Building Thor's Cabin
© Bob Hazen 2023 Chapter 1. Meeting Thor Thor Nordwall and I first met in the summer of 1975 at Camp DuNord outside of Ely, Minnesota . Ely is north of Duluth in the part of the state called the Arrowhead - the triangular region of Minnesota wedged between the north shore of Lake Superior and the Canadian border. Camp DuNord is only a few miles from the pristine woods and lakes of the BWCA - the Boundary Waters Canoe Area - where no motorized vehicles are allowed. Thor was the former chairman of the St. Paul YMCA DuNord Board of Directors and helped establish the camp in the early 1960's. He worked as an engineer for Bell Telephone in St. Paul. Thor was born April 7, 1921 - he was exactly 30 years and 30 days older than me, as my birthday is May 7, 1951. He lived through the Great Depression on the East Side of St. Paul, Minnesota, and served in the Army in World War II. He went ashore at Normandy several days after D-Day 1944 and ...