they would nightly take the fish scraps across lake with trash and burn in a barrel with gas and logs. Would love to have a place like this and run it. Water was from a tube to lake on West end always. Some are near railroads so you could rail-portage to camps. Some offered floatplane service too. At least doc pickups for boats/planes. Moose used to wonder in camp and they would take them on spotmfor meat for all Winter. Fun stuff! Ah the memories!
I’m like 4-5 videos in, and I love your content! I would love to see you find an abandoned resort, buy it and rebuild it… but I’m sure that’s what most of us wish we could do 😂
Yup we were up there all year long with the exception of the sport show circuit. Winter time we would cut ice roads and bring in all the gas and propane for the season as well as any larger building materials we could. Lol we even brought in my sister's piano over the ice road one year. That was not a fun item to unload believe me.
I believe it was for sale for awhile but they were asking an extremely high price that everyone knew wasn't worth it with the work that was needed. Ive heard rumours of the government going to burn it down now in a controlled burn.
It is extremely for sale. Just contact the MNR. I'd guess if you spend 3/4 of a million you'll have it cleaned up enough to start building new buildings (I've done camps like this but wont quote on this job due to its distance bringing equip in) . Not sure why you wouldn't just by land near it for a small fraction though. This place is done and has made the feds look very stupid when they had multiple fair offers while it was still save able.
