MINNEAPOLIS — Three families who have shared homecomings for 38 years in the same northwoods deer shack will break up this season to sidestep COVID-19.
John King, 69, said he'll miss the fried deer hearts, wood stove fires and storytelling in remote, northern Becker County. It's painful to put the traditions on hold, he said. But with seven of the camp's most faithful participants now in their 70s, they decided not to take the risk.
"It's a big disappointment and everybody hates it, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do," said King, who founded the lakeshore camp with two of his friends from the Detroit Lakes area. As their families have grown, so has the size and the importance of the deer camp.
With daily coronavirus numbers in Minnesota spiking to unprecedented levels this week, the cherished traditions of hunters who gather in camps for the firearms season are taking a major hit. Minnesota's COVID-19 death toll surpassed 2,500 on Wednesday and the virus has spread dramatically since the fishing opener.
To be sure, many Minnesota deer camps will carry on without disruption and make new memories this year. Other groups will still meet in some reduced fashion to reminisce and catch up.
Jamie Becker-Finn of Roseville, who won re-election Tuesday to the state House of Representatives, said her extended family will meet as always at her aunt's house in Bemidji. But they'll alter the main Saturday night dinner that revolves around soup and storytelling.
"We'll probably be outside on folding chairs. We won't be eating our meal together indoors," she said. "But I'm looking forward to it more than I ever have."
As long ago as Becker-Finn can remember, she tagged along on family deer hunts on public land near Pennington, Minn. Her father and grandfather, a World War II veteran, were hunters.
"I remember getting dragged out of bed at 5 a.m.," she said. "I'll never forget tromping through the woods in the dark."
Becker-Finn is a Leech Lake Ojibwe descendant who grew up eating venison all year long — a tradition she has carried on. She and her husband, Gabe, will attempt to harvest three deer this year to stock the family's freezer, sharing with Jaime's mother. Their 10-year-old son will join them in the field and scout for deer with binoculars.
For them, the cherished camp aspect of deer season kicks in most heavily Friday night before the opener and again Saturday when all the cousins and other family members return from the woods to rekindle their bond and recall all the dramas from past hunts. They travel to Bemidji from the Twin Cities, the Duluth area and around Cass Lake.
"We all have elementary age kids now, and it's the one time all year that we hang out together," she said. "It's definitely a tradition."
Another one of the family's concessions to COVID-19 will be to skip the collective deer butchering event in the garage of Becker-Finn's cousin a week or two after the hunt. Jamie and Gabe will do their own cutting and packaging at home, guided by a Modern Carnivore seminar.
