MINNESOTA'S ISLAND PARADISE
Ludlow's Island Resort offers a lifetime's worth of memories.

It was a totally unplanned trip, precipitated by someone's last-minute cancellation and a call from our pal Mark Ludlow. "Bring some friends!" Mark said.

So, following a quick couple of calls of our own, my wife, Jan, and I picked up our friends Harrison and Molly Fraker after a dance performance at Northrop Auditorium late one Friday night in September. (The Frakers changed from formal clothes to more casual duds in our back seat.) Near midnight we stopped at Hinckley for petrol and baked goods, and by the time we passed Moose Lake the northern lights were dancing on the horizon. At Cook, north of Duluth, we left the highway and followed, the signs to Lake Vermilion.

It was 2:30 a.m. when we arrived. A pea-soup fog had settled on the big lake and rose to greet us as we proceeded to the dock. Attached to the old crank phone we would normally use to hail the dock boy was a note with instructions: "Take the fishing boat with the basket of wine, cheese, and flashlight. You are in Bayside cabin on the north shore. I'll see you in the morning when I bring over the breakfast." It was signed, "Mark."

That visit -- decades ago now -- has been just one of the many highlights in my nearly forty-year relationship with the Ludlow's and their lovely island resort. Jan and I first met Mark Ludlow in the early 1960s when we were all students at the University of Minnesota. Mesmerized by Mark's tales of growing up on an island on a northwoods lake, I was not surprised when, a few years after graduation, I learned he had taken over the family business and was now operating the resort. Jan and I were married by the time we first visited Ludlow's, and by the mid-seventies we had two children in tow, By the late eighties, I was bringing my colleagues up for business retreats, and, in the nineties, my older daughter, Kira, honeymooned there.

Today the resort comprises a lodge and twelve cabins nestled into a natural setting of birch, aspen, and pine on a small, rocky isle in Lake Vermilion. Seven more cabins lie on the mainland. Expansive lake views open from each of the structures, and the central swimming beach, play area, and other amenities are but a few steps away at the end of tree-shaded chipped-wood paths.

The Ludlow family has been part of the Vermilion community for a century - since Mark's grandfather, Joseph Burr Ludlow, began seasonal visits to the lake. By 1930 he had purchased the island on which son Hod would build the family's first cabin, christened Night Owl. Hod and his bride, Lil, honeymooned there in 1936. When their children began arriving a few years later, Hod built a second, larger cabin, Coffeetime, and began renting out Night Owl. Hod then began construction on Sundown and Sun Up. By the late forties, a pattern of summer rental and winter construction had evolved, and the Ludlow's owned a resort. Additional cabins - Dusk, Dawn, and Daybreak were added in the fifties and development began to take shape on the mainland. Mark, who'd been teaching marketing at the U of M, became the resort's full-time owner in 1972 and then added Northern Lights and Baybreeze on the island.

The early structures Hod built for year-round use were modest, cozy spaces surrounding a central heat source; he later added porches for summer enjoyment. As a resort owner, he listened carefully to his guests' complaints and comments and over the winter would make improvements incorporating the suggestions. When he added cabins for summer-only use, the architecture's casual vernacular became airier and included additional windows. During Mark's watch, the changes continue. Happily, he's been able to meet customer demand for king-size beds, dishwashers, and more bathrooms while retaining a timeless cottage quality to the place.

Two years ago, Mark built the resort's newest, and most unusual, cabin, Dreamcatcher, which offers a breathtaking treetop view of the lake. Perched atop two bedroom levels is a third-floor living space, above which is a third bedroom with a roof top deck. The tower can house three couples or an extended family of six or more.

Over the years, our family has sampled all of the cabins. I'm especially attracted to the architecture of Dawn - partly because Hod constructed an entire facade from door frames. When privacy is my goal, the original Ludlow family berth in Night Owl is hard to beat. (On cool Vermilion nights, Jan appreciates that Night Owl's bedroom is tucked behind the cabin's toasty stone fireplace.) Though I've had a hand in the design of Baybreeze, Northern Lights, and Dreamcatcher, I'm partial to the older structures. Hod built and rebuilt a cabin until he felt he had it right, and each resonates with his creativity and care.

Mark's indefatigable wife, Sally, brings another dimension to Ludlow's Island. The fare at the resort's grocery store, which operates on the honor system, markedly improved after her arrival a couple of decades ago. Spam gave way to shallots, the olive oil went extra virgin, and a corporate fishing party may be treated to her walleye cakes, organic pork tenderloin, and creme brulee. Sally is also likely to have visited the vineyard that's the origin of the wine she is serving at a cocktail party aboard the Sally Anne, the resort's restored wooden boat. She recently began offering cooking classes with notable Twin Cities chefs for autumn guests.

Most of the food you'll eat at Ludlow's, however, you'll probably cook yourself. I perfected my poor man's crepe recipe in a cabin kitchen. My daughter Kira learned to make her mother's tuna salad there a decade ago and more recently cooked her daughter Olivia's first bluegill catch. Coming upon the scent of cookouts as you traverse the island's trails is always a delight, as are the after-dinner s'more smears on children's faces.

Rustic is not roughing it at Ludlow's, where creature comforts include rainy day videos and dinners delivered by local restaurants. There are fishing boats, kayaks, and pontoons for exploring Vermilion, and tennis, racquetball, and basketball courts for workouts.

Islands are synonymous with paradise and treasure, seclusion and enchantment. Abandoning the car and everything associated with it - cities, freeways, noise, stress - and climbing into a boat at Ludlow's is a sublime escape. That assumes, of course, your definition of escape includes fresh croissants in the morning and cut wood for the fireplace.

Ludlow's is one of the area's rare multigenerational summer resorts that isn't merely getting older, it's getting ever better.

Architect Dale Mulfinger writes Cabin Fever for MPLS.ST.PAUL.