History of the Hack-Ma-Tack Inn

We are compiling facts and old stories about the Hack-Ma-Tack's history. We'd love to add your articles, vintage photos, or memorable stories to our website's history page.

The Hack-Ma-Tack Inn has an extremely colorful and intriguing history, and we will soon have a more intricate and documented history on our website for you to explore. We look forward to a great new season, thanks for visiting hackmatackinn.com!

"Thanks for the Memories"

My parents would take us to Mullet Lake the first 2 weeks in August. The time frame was about 1963 - 1971. During our visit, it was a tradition to gather with the other families we met at Silver Lodge and have dinner at the Hack-Ma-Tack. What a great experience. On other occasions when we would boat up the Cheboygan, we would stop by the Inn and fish off the dock. My brother and I would usually catch perch and blue gill and were told that the cook would fix the fish for us for lunch while our parents enjoyed a few adult beverages. What a great time we would have looking in awe at the big cruisers docked compared to our 16' speedboat.

About 10 years ago my brother and I rented a house with our families on the lake for a week and had a fantastic dinner at the Inn. It was gratifying to know some things don't change. I was so impressed, I bought a Hack-Ma-Tack golf shirt there. Keep up the great work - thanks for the memories.

Clifford D. Lamberg

One Summer — 1950

By Lois Steury

That was a summer full of stories and memories. I don’t remember how it all came about. How did I learn about this summer job? How come my parents let me go so far from home after graduating from High School? I do remember riding a bus with other girls to get there. “There” was Hack Ma Tack Inn. I had a job in this rustic inn, answering phones, selling cigarettes and candy, and helping the chambermaid (was her name Helen?). There are so many memories of that summer at the inn.

Oh, I also waited tables on one weekend. Since I didn’t (and don’t) like the limelight, I had difficulty waiting tables without the people looking at me!! I really messed up—forgot what they wanted, went through the wrong swinging door, etc.

The only boy working with all the girls was Jack Soudriette, son of the owners. Jack was drafted that summer for the war in Korea. We all had a bonfire to commiserate Jack’s future. Most of us had never known anyone who went to war. It was a very sad occasion for all of us.

We all lived in cabins behind the inn. One morning, I knocked on the door of one whose alarm clock wasn’t working. That led to a problem with one of the owners who wondered why I was at Jack’s door.

One time Jack shot a cat under my cabin to put it out of its misery. I had a hard time with that, but understood why it had to be done.

One day, some of the young people working across Mullett Lake, Topinabee, came over to visit us. My only memory is that one of them was the son of a millionaire and I decided he could not be a good person because of his wealthy family. (I was very judgmental about him — unfairly.)

Another day, we walked to Cheboygan, along the Cheboygan River as Hack Ma Tack Inn is on Mullett Lake and the Cheboygan River. There was good fishing for those who like to fish. No motor boats were allowed as I remember.

This May, 57 years later, Al and I went to Hack Ma Tack. We had a great dinner while viewing the Cheboygan River. The staff was interested in my memories from that summer. Julie asked if I would be willing to write an article about my memories to start a newsletter online. It would be so interesting to connect with the “girls” I worked with there. They said that Jack Soudriette occasionally comes back, so hopefully he will contribute his memories, also. Can’t tell where this will lead, but it will provide a new tangent in my life along with my first writing on this subject. (No limelight problems with this!)

Lois (Manchee) Steury
231-799-8152
917 Hampton Ct, Apt 1
Norton Shores, MI 49441

"Always a magical place to me"

I'm going to guess that we first went to HackMaTack in 1949 or 1950 and then went for the next 3-5 years.

My parents and I vacationed at HackMaTack for several years beginning when Frank Beebe ran the Inn and including when Peg and Walt Soudriette owned it. Family and friends would go too. We always had the room to the right of the top of the stairs across from the bathroom. A department store owner from Detroit and his wife always were there the same week were and the wife brought seashell jewelry from Fla.to sell. Before dinner, guests would take turns serving cocktails and snacks in their room.

Everyone dressed for dinner and the Perrys played musical instruments and sang during dinner. I remember there was always a fire in the fireplace in the morning until about noon and then it was relit in the evening. After the planned evening entertainment, the adults played bridge, pingpong on the porch, etc.

HackMaTack was always a magical place to me.

Marilyn Schlichter Evans

Mullett Lake's First Name in Dining Excellence

Established A Long Time Ago

The meal that you can enjoy at the Hack-Ma-Tack is the result of more than 100 years of careful development. Since 1894 when Watson Beebe constructed the Inn as a private hunting and fishing lodge, the story has been one of constant expansion to meet the popularity.

The Hack-Ma-Tack has been a colorful part of the evolution of Mullett Lake. Very few Mullett Lake locations have as colorful a past or have played so great a part in the history of Mullett Lake.

We at the Hack-Ma-Tack still adhere to a standard of dining out that is symbolized by a wholesome, home cooked quality to the dinners we place before you and a comfortable and congenial manner of service to you...our guests. Your Hosts welcome you, and invite you to choose your evening's pleasure from various individually prepared entrees. To compliment your dinner, we recommend our complete list of American and European wines, or your favorite cocktail from the Pow Wow Lounge..

