Imagine buying 325 acres — over one mile of Lake Michigan shoreline — for $2,000. Carleton and Winifred Vail did just that in 1928. After roaming their newly purchased property they christened it Björklunden vid Sjön (in Norwegian, "birch forest by the water") after all the beautiful white birch trees that dot the shoreline.
Carleton, born in Highland Park, Illinois, in 1881, was a nationally known underwriter and the head of a Chicago-based insurance company. Winifred Case, born in 1887, was the daughter of a minister. They were married c. 1907, and their first child, Carleton M. Vail, Jr., was born in 1908.
Carleton, Jr., went on to become one of the first school psychologists/counselors, before and after serving in World War II. He was a popular student-athlete at Lake Forest Academy and Dartmouth and met his French bride, Andrée, while playing tennis at a United Nations function in New York City. They were married in 1950 and lived on Long Island. Today they live in California, although Carl unfortunately suffers from Alzheimer's and will no longer be returning to Björklunden, where he has attended seminars in the past.
Carleton and Winifred's second child, Edith, was born in 1912. After attending Smith College, she was a music teacher in New York City and died, without ever marrying, in 1973.
The Vail family had vacationed in Door County for many years and, in fact, had a number of summer homes on the shore in Ephraim (and still do today). Carleton and Winifred, however, decided to venture east and found their dream vacation spot in Baileys Harbor. They built the wonderful four-bedroom lodge, as well as the guest house/studio, in 1929 and finished the only year-round residence on the property, the caretaker's stabbur, in 1931.
Tragically, one rainy Saturday afternoon in October, 1932, Carleton was killed in a car accident near Institute, about 15 miles from Björklunden. Shortly thereafter, Winifred spent a year traveling in Europe, trying to put the tragedy behind her. During her travels, she observed a stave church in Lillehammer, Norway, and decided it would be most appropriate to some day build one herself at Björklunden. Perhaps this is most fitting — through the death of her first husband, Winifred found the inspiration for her dream of a "Sanctuary of Peace."
Follow the links to the left for more chapters in the history of Björklunden vid Sjön, originally published in The Boynton Society Newsletter.