Series: Edward A. McMurray, Jr.'s Photo Album

Case Lake, Minnesota, section of the photo album of Edward A. McMurray, Jr., completed in late 1940s. Photos probably from about 1939 estimated from other pictures on the same page. Captions added by Ed McMurray. (*Click to enlarge.*)

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

The things we do with our kids when they are young can become lifelong interests, and they will always carry the sweetness of having done them first with mom and/or dad. Passing those hobbies and passions along to the next generation adds to the richness of family and traditions in our lives.

Cass Lake, Minnesota, from the photo album of Edward A. McMurray, Jr., completed in late 1940s. Photos probably from about 1939. (*Click to enlarge.*)

Fishing at Cass Lake, Minnesota is one of those family traditions, and about 475 miles from Newton, Iowa, where the McMurrays lived. That was at least an 8 hour drive, plus one needs to add in stops. Of course, we must forget about frequent superhighway rest stops, fast food joints, and DVD players or satellite radio- none of those existed back in the 1930s.

(Newton, Iowa, is approximately under the “A” in “Iowa.”)

Fast food joints did not really exist even years later when Ed McMurray, Jr. took his own family north to Big Lake, Minnesota, which is about 3 miles NW of Cass Lake as the crow flies, or about 20 miles to drive. There were some hamburger joints but they weren’t really affordable and didn’t work with a car full of kids and a dog. So in the 1960s, families travelled as they had in the 30s, only with faster and more roomy vehicles, like station wagons. Comic books and coloring books (watch out for melting crayons in the car!) kept kids occupied in the days before DVD players for those in the back seat. Families packed picnic lunches of cold fried chicken, potato salad and coleslaw, American cheese sandwiches or the old stand-by for kids, peanut butter and jelly; had drinks like iced tea or in the 60s, Kool-Aid, from a big thermos; and Zero brand candy bars for a snack- those did not melt in the midwest summer heat with no air conditioning in the car. Small parks with playground equipment now considered dangerous were a way for kids to run off some steam before getting back into the car for more hours on the two-lane road, passing trucks and farm equipment when one could finally be in the clear. Bathroom stops were at old gas stations with the roller-style linen towels hanging in a box on the wall (you had to hope there was still some clean towel left!), and many families carried their own ‘trip extenders’ or stopped in the woods somewhere. A journey in the 1960s was not much different than that of the 30s, and heading north to the wilds of Minnesota with his young family must have brought back some great memories to Ed McMurray, Jr. of the same trip with his father and grandfather, as well as other family members.

(Case Lake is the big lake just NE of Pike Bay- not sure why the name does not show up on the embedded map.)

Dr. Edward A. McMurray, Sr., with his father, William Elmer McMurray, fondly known as “Lala.” Taken at Cass Lake, Minnesota, in the late 1930s. (*Click to enlarge*.)

Sadly these pictures don’t show faces very well. It would be interesting to know when the family began going to Cass Lake- had Will McMurray taken his own sons, Edward A. McMurray, Sr., and Herbert McMurray, and maybe his daughter Maude “Midge” McMurray to the lake when they were young?

Probably Dr. Edward A. McMurray and his wife, Elna Mae (Kenner) McMurray, and Edward’s father, William Elmer McMurray, in a boat at Cass Lake, Minnesota, circa 1939; from Edward A. McMurray, Jr.’s photo album. (*Click to enlarge*.)

The captions Ed wrote when he put this album together add so much to the photos.

Dr. Edward A. McMurray, Sr., and others at Cass Lake, Minnesota, late 1930s. From Edward A. McMurray, Jr.’s photo album. (*Click to enlarge.*)

Notes, Sources, and References:

Edward A. McMurray, Jr.’s photo album, compiled in the late 1940s.
Zero candy bar– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZERO_bar
Take a look at the map in GoogleMaps and you will be able to see that Cass Lake is downstream from the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca. One can still walk across the Mississippi River there! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Itasca

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Sentimental Sunday: Fishing with Dad and Grandpa McMurray at Cass Lake, Minnesota

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