Detroit Lakes, MN Lake Home and Cabin Living

Detroit Lakes MN

Ever seen a sunfish with sunglasses, swept the ice in a bonspiel, swayed to the rhythm and colors of a Native American pow-wow, or camped out for a weekend of country music?  Welcome to Detroit Lakes, county seat of Becker County, where you can enjoy a sense of fun and community all year round!

Detroit Lakes is a water wonderland about forty minutes east of Fargo on Highway 10.  As the name implies, it definitely is lake country! Located in west central Minnesota, Detroit Lakes is gateway to 412 lakes within a twenty-five mile radius.  The fishing is great, and there’s plenty to do on the water. Rents are among the lowest in the state, and with less than eight thousand people in the city, there’s no such thing as rush hour. Whether you are looking for a nature getaway, an active vacation, a lake home for the family, or just somewhere to get away for some quite and pampered rest, Detroit Lakes has something for you.

History

Originally, the Chippewa and Ojibwa lived and hunted in this region. European settlement began in the early 1800’s. The area where the Pelican River meets Detroit Lake became a favorite place to rest oxen for cart drivers hauling fur from Winnipeg to St. Paul.  Merwin Tyler built a cabin there, and with a few more buildings the community that sprang up became Tyler Town, the forerunner of the City of Detroit Lakes. Then, in 1871 modern development began when the Northern Pacific Railroad expanded into the area. Detroit Township was founded in 1871 by Colonel George Johnston, who came to Minnesota to select lands for the New England Colony. Tyler’s cabin did double-duty as the local hotel and post office.

The village of Detroit, which served as the county seat of Becker County, was incorporated in 1881. In 1884, they installed an ultra-modern large scale telecommunications network – six phones!  The next year, they built the fire department to house the new machines they bought to replace the old bucket brigade. Fargo-Detroit Ice Company was the first large business in the area and they provided ice for the Northern Pacific Railroad.  Their marketing was way ahead of its time, not only did they produce bottled Pokegama Spring Water, but they advertised it as “practically pure from organic matter”.

For the next forty years, however, people kept losing their mail.  It would end up in the better-known Detroit, Michigan. So, in 1926, they changed the name to Detroit Lakes. The Soo Line came through town four years later, and the town has thrived ever since.

This year, Minnesota celebrates its 150th anniversary as the 32nd state in the United States of America. The Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission has awarded Detroit Lakes the honor of being Capital for a Day during Minnesota’s Statehood Week in May. The Capitals for a Day were selected in 5 biomes, or biological communities. Detroit Lakes was nominated for it’s Deciduous Forest area.

A Vibrant Community

Being a hot spot of tourism located on a major rail line, the county seat, and only forty minutes from Fargo, Detroit Lakes maintains a vibrant and robust economy.  The people of the Detroit Lakes Region have made the area the leading trade center of Becker County and greatly improved the quality of life in the region. Downtown is compact, and offers the 135,000 square foot Washington Square Mall, plus a variety of health care services, retail stores, and service businesses where you can find everything from art galleries to attorneys. And, of course there’s boating equipment, recreational vehicles, and storage facilities to stow all your favorite water toys.

The Detroit Lakes area also offers a variety of top quality motels, hotels, resorts, campgrounds or bed & breakfasts. Churches in the Detroit Lakes area represent a wide cross-section of modern worship, from traditional to contemporary. Detroit Lakes also has excellent schools. There is a wonderful Community and Technical College, and Community Education allows adults to learn and grow with everything from estate planning to the basics of Walleye fishing!

Culture & Arts

Music and art pervade the community. Drive around the lakes and through the woods, and you’ll discover painters’ and potters’ studios tucked in pretty places, or you can catch the color of an annual pow-wow.  There are Wine Tasting Events at the Lodge on the Lake, and more scholarly pursuits at the Agassiz Regional Library and Becker County Museum.

The crowing jewel of the community, however, is the ‘DLCCC’.  That could easily be roman numerals for the ‘850’, which would be about how many different ways you could have fun at the Detroit Lakes Community & Cultural Center. With a state of the art indoor pool, waterslide, a fitness center & track, and racquetball courts, the Center is the perfect place to go to when it’s raining outside! In addition to the fitness and aquatic center, the beautifully renovated 837-seat Historic Holmes Theatre brings in music, dance, and theater from around the world and provides a stage for local entertainers.

The Center is also home to a learning center, senior center, childcare pods and more. It exemplifies the importance the community places on enriching the lives for people of all ages and walks of life. If you want something a little more contemporary, then you can take in the shows at the Shooting Star Casino. You can also enjoy the many plays, choir concerts, and band competitions at the local schools.

Housing & Real Estate

Detroit Lakes provides a wide variety of housing alternatives to its residents, including lakeshore lots, residential city lots, rural development, hobby farms, apartments, condos, and townhouses. Over 60% of the community’s 3,226 housing units are owner occupied. This high degree of home ownership speaks for the stability of Detroit Lakes and the pride of its residents.

Local Realtor, Jack Chivers, puts it this way:

We’re certainly not participating in the recession!  Our business has been great. The bulk of our business right now is recreational property. Since July of last year we have sold eight lake properties over a million dollars – and another just the other day. The Red River valley is booming, particularly in agriculture. Our business has been incredible!

He goes on, with enthusiasm:

Detroit Lakes is a bedroom community of Fargo Moorhead.  Real estate sales are up 4.2% in ‘07 over ’06.  Everybody in Fargo Moorhead works all their life to come and buy a piece of property in Detroit Lakes. Now, with cell phones, laptops, faxes, and the internet, people can live here and run their business in Fargo-Moorhead. It’s suddenly become very commutable!

In Jack’s opinion, one of the reasons for the popularity of the Detroit Lakes area is its unique geographical position:

We’re a mix! We’re right on the edge of the forest lakes to the prairie lakes. Forest Lakes are deeper, with lots of trees and vegetation. Prairie lakes give you the sugar sand, which everybody wants. We’re right on the cutoff between north and south, so you get a mix of both to choose from.

Kyle Johnston, of RE/MAX is equally optimistic:

The best buys in the market are lakeshore properties. There’s a lot of selection out there. There’s more lakeshore inventory than there ever has been – a lot to buy, a lot to look at, and they are coming across for a bit less than what we’ve seen in quite a while. Owners are not holding to list prices quite as much as they used to. It’s a great market for buyers. If you are looking to buy lakeshore, this is the best time that we’ve seen in years!

Always Something to Do!

Indoors, outdoors - winter, spring, summer, or fall - it doesn’t matter. There is always something going on at Detroit Lakes, and the whole year seems like one big vacation event. You can swim and play at a mile long sandy beach, or take a stroll along the pavilion to see the new bronze sailboat statue. Grab an official ‘Sunny Map’ and go hunting for these fantastically decorated pieces of outdoor community art. If you’re into country music, then you already know about the famous three-day WE Fest Country Music Festival and Campout. Or, if you’re into a more alternative sound, then you’re probably headed for the four-day 10,000 Lakes Festival at Soo Pass Ranch. There are festivals of birds, flowers, music, and art. There’s Arts & Crafts in the Park, the Street Fair at the Lakes, the largest flea-market in the Midwest, Egg Hunts for both Easter and Loon eggs, and celebrations of just about everything you can imagine. They even have scuba diving in the middle of Minnesota, Ice Tee golfing on the frozen lake in February, and a bunch of crazies who take an annual Polar Plunge through the ice.

If you’re the kind of person that enjoys wild and crazy fun, come to Detroit Lakes!