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.
June 7, 2026
This week, I’ll continue telling the story of Lyle Roseen, a local trapper and logger, and his wife
Karolyn.
My sister Tallie Habstritt and I went to see Lyle and Karolyn at their home in Falun to follow up
on our first visit with Lyle at Roseau County Museum.
Lyle’s daughter LaRae, the trapper, happened to stop in while we were there. She remembered
trying to keep up with her dad out in the woods when she was a kid. She said he sometimes
trapped using a Trail Tractor and a Model A tractor. She remembered a time when her mom
Darlene packed up the kids to drive up to the cabin in the woods, sliding off the road and getting
stuck on the way.
She remembered a muskrat and a rabbit that they had for a while living in a cage together until
a turkey tipped the cage over and the muskrat escaped to the wilds again. It was fun to have her
input in Lyle’s story.
He mentioned many friends, some from school days, many more from his time in the woods
trapping and woodcutting. His photo album again showed that history. He talked about the good
times at their camps and showed photos of a cabin at Highwood that sadly had to be taken
down because the DNR said the lower logs were too rotten, making it dangerous. It had been
built originally for a house, then used for boarding kids when they were going to school, then
used as a trapping cabin. After that was taken down, the trapping guys from the Badger camp
built a hunting shack on a leased lot from the State. Then the State wanted everyone out of
there, and it mysteriously burned down after only a couple of years.
In his early trapping days, he came upon Richard Wagner from Badger on his own trapline,
having been stranded overnight in the cold with boots full of water. He was in tough shape by
the time his son Rick found him. Richard didn’t even recognize his son at first. Richard’s family
didn’t want him out there by himself in the woods after that. They became great friends, Lyle
describing those years as some of the best of his life. They trapped together for about 10 to 12
years. Once they had gone out together on a 10 hp Mustang snowmobile, which went through
ice into water and became stuck. They had to get a chain and pull it out by hand. Richard was
the cook when they stayed at camp. Sometimes other trappers would show up. He mentioned
Darwin Johnson, who he also described as a great cook.
Lyle remembered hearing the news of Richard Wagner’s death in 1975. Richard happened to be
alone in the woods north of Badger when he had a heart attack. That was a very sad day for
Lyle. He served as a pallbearer for Richard’s funeral.
Lyle had also trapped with Art Lisell “up at Highwood”. He said Art had spent a day making
potato dumplings at camp. When it came time to serve them up to the gang, the kettle slipped
from his grip and spilled onto the ice-cold floor, quickly becoming a big gelatinous mess. He
remembered Art slipping and sliding, trying to keep his footing to clean up. He thinks they ended
up eating pancakes that night.
Trappers generally had their own individual traplines which they checked on foot through treacherous woods. He said 8 to 10 miles was nothing to walk in a day. He was asked what makes a good trapper. He said you have to like what you’re doing and be honest. Keep to your own area (what you could walk in a day) and never take from another person’s traps!
Lyle attended many trapper conventions over the years all over the country. He has a garage built by Alvin Stoll out of logs that matches the house. It’s full of plaques and awards, mostly for trap setting in competitions at conventions. He talked about setting a barefoot bear trap, which, like it sounds, had to be set while barefoot! He took us out to the garage to see his memorabilia from those conventions and some of the homemade equipment used for skinning what he catches. He made a lot of good friends and saw a lot of different places during those years. The first convention he went to was in Alba, Missouri. He also traveled with Gale Halvorson, Gary and Gloria Dahlgren, and Lyle Dahlgren. Sometimes the guys went alone. His wife Darlene and Lyle both participated in trap setting.
Furs became less profitable over time, but logging was a good living for Lyle for many years.
They brought their logs to Clifford Comstock’s sawmill for many years. Lyle has outlived some of his best lifetime friends, Duane Comstock, Earl Johnson, and Dick Wahlstrom, who all logged, and like him, had sawdust in their veins, but he and Karolyn continue to enjoy new friends and having adventures together.
Lyle at one time farmed small grains and milk cows and had a few sheep. Later he switched to beef cows, until the constant testing for TB by the government made the cattle mean. They even rolled him a few times! He also helped Layton Oslund with his cattle. Lyle and Layton became good friends, and Karolyn and Lyle traveled with Layton and his wife to Branson. After Layton’s wife passed away, Layton wanted to go to Alaska. Karolyn suggested Lyle should go with him.
So, off the two of them went on an Alaskan cruise. They had a good time and Lyle even got
called up on stage during one of the shows.
Lyle loves fishing at White Fish Bay in Canada, spending a week at Vic and Dot’s fishing camp
with other couples. For a number of years, he bowled with the Salol Elevator team. He and
Karolyn have taken many trips, three to Sweden, seven to Branson, and bus trips to the west
coast and Washington DC and the Southeast part of the country, visiting Nashville and
Dollywood and The Ark. Another bus trip took them to Niagara Falls, and a Mystery Bus trip
went to New York and the FDR Museum. They enjoy music jams and the Northern Lights
concerts and Roseau Gazebo concerts.
Life is Good!
Thanks to Lyle and his wife Karolyn and his daughter LaRae for sharing his interesting life story,
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.