Just off season we could not go inside, we walked around it, posed by it and looked at the online picture of the inside and discussed what it might have been like.
In 1880, the Pioneer Schoolhouse was built. It was only half the size of the building that is standing today. Cordelia Burt was the first teacher in this school. She was paid $7 per week. Miss Burt had 33 students in grades 1 through 8. By the 1920s and 1930s, there were 45 to 68 students enrolled at the schoolhouse.
The Goodletson Cabin was built approximately in 1855 on Eagle Island (now Horseshoe Island) by Norwegian immigrant Thomas Goodletson and his family. It was skidded across the ice in the 1860s to the foot of the bay near where the Ephraim Condominiums are now located. Thomas and his wife Kjesten had nine children.
Many early meetings of the Bethany Lutheran Church were held in the cabin before the church was built in the 1880s. The Bethany Ladies Aid was founded in the cabin, and Mrs. Goodletson was the first treasurer. The Goodletson family lived in the cabin until the late 1800s. read more