Dec. 27—CASS LAKE — When disaster struck at an area resort this fall, the community rallied around them in ways the owners never could have imagined.

It all started when Cass County Dispatch received a report late the night of Sept. 12,

of a structure fire at the Cass Lake Lodge,

a family fishing resort located on the southwest corner of Cass Lake.

When emergency personnel arrived at the scene, they found the main cabin and lodge facility completely engulfed in flames. Thankfully, the cabin was unoccupied at the time of the fire and no one was injured.

Owners Jody and Jason Ball said they still don’t know what started the fire, since many of the walls had to be knocked down in order to keep it contained, making it difficult for the fire marshal and investigators to determine a cause.

“The Bemidji Fire Department and the Cass Lake Fire Department, they were awesome,” Jason said. “They got here about 10:20 that night I think and they didn’t leave until probably 8:30 or 9 the next morning. They both did a great job keeping the fire from spreading to any other cabins and making sure no one got hurt.”

The couple took over ownership of the resort about seven years ago when they purchased it from Jason’s parents, who owned it for 14 years before that.

And of those 21 years as a family business, Jason and Jody have been there for 20 of them working side by side.

“Jason grew up in Montana and I grew up in the Fargo area,” Jody explained. “When Jason’s family bought the resort, he moved here to work for them and then I came up because I had family members who were seasonals here, so we met once when I was here visiting them, and then I started working at the resort.”

After starting as coworkers, the couple eventually became husband and wife and now have two sons, Bemidji High School freshman Konnor and senior Parker.

Before becoming the Cass Lake Lodge, the building started out in 1916 as a place for railroad workers to crash for a night as they passed through the area.

“The main cabin that burned actually started out as a hotel for the railroad hub,” Jason explained. “That’s where the workers would spend their nights when they were traveling to Cass Lake until the next day when they had to go back on the train. Then maybe around the 1930s, the actual Cass Lake Lodge was created.”

That old hotel, which used to have individual motel-style rooms, was later turned into a large seven-bedroom cabin and had an adjacent lodge complete with a game room and a full restaurant and bar — until it burned to the ground on that fateful day in September.

“We lost the whole mega cabin and main lodge where our office, the game room, the bar and restaurant were and the reception area where all the guests would come and check in,” Jody detailed.

Jason said they haven’t been able to fully quantify their total loss so far, but it’s been a big blow.

“We don’t know the total cost yet,” he said. “We are just starting the rebuilding process now. So, we don’t really know how much everything will end up costing, but the lodge and cabin were considered 100% losses by the insurance company and all the contents inside them. We weren’t able to salvage anything.”

He added that while insurance is technically covering everything, they are concerned they were underinsured considering the overall increase in building costs over the past year due to inflation.

“With the increased building costs right now, it’s a good time to make sure your insurance policies are up to date and you do have enough insurance,” Jason said. “Because we were probably underinsured, but you never know that until you’re put in that situation and we hope no one else ever has to deal with that.”

While insurance came to the rescue for things like clean-up and rebuilding, the couple said they don’t know what they would have done without the outpouring of community support shown toward them following the fire.

“The community outreach was so great,” Jason said. “We heard from lots of friends, families and so many more people who called to see what we could use for support. Some people brought us food and other stuff like that just to check in on us. There were even people who read about it or heard about it in Wisconsin and Illinois. We had a lot of people reach out saying they were sad about what happened and they were thinking about us. It was pretty awesome all the people who reached out.”

Local contractors from building to plumbing and everything in between have also stepped up to help the couple rebuild as quickly as they can.

“All the local companies we’ve hired have basically said they would do whatever they could just to make sure we got our feet in the ground and started rebuilding this fall,” Jason said. “I know they said we’re lucky we’ve had a nice fall, but if we didn’t, they all said they would work with us to help us get going so that we’d be ready to go as much as possible by next year.”

Jody said they hope to have things up and running in time for spring, but it will all depend on the weather and how everything else goes with the construction.

“We’re hoping to have the cabin done by fishing opener and to have the lodge done by June 1,” she explained. “That’s kind of our goal but we’ll just have to see how it all goes.”

She added that while the resort is open for the winter fishing season, they don’t usually rent out the main cabin during the off-season and the lodge is closed as well. So if all goes according to plan and they can get reopened by next spring, it won’t have a huge impact on their operating schedule.

“We just can’t thank everyone enough for all they’ve done to help us get on our feet,” Jody left off. “Just a huge, huge, thank you to the community for all of your support.”