History
George Redick had been taken with the site on Fremont Lake after assessing it in 1916 for its suitability for development by the Union Pacific with a destination hotel. While the hotel idea was rejected as prohibitively expensive, Redick returned with his family the next summer and camped for two months. Choosing a site on the northwest shore they contracted with the U.S. Forest Service for a lease and hired architect Otis Miller of Miles City, Montana to design a lodge. Construction began the next year, supervised by Miller, who stayed at the site that summer and the next. A sawmill was set up to process the timber, which was all standing dead wood found near the site. A shop was built first to house machinery for construction. The main lodge was built between 1920 and 1924. The other outbuildings were also built during this time.
Once the lodge was completed, the Redicks spent their summers there, entertaining visitors from Omaha, their hometown. Other visitors included King Gustav V of Sweden. The Redick family's fortunes declined during the Great Depression, and they spent their last summer at the lodge in 1931. George Redick died in 1936.
In 1938 the lodge was purchased by Dr. Oliver Chambers, who held the only other lease on Fremont Lake. Chambers bought the Redick lodge to protect it and as an investment, but in 1940 Chambers' lodge burned in an accidental fire, and the Chambers family elected to move to the Redick lodge.
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