Family pays tribute to their deer camp patriarch

Nov. 17—MARSHALL COUNTY, Minn. — The tally for the deer season to date was Hunters 2, Wolves 1 — a wolf kill had occurred on opening weekend just yards from the cabin — but for members of the Sethre family, this day was more about memories and honoring a legacy than it was about hunting.

They were here on this final Saturday of deer season in northwest Minnesota to pay tribute to Stuart "Stu" Sethre, the family patriarch who died in August 2023 at the age of 96. A longtime grocery store owner in nearby Newfolden — his son, James, now owns the store — Sethre loved this 260-acre getaway in New Maine Township, where family and friends gather to hunt, share stories and enjoy each other's company.

It's a place steeped in tradition.

"When my friends ask me where the hunting cabin is, I say you go on a state highway and you go on a county highway and you go on a township highway and you get to the boonies and you're there," said Stu's widow, Joan, 93, who was in camp on this gray Saturday morning.

Stu made the short drive from town to "the boonies" every day, sometimes to work the food plot with the vintage Farmall M tractor that was his pride and joy. He was 93 when he shot his last deer — a 10-point buck — in November 2020. He figured he'd shot 75 deer, give or take, since the first year he hunted deer in 1948.

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after shooting the buck, Stu admitted the sight of a buck walking down the trail never gets old.

"I can't deny my heart starts pounding when (a buck) comes walking toward me, and it's about 300 yards away," he told the Herald.

So many stories. So many memories.

The morning hunt was done, and breakfast remnants were still on the table, when the crew gathered in the kitchen of the rustic hunting cabin to look back on some of those stories and memories. Stu and Joan's four sons — James, of Newfolden; David, of Ottertail, Minnesota; Rick, of Grand Forks; and Kevin, of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota — are here. So are Kevin's son, Petty Officer 1st Class Adam Sethre, a Navy recruiter from Inver Grove Heights; and daughters Andrea Harmon and Alicia Sethre, both of Woodbury, Minnesota.

Adam's son, Jaydon Rouse of Inver Grove Heights; and Alicia's boyfriend, Dillon Ridge of Coon Rapids, Minnesota, round out the crew.

The previous day, Adam was the keynote speaker at the Veterans Day commemoration in Newfolden, where Stu, a Navy veteran, received a posthumous 75-year service award.

It's the first time siblings Adam, Andrea and Alicia have been in camp at the same time since 2014, Adam says, the year Andrea shot her first deer and he shot his last deer.

"Grandpa was the reason that I always came back because he loved it so much, and that was a way to feel closer to him," Alicia Sethre recalled. "He lived for November."

As with hunting camps everywhere, there's a mix of laughter and reflection when those who remain talk about members now departed. The history of the camp, which Joan calls "Whispering Oaks" but is best known as "The Hunting Cabin" or "The Farm," dates back to the early 1980s.

"It's kind of unique out here, because there are no roads for two, three, four miles this way and two or three miles this way," David said, gesturing in opposite directions. "We're just out here in the middle of nowhere. It's kind of cool, actually; you just don't find property like this."

The crew originally gathered at Stu and Joan's house in Newfolden when deer season rolled around, but when Joan suggested maybe all the mess and the mud from days spent in the woods would look better in a hunting camp, things happened fast.

"What it took was her to say something — 'We really should have a place,' " David recalls. "Our father was 'Johnny on the spot.' If she suggested something that he was really interested in — boom! — he got it done.

"He was no dummy. He was Norwegian, but he was no dummy," David joked.

Stu bought his last deer tag in 2021 but didn't hunt. When it came to deer hunting, he loved to pull the trigger.

"We normally depended on him to shoot," James Sethre said. "Every year, he'd shoot at least one deer."

In later years, the crew built a comfortable enclosed stand for Stu that was only a foot or so off the ground and was easily accessible, with wooden steps and sturdy handrails. "The Honey Hole," they called it, because Stu always seemed to see deer there.

Rather than spend the night in the rustic camp, Stu preferred driving out for the morning and evening hunts and had a convenient parking spot right near his stand.

"He'd sit in the stand, come in and maybe have breakfast here and then go into town," James Sethre said. "If the cafe was open or whatever was open, he'd go in and sit with his buddies and drink coffee and play cards — then come back out at 2-2:30 after he'd had his fill of coffee and cards."

It's where he shot his last buck in 2020.

"That was his stand, and pretty much the only people who could sit in there were grandkids," Kevin Sethre said. "Anybody else? Off limits."

Nothing made Stu prouder than seeing his grandchildren shoot deer and enjoy the experience of being in camp for the hunt.

One year, Alicia shot two deer in a matter of about 10 minutes, her uncle David recalled.

Stu no doubt would have been proud of the buck Andrea shot Thursday afternoon, Nov. 9, her first day in camp. The sisters and Alicia's boyfriend, Dillon, had flown into Thief River Falls for the hunt earlier that morning.

"I just figured it would be kind of a bigger year after Grandpa passed," Andrea said.

One of the crew's favorite stories about Stu occurred about 30 years ago, when he was trudging through a swamp and got stuck in a large hole where a willow tree had been uprooted. The hole was filled with water just deep enough to be annoying and covered with ice that wasn't thick enough to support Stu's weight.

Long story short, he got wet and wasn't the least bit happy about it — much to the amusement of others who watched the encounter unfold from 75 to 100 yards away.

"Pretty soon, we're all laughing, and he wasn't very pleased with us not respecting his condition," David Sethre recalled. "There's nobody close to him. So, he finally finds a way to claw his way out of this hole there, and he goes, 'I'm never going to hunt with you again!'

"Boom — he's gone."

The stories — tales of mice, flies, false teeth falling out of shirt pockets and lost hearing aids that likely explained why deer in the area hear so well — could have continued well into the evening.

There have been better years in the deer stand for sure, but this season was about remembering and paying tribute to the man who started it all, this hunting camp tradition.

"Some years, we don't do great; other years, we do great," David Sethre said. "This year has been kind of average. But last year we didn't shoot a deer. We hardly saw one."

As a footnote to this memorable weekend, Alicia Sethre and her boyfriend, Dillon, were in the deer stand together later that afternoon when he presented her with a diamond ring and popped the question.

Alicia, of course, said yes.

The tradition continues.

"I think everybody considered (the weekend) a success," Kevin Sethre said later. "We had some family time and were able to honor Stu in various ways, including partaking of a deer camp that he left as a legacy."