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.
May 31, 2026
When Lyle Roseen opened a photo album at the museum, it was obvious that he’d had a very active life. He’s now 87 and speculated that he might be the oldest man living in Falun Township. He acknowledges that age has slowed him down a little, but he still helps on a sawmill crew that Kerby Eidsmoe operates and said that just the other day he had set a couple beaver traps. His daughter LaRae has carried on the trapping tradition and he proudly said that she has lots of ambition like he used to have. She started going with him on his trapline when she was young. She and her sisters Valarie and Terri are in many of his old photos with pelts in the background. LaRae used to check her traps before getting on the school bus.
constructed the house. They hired school kids from the area to peel the logs. Lyle said, “That was when Lyle was at the museum for an interview with my sister Tallie Habstritt and me. We started asking him about his childhood, which was spent in Falun Township. His parents were Emil and Cecelia (Mattson Roseen, and their house was on the old Mattson homestead. The house was a beautiful brick home built by Lyle’s grandfather Matt Mattson as a gift for his daughter Cecelia in 1922, five years after she married Emil. It had an outhouse, a water pump, and a well just a few feet outside the house. It had a full basement, but no electricity at first. Lyle said his grandfather Matt was a terrific mason who also did masonry work on the courthouse in Red Lake Falls and the Roseau Courthouse on Center Street. His father Emil was a farmer with horses, cows, chickens, and sheep. The horses were used for farming at first, but as Lyle got a little older, the horses were sold and Emil bought tractors, a Farmers Union #2 and a Farmers Union #3. His father also raised Shetland ponies, sometimes having half a dozen at a time. He said they had minds of their own!
Lyle grew up with five sisters and a brother. He was the youngest in the family and his oldest sister Irene (Mrs. Tilford Wicklander) was his first teacher at 36E School, just west of their home. He walked to school. The kids hauled water from his parents’ place across the pasture. He remembered taking guns to school, leaving them outside and hunting during noon and after school. He liked school and especially enjoyed playing baseball at Falun Hall. He remembers the great competition from the Malung team, mentioning Leonard Hedlund as being a great pitcher. Lyle said he often played catcher for the Falun team.
Lyle started trapping when he was little. In his collection of photos, we saw a cute one of him as a little shaver in tattered pants and shoes, holding up a woodchuck that comes up to his waist, and a gun taller than him. When they butchered chickens, he took the guts for bait to trap weasels. They were worth money then. His first fisher pelt earned him $1.80 when he brought it to the DNR. After that, he took his furs to different buyers, including Evans Steel in Thief River Falls. Over the years, he also trapped fox, beaver, mink, muskrat, otters, and wolves. He liked trapping mink and muskrat the most. Wild caught mink could get you $40 to $50.
After his elementary school days were over, his school had consolidated with Salol, and they bussed the older kids into Roseau for high school. He graduated in 1956. After that, he volunteered for the Army and served in 1958 and 1959. He was stationed at Fort Ord, California for basic training, then transferred to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He said it was so dry and dusty there, you could be standing in a puddle and a little wind would come up and blow dust in your face. He was trained as an artillery man, specifically the 105 caliber.
He came back to Falun after the Army and lived in the big brick house he had grown up in. But life was soon to change when he met Darlene Pearson on July 3, 1959. She was working at the drive-in in Warroad. The next night was their first date. They went to a barn dance at Fealy’s barn. He and Darlene loved to dance, and there were often excellent bands that came here. He mentioned the Chimelewskis as an example. His recent favorite has been Cathy Erickson from Middle River, whose band just got inducted into Minnesota Music Hall of Fame. Lyle and Darlene got married October 17 that same year and moved into a trailer house in his parents’ yard. They had three daughters within the next five years. LaRae, the oldest, has two children and two grandchildren. Middle daughter Valarie died at age 46. Youngest daughter Terri has two children and five grandchildren and lives in Twin Valley, Minnesota with her husband. One of Lyle and Darlene’s granddaughters now lives in the brick house.
Darlene worked for Land O’Lakes, driving a bulk truck. Lyle continued trapping and logging. For many years he logged with Earl Johnson, Duane Comstock, and Troy Johnson. They pulled a shack up to the woods and called themselves the “Pancake Logging Company.” At noon they always had guests for pancakes. The “Ravens” (as they called their hungry visitors) showed up just before noon. Forestry from Warroad showed up often. Polaris test drivers “just happened by”, and friends just drove up.
Warren Thompson even continued coming up after he retired. The pancakes were good, and maybe the gossip, too!
Freddie Meeker hauled logs for them. He said Freddie was good on the pulp hook. In earlier years he took logs to Jim Brown in Warroad to be cut for lumber. In 1975, Lyle and Darlene started building a log house in the yard from logs he cut Northeast of the Axel Olson corner south of Clear River. Dick Wahlstrom helped cut the logs. Dave Bourman constructed the house. They hired school kids from the area to peel the logs. Lyle said, “That was when kids still worked!” He remembers some Dahlgren kids and others that lived nearby helping with that. Dave Bourman kids still worked!” He remembers some Dahlgren kids and others that lived nearby helping with that.
Lyle built a big fireplace inside the cabin from field rocks he picked and split. It’s a thing of beauty and is surrounded by photos and art work. One is a large painting by Marv Espe of Lyle out in the woods, dressed for trapping with a dusting of snow over him and the pelt he was carrying. Another is an ink drawing, also by Marv Espe, of Lyle in the woods deep in snow. There are also projects Lyle has made from some of the slabs and other pieces of wood not big enough for dimension lumber, but perfect for
little shelves.
Sadly, his wife Darlene passed away in 1991 after having a lung transplant, then dying from a heart attack.
A couple of years later he started communicating with Darlene’s niece Karolyn who was living in Boise, Idaho. By 1995, they were married.
I’ll continue with Lyle’s story next week. Thanks to Lyle and Karolyn for letting us record your story for the Roseau County Museum, and to WILD 102.
Thank you to 
for letting us share our county’s history with your listeners by donating air time, studio time, and production staff every week.