These stories can also be heard on Sunday mornings around 10 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
August 11, 2024
In March of 1983, Carl Nelson of Wannaska was interviewed by the Roseau Times-Region. Here’s
that story:
Carl Nelson, Wannaska, loves birds and animals and at age 91, he has bounced back from a
serious illness to display carvings of these creatures, of tables and chairs; of numerous other
items in his room in the Roseau Area Hospital where, he says, when asked if he is doing well, “I
should say so.”
The Times-Region had scheduled an interview with Carl earlier in the month only to learn that he
was in the hospital. Hospital or no, Carl was ready last Thursday.
Eyes twinkling and a ready sense of humor apparent, he recounted that he has carved ever since
he was a little boy. “When I was ten I broke a gunstock and I made another one,” he said. “I’ve
lost track of the darned thing. I’d like to see what kind of work I did then,” he chuckled.
He liked woodwork and since he loved birds and animals, he began to carve them in his spare
time. He doesn’t know exactly how he got started on the birds and animals. “I just don’t know
myself. I’ve always loved them so I guess that’s how I got started.”
He has carved everything from owls to woodpeckers; fish to wolves; squirrels to rabbits, “I have
several knives, from big to small . . . and a rasp and sandpaper . . . things like that,” he affirmed.
He doesn’t have any favorite things to carve, he likes them all and does his carving only in his
spare time. “I haven’t done much lately,” he affirms. “My eyes aren’t as good as they were.”
He was also a taxidermist and had several mounted fish in his display in his hospital room. “I was
a taxidermist because I loved nature. I mounted fish, deer heads and also made rugs. I loved it
all.” He noted that he did most of his carving in the wintertime.
He never kept track of the time it takes to carve an animal or bird. “But,” he said, pointing to a
model rocking chair nicely done, “It took me about 30 minutes to carve one of the sticks in the
back.” He made at least five of the rocking chairs.
The last thing he did was to mount a fish and also made a heart-shaped wooden box with a lid. “I
did them last fall,” he mused, “I don’t carve now, but I really enjoyed it. “You have to enjoy it to
be able to make it,” he added.
Carl came from Sweden with his mother and brother when he was a child. His father had come
on before them and had a log cabin built a half-mile East of Wannaska when they came. Carl
grew up there, helped his father farm a bit and lost his mother when he was 12.
When he grew up he homesteaded 3-1/2 miles southeast of Wannaska and lived there from
1913 to 1975 when he sold the place and moved to Wannaska. “And I’ve been happy ever
since,” he smiled.
He and his wife, whom he had married in 1916, had their golden wedding anniversary in 1966
and she died 11 years ago. He has been alone since.
Carl recalls when his dad used to get the deer meat and when he used to hunt partridges, “and
later got the deer.” “We lived a lot on rabbits . . . we used to snare them,” he recalled.
He thinks people were friendlier “in the old days . . . and it seemed like we had more freedom
years ago. They got together more, too. We were all in the same boat you know.”
Carl is feeling better and says, “When I get out of here, I am going to Greenbush to the nursing
home there. I’ve lived a good long life . . . and I wish I felt as good as I look,” he joked. “I
wouldn’t brag too much,” he added, “but I’m good enough for 91.”
I looked for Carl on Ancestry.com and found him as Carl Arvid Nelson born August 7, 1891 in
Sweden. He was married in 1916 in Roseau County to Tina Cornelia Jacobson on August 9, 1916.
Carl lived until 1986 and was buried in Mickinock Cemetery in Wannaska beside his wife Tina,
who had died 14 years earlier. They had no children but had many relatives in the area.
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