For many outdoorsy Minnesotans, Nordic skiing feels like a part of our DNA. Northwoods ski lodges are abuzz with activity this time of year, the local high school teams top out at more than 100 participants, and the availability of groomed trails is unlike almost any other metropolitan area.
Today very few locals balk at the spandex-clad endurance buffs with fiberglass skinny skis atop their vehicle roof racks on the highway or the supremely bundled parents and young children shuffling around the lakes and local parks.
To say the scene has changed over the years would be an understatement. Back in the 1960s, the sport existed relatively on the fringes in Minnesota. A small and committed group would treat their skis with pine tar and blow torches before donning thick sweaters, wool knickers, and leather ski boots and heading out to lay fresh tracks in area parks without the benefit of machine-groomed tracks.
Many of these early Twin Cities skiers bought equipment from Norm Oakvik, a North High graduate who trained with the 10th Mountain Division during World War II and was an accomplished cross-country skier and ski jumper. A product of Norwegian immigrant parents, he and his friend Dag Helgestad imported wooden skis from Norway and sold them out of Oakvik's basement.
Who were these early adopters? In large part, they were the founding members of the North Star Ski Touring Club, a Twin Cities-based group that recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. The club organized and drafted a constitution in 1967 with just 19 members. Joined by Oakvik and Helgestad at the helm were South Minneapolis native and former Montana ski patrolman Bob Larson and member of the United States Ski Association ski touring committee Jinny McWethy, who would later be referred to as "Mother North Star." Ten years later, the club had grown to 1,600 skiers.
In a January 1970 Skiing Magazine article in which the North Stars were prominently featured, ski touring was described as follows: "There is adventure in touring — the opportunity to get into the backcountry in the dead of winter and to be there alone. The beauty of untracked snow — the entire landscape unpolluted by highways, power lines, ski lifts, service stations, houses, and other evidences of so-called progress — is a delightful and increasingly rare sight."
Mel Peterson, vice president of the North Star board, said it was for those reasons he was drawn to join the club in 1979. "I'm a nature lover and can hardly wait for winter to roll around each year. I love being in the woods on a snowy day and the quiet, graceful motion of the sport."
The North Stars aided cross country skiing's growth in the state in tangible ways. They played a prominent role in developing the Great Minnesota Ski Pass for trails in Minnesota state parks and forests, helping pay for grooming and maintenance. Over the years they've also planted hundreds of trees along trails for wind breaks, constructed trail shelters, and cleared trails.