The Legend of The Big-Black-Bass

The Cheboygan flowed from Mullett to Huron and upon it's banks shaded by the birches, stood Oskeloosa, daughter of Hackmatack.

As she viewed the setting sun, over the river, her heart was saddened by the thought of the curse placed upon her by Chick-a-gami, to whom her Father had refused her hand.

Chick-a-gami vowed that she should share no mans tepee until "He" came as the captor of the "Big-Black-Bass" and removed the Indian sign.

The birches parted, and there stood before her a handsome man, finally Oskeloosa said "Who are you?"

"I am Omean, a Huron fisherman. I have heard it said that the Captor of the "Big-Black-Bass" shall have the daughter of Hackmatack, to share his teepee."

As Oskeloosa looked upon the Huron, he found favor in her eyes and she said "That is true, and thus he gains two prizes."

Many years she awaited the return of Omean, until finally she and Hackmatack left for the Happy Hunting Grounds.

Omean in spirit, and through his protegees still pursue the Chase of the Big-Black-Bass that the Indian sign may be removed.

Thus beginneth the Tribe of the "SEEKERS OF THE BIG-BLACK-BASS".

~ To Watson Beebe from J.B. Greiner, 1934

HACK-MA-TACK INN

A favorite haunt of Mullett Lakers is the picturesque Hackmatack Inn, located just north of where Mullett Lake empties into the Cheboygan River. It’s an unique experience to travel by boat, dock at the Hackmatack, and then enjoy one of those excellent Hackmatack meals. And it IS one of the best restaurants in the North Country.

In the beginning, Hackmatack was operated as a fishing lodge by Mr. Watson Beebe. In 1910 he married and gained a very capable coworker. The Hackmatack became such a popular place because of its host Watson Beebe. He was a good fisherman & entertainer. He could play the piano, lead group singing, and tell great North Country stories. And occasionally, Mr. Beebe would bring in outside bands.

Don Bigelow of the Bigelow carpet people brought his band to the Hackmatack in the early Thirties. The boys lived at the Hackmatack and played three times a week there. They also played once each at the Mullett Lake Country Club, and at Topinabee Hotel. The Don Bigelow Orchestra was composed of Don Bigelow, leader & saxophones; Frank Morris, drums; Dick Whetstone, piano; Weart Kelley, saxophones; and Fritz Tice, saxophones. All but Tice were from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Tice was from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1928, Morris, Whetstone, & Tice entered their sophomore year at Penn State.

Most of the original building was lost by fire, and a new modern log cabin building was completed in 1925. There were several cottages built, surrounding the new inn. And there were sleeping rooms in the upstairs area.

In the early 1900s, fishing was excellent. Stories say that a Native American helped choose the location where the Hackmatack was constructed because of the superb fishing out front. It was common for fishermen who were fishing for bass at the mouth of the Cheboygan River to stop for lunch at the Hackmatack Inn. Those who were staying at the inn would know when lunch was ready from the ringing of a large bell at the fourth story of the Hackmatack, otherwise known as the bell tower.

After Mrs. Beebe passed away, about 1942, the Inn was closed a few years. After the war, a Mr. Sudriette of Akron, Ohio bought and operated the Hackmatack. After Mr. Sudriette came Jim and Doris Land. Mr. Land spent nearly $100,000 to modernize the Inn. He installed a modern, up-to-date kitchen, added the bar and lounge as it is today, and fixed things up nicely.

In 1966 the Hackmatack was purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Roy M. Perry, Jr.(Roy & Clarice). Roy was chief chef and Clarice was the hostess.

-Excerpts taken from "A Bit About Mullett Lake Village, 1975", COMPILED AND PUBLISHED BY FRED E. & ELEANORE CAVE GUTH, ST. LOUIS, MO. 63105

THE NAMING OF MULLETT LAKE

MULLETT was not named after the fish named Mullet. Instead, it was named in honor of one of the two Surveyors who surveyed all of northern Michigan in the early 1840s. One of those surveyors was John Mullett, the other was his fellow deputy surveyor William Austin Burt. They named Mullett and Burt Lakes after themselves.

-From Michigan Historical Markers, edited by Willis F. Dunbar, copyright Michigan Historical Commission 1967. Landmark located at Burt Lake State Park, south of Indian River on US-27...Cheboygan County.

INLAND WATERWAY

The glaciers of the last Ice Age retreated to the north some 25,000 years ago, leaving behind the lakes that rank as Michigan’s most notable geographical feature. Among the state’s largest inland lakes is Burt Lake, named after William A. Burt, who, together with Henry Mullett, made a federal survey of the area from 1840 to 1843. By following the Cheboygan River, Mullett Lake, and Indian River to Burt Lake, then up Crooked River to Crooked lake, Indians and fur traders had only a short portage to Little Traverse Bay. Thus they avoided the trip through the Straits. Completion of a lock on the Cheboygan in 1869 opened the inland waterway to the Cheboygan Slack Water Naviation Company, whose vessels carried passengers and freight until railroads put it out of business. Day-long excursions over these waters became popular with tourists.