Don Johnson
The Dahlberg Years
Presented by Byrne Johnson
Part 7

Don Johnson had kept a journal during a couple of months in the winter of 1936 and except for some letters and a few months of journals in 1940 and a few months in 1942, his nine years as caretaker and boatman at the Dahlberg summer estate, Redcrest, is undocumented.

On the night of August 11, 1936, the night sky was red with reflected flames as the main guest house at Bror and Gilda Dahlberg's summer estate, Redcrest, burned to the ground. Don Johnson, had led a group of counselors from Camp Koochiching to assist in fire fighting. The next day the Johnson family, consisting of parents, Don and Layna, and three children, Buck, Byrne, and Sally, were taking up residence in the caretaker's house at Redcrest.
Don had been counselor/boatman/caretaker at the private boys camp since the summer of 1929, and as he was experiencing differences of opinions with the camp owner, C.F. Vance, he had decided to leave the camp in the fall, probably to return to college. The fire at Redcrest removed any remaining confidence that the Dahlbergs had in their caretaker, so the move was an easy decision on both sides. Also the pay was better than what the camp had been offering, from $90 per month to $100.

Redcrest and Jackfish Island
Bror Dahlberg purchased part of Jackfish Island from Anna Franson, widow of Eric Franson, on October 16, 1917, and purchased the remainder from John and Mary Ransom on March 8, 1924. According to Joe Paddock in Keeper of the Wild, Ernest Oberholtzer was hired by Dahlberg to oversee construction of Redcrest, mainly to see that the workers stayed sober so that work could proceed. This report was confirmed in 2004 when Carol Thomas, the current owner of the Dahlberg estate on Jackfish Island, discovered the “ship to Ernest Oberholtzer” stencil on a window that she was replacing in the kitchen of the main house.
Sometime during those early years the Dahlbergs purchased the entire mile and a half of mainland shoreline about two miles straight south of Redcrest, but did no development. It has been said that the purpose of this purchase was to prevent anyone from building in their line of sight. This property is now known as Gold Shores. They also owned several small, undeveloped islands in what is now Voyageurs National Park.
Within a few days the Johnsons had all become familiar with the physical layout of the developed estate which covered about 25 acres of the east end of the 180 acre Jackfish Island. Jackfish Island is a long (a little over a mile), narrow (nowhere more than a quarter mile wide) island which is one island removed from the Canadian border.

Starting at the east end of the developed property was a large boathouse on concrete pilings which had four boat slips, a workshop and a storage room. Housed here was a 26' Chris Craft utility speedboat, the Bee Gee (for Bror Gustav Dahlberg), and a 47' cruiser, the “Gilda” (for Gilda Dahlberg). Several small boats and canoes completed the fleet.
The caretaker's house had an enclosed front and back porch, a living room, kitchen and two bedrooms. Attached to the house was an ice house where ice harvested in the winter and covered with sawdust supplied the refrigeration for the island during the summer. The toilet was an outhouse in another building at the end of a short path behind the house which also had a tool shed under the same roof. Water heated in a copper tub on the stove was used for bathing.
Next was a building that contained the water pump (taking water from the lake) and an electric generator which was only used after dark and only during the summer. Behind the pump house and up the cliff by a set of stairs was a single room staffed by Dahlberg's secretary which served as the summer corporate office of the Celotex Corporation.
The next building was the big house, the red roof of which gave the Redcrest name to the estate. From east to west the rooms were as follows: kitchen, butler's pantry with half bath, dining room (with attached screened in breakfast room), living room and music room. North from the living room a corridor accessed five bedrooms, two full baths, a games closet and a liquor closet.
The only sources of heat in this building were the three fireplaces, living room, music room and master bedroom so the occupied season from the Fourth of July to Labor Day, made a lot of sense. Other items of interest in this house were the grand piano in the circular music room, the two polar bear rugs, with heads attached and the wall covering which was a cloth with gold threads running through it. This building stood on a sheer cliff about 30 feet above the water with an open terrace with stone wall, metal railing and tile floor along the south face of the building.
North of the big house was the new guest house which had four guest bedrooms, three bedrooms for staff and two baths. The first bedroom was called the Chinese room as it was painted Chinese red and had an authentic opium den for the bed.
South and west of the new guest house was the chimney and remains of the main guest house which had burned the night before the Johnsons arrived.
The path continued west along the cliff overlooking the water, ending at the Teepee. This was a circular building, about 20 feet in diameter and about 30 feet high and covered with birch bark. A screened porch was on the front containing wicker chaise furniture. A set of stairs made it possible, for the brave, to climb to the top of the Teepee for one of the great views on Rainy Lake.

Dahlberg, Backus and Celotex
Bror Dahlberg had been born in Sweden in 1881 and arrived in the United States at about 12 years of age. Starting as an office boy working for Jim Hill of the Great Northern Railroad in Minneapolis, he worked his way up in the ranks until he was hired away by E.W. Backus and moved to International Falls where he held a number of positions up to general manager of the mill.
A chemist, named Karl Muench, approached Backus and offered to sell him the patent for a process to make a building board from cellulose fibers. Backus immediately saw the value of the process and agreed to the purchase. His concern was that as president of the Backus Brooks Company, it would be unseemly to own the patent in his own name, and if bought in the name of the company, his personal return would be sharply diminished. He did the only logical thing he could think of, that is, buy the patent in the name of his trusted, right hand man, Bror Dahlberg.
All went according to plan, an Insulite plant was built, and the product hit the market. After about three years of great success, Bror Dahlberg went to court and sued Backus for patent infringement and walked away with enough money to move to Louisiana where he started the Celotex Corporation and began to produce a product identical to Insulite but made from cane sugar waste instead of wood fibers. This was the age of the robber barons.

Dahlberg personal life
Bror's first wife, Mary, was a collector of the rich and famous, and perhaps building structures for them at Redcrest. Princess Mary of Bourbon arrived with her retinue to occupy the guest house built for her. Sinclair Lewis also arrived at Redcrest, while he was writing “Elmer Gantry,” to ply his trade in the new teepee as someone had understood him to say that he wanted to write in a circular house.
Bror was married to Mary Alexander until he divorced her in 1932 on grounds of desertion. Officially she had said that she did not want to live in the States and had decided to live in Europe. Unofficially, it was widely reported that she had a drinking problem that he would no longer tolerate. They had an adopted daughter, Alma Lee. Following the breakup of that marriage, Bror married Gilda, born in Pittsburgh, PA, as Rebecca Krieger. Rumor had it that she had appeared as a showgirl in the Follies at one time, and in 1963 she did have a bit part in the Fellini classic 8 1/2. She drank not at all, but was very capable of being a real witch. Many years later a lake neighbor, Major Roberts, said “In the garden of love, Bror picked lemons.”
Gilda was about five feet tall, wore three inch platform shoes, had jet black dyed hair and could switch from charming to vicious at a moment's notice. Many felt that she must have had something very serious on Bror for him to let her get away with what she did.
Among the summer residents were a number of constants and quite a few variables. Seldom during those years were either Bror or Gilda Dahlberg away from Rainy Lake between the Fourth of July to Labor Day. Other near constants were three of Gilda's nephews, Dick Fink, Peter Matz and Matty Burton who were quite closely matched in age with the three young Johnsons. Other nieces and nephews of college age also spent time at the island.

Look for more history in the next installment on Aug. 4, on the nine-year period in which Don and Layna Johnson and their family
oversaw the Bror Dahlberg estate at Redcrest on Jackfish Island.