Today we’d like to introduce you to Ed And Amy Sandberg.
Hi Ed and Amy, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Amy and her family began coming to Idlewild in the early 2000s when she was a teenager. She would spend the week fishing, playing games, and enjoying the wilderness with her parents, brother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. This remained a family tradition until she met me (Ed) in grad school and I started coming up to join the trip.
It has always been her dream to run a resort, specifically Idlewild, though she didn’t expect to own it, ever since. She was (and is) the “true” fisherman in the family, though I’ve certainly come a long way since those first few years.
Roughly 7 years before we bought the resort, we spoke with the longtime owners about what they liked and disliked about running a resort and we found out that the timeline for them selling the resort and us potentially buying the resort aligned.
In the Fall of 2022 we officially signed the mortgage papers on the resort after years of saving (and a HELOC to make up the difference) and have been running it ever since.
Today, our family of 5 enjoys spending time with customers, fishing, swimming, and relaxing by the lake when we’re not running errands. Amy and I both have engineering degrees so the problems of day-to-day life running the resort are good tests for us!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been a lifestyle change, and can be a lot at times, but overall has been mostly smooth save a few “major” incidents.
To help support the business Amy and I still maintain regular engineering jobs, so that has added a bit of complications and long days to our schedules. Additionally the learning curve on the “business” side of things (bookkeeping, pricing, advertising) is not necessarily in our “engineering” wheelhouses so that has taken some getting used to.
Add on top of that a growing family and balancing our free time with being available for customers, when needed can be difficult at times.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We pride ourselves in maintaining Idlewild as a family-first resort on the edge of Kabetogama Lake, the only lake completely within Minnesota’s only National Park (Voyageur’s National Park).
Voyageur’s is a unique park in that the best way to see the park is by the water… Boating, fishing, camping, canoeing, and the like. Roughly 40% of the park is water. It’s also designated as a dark sky sanctuary and is a perfect spot for stargazing or seeing the Northern Lights (when active!).
Our resort offers 11 updated cabins (plus a pool and hot tub… the only combination on the lake!) for families to stay, relax, and “disconnect,” as much as we can these days, from day-to-day life. We see our customers as friends, and our customers see their cabins as truly “theirs.” There’s a long-running joke in Minnesota about weekends at the family cabin as being more work than relaxation and we offer the reserve… The grass is mowed, the water heater is working, and the laundry is all done. Once you unpack your luggage you can sit back, relax, and enjoy.
Other than families, Kabetogama offers premier walleye fishing, and anglers looking for a comfortable place to stay while not spending time on the lake love it.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I think it’s how we treat our customers like our friends and neighbors. Obviously, we’re responsible for the upkeep, cleaning, and overall quality of your stay, but we love chatting and learning about the lives of our customers. Many of them return year-after-year with their families and it’s always great to have the yearly updates on the kid activities, work milestones, and other events in their lives.
That, and the work we do to constantly update and upgrade our facilities. I’m constantly looking for and completing projects throughout the resort that are not only visually appealing but also unseen that make life more comfortable in the cabins.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://idlewildresort.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idlewildresort.mn/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063570341581
