Some people believe that Jeff Passolt showed early promise as a broadcaster back when he competed in a talent show. No, he's way too young to have performed before Ted Mack or Ed Sullivan. The talent show in which he participated took place around a crackling campfire in Wisconsin's north woods, back when he was a child.

This particular talent show was a summer ritual for his extended family, including a passel of Passolt cousins. With Jeff being one in a band of six brothers, however, his immediate family alone had a good start on cornering the talent competition. These days, as news anchor for the Twin Cities Fox network affiliate, KMSP-TV, channel 9, and regular participant on KQRS-FM's morning radio show, Passolt displays his talents to a much broader audience.

100-YEAR HISTORY

For close to 100 years, Passolt's family has owned and made extensive use of lakeside acreage in northwestern Wisconsin. Passolt's maternal great-grandfather originally purchased the land for farming. He made valiant attempts to farm the land but the sandy soil didn't cooperate. Jeff's great-grandparents and grandfather lived in the property's log cabin for three or four years, but realized that the soil just wasn't meant to grow crops.

The log cabin burned down during World War I and was never rebuilt. "He was a very pragmatic guy," Passolt said. "If he wasn't going to be living there, he wasn't going to build another house."

The property waited for the next generation to discover its true gift. Not long after serving in World War I, Jeff's grandfather returned to the property, which would become his campsite. "While a good chunk of the original property was sold, he manage to hold on to what we have now through some tough times," Passolt said, including the Great Depression and World War II.

In the 1960s, the property was split into four parcels-- one for each of Grandfather Earl King's daughters, including Jeff's mother, Nancy. Jeff's father, Bob, built a 12-foot-by-16-foot shack on the property in the mid-1960s, but the six Passolt boys generally pitched two tents for their visits, which sometimes lasted for two or three weeks.

Jeff's father did the family's cooking from "the cook tent," an old Army tent that has taken on near-mythical status in the family's memories. "Dad did a lot of the outdoor cooking in those days," Passolt said. "Mom was busy watching all the kids. My dad used a Coleman stove and we sat at a picnic table inside the tent. Let me tell you, food never tasted so good." Imagine the smell of bacon and eggs wafting through the early-morning north woods air. "The aroma of the food was just overwhelming," Jeff said. Jeff's dad is equally famous for his "Bob Passolt stew," also cooked in the great outdoors for many years.

In the early 1980s, family members decided it was time to add on to the shack, turning it into a two-bedroom cabin. And in 2001, for his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, Jeff and his brothers decided to make further improvements. The brothers and their dad spent weekends over six months gutting the cabin and making many improvements, including adding tongue-and-groove pine and a new porch. Passolt's parents now spend virtually every summer at their refurbished cabin.

Passolt himself always wanted his own cabin on the lake. The first step toward that goal occurred when he and his oldest brother purchased two of their aunts' parcels of land in 1993. Then in 1998, he hired a builder and construction began. Passolt's wife, Lisa, helped design their cabin.

The year 1998 also marked the arrival of electricity to the family property. When electric power was added to Passolt's cabin, it was extended across the property to his cousinss' and his parents' cabins. Previously, power was delivered by generator.

Passolt's new lake cabin sits on more than seven acres, with 370 feet of lakeshore. The extended family maintains a total of about 30 acres and approximately 1,300 feet of lake frontage.

Two years ago, Passolt hired a timber company to thin the lot's jack pine. The entire family then took on the task of planting 2,000 pine seedlings by hand. Back in the 70s, another planting by family members took place on his parents' land. Those Norway pines are now 35 feet tall.

The sight of the pines is just one symbol of the ever-present family history at the lake. Inside Passolt's cabin, it is clearly visible in a prominent wall of photos. Passolt assembled a photo montage of various family members at the lake, starting with his great-granparents.

"We have all sorts of photos. There's one of my great-grandparents with my grandfather when he was in his teens.

Another shows that their dock was where mine is today. In fact, my cabin is located where we used to camp with grandpa and his four daughters in the early 60s. We'd pitch tents in a semi-circle-- almost like scout camp."

Even choosing a name for his cabin is tied to family history. "King's View Lodge" is named for the view his Grandpa King had of the lake. Passolt's cabin is situated on the same property as the original turn-of-the-century log cabin.

Favorite Memories

Needless to say, Passolt has a flood of memories about time spent on the lake.

An important one is spending Christmases there with his wife, Lisa, and their two daughters, Lesley-Anne and McKenna. "We always spend Christams at the cabin," he said. "We have an old-fashioned Christmas. We find a tree in the woods, cut it and bring it back. My wife always jokes that we find the most scraggly, sickly looking tree, but hey, I don't want to cut a nice one," he said with a laugh. There's that family pragmatic streak reappearing.

Passolt also treasures the time at the cabin he spends on "projects," whether they involve making repairs or spending time at a favorite hobby, woodworking. "I'll see a picture in a magazine and decide to make something similar," he said. Among his handcrafted creations are coffee tables, end tables, TV tables, headboards, sconces and lamps. "I find woodworking a good stress reliever," he explained, "and there is no shortage of logs here." Passolt takes care to burn a name, design or other message into his finished works with a soldering gun.

Passolt credits his father with teaching him the right way to do woodworking. "My dad has always been handy and kept telling us, 'Get it right. Get it level.'"

While Passolt uses electric saws and other power tools, he marvels at what his ancestors were able to construct with hand tools. "I tease my dad now," Passolt said. "He built that 12-by-16 cabin without any power tools, hacking away with his hand saw. It's a good lesson for all of us."

Passolt moves from respect for his father's skills to the skills of his own log cabin's designer and builder, Don Neumann, of Wisconsin Pioneer Log Homes. "This cabin is quite a change from the old days. It's like artwork. He built the cabinets by hand, made the doors from scratch. We feel very lucky to have this."

Besides enjoying the beautiful cabin and his woodworking, Passolt finds plenty to do at the lake, which the family visits year-round. It doesn't hurt that one of his brothers was a developer of Black Bear Golf Course about three minutes away. "It's a real hub of opportunity here," Passolt said. "You have a choice of things to do, or you can just enjoy the beauty and solitude."

Looking back, almost all of Passolt's experiences at the lake have been overwhelmingly positive. Of course, there was that time at age 12 when he and a cousin got lost in the woods. "We weren't found until 10:30 that night," Passolt said. "I'll never forget that."

But most memories recall happy times-- summer afternoons spent pulling kids (or being the kid) in innertubes or skis behind a runabout, fishing from an old swimming pontoon, Fourth of July nights when one of his uncles always managed to shoot off some fireworks, days spent shoveling snow off part of the lake for ice skating, and those wonderful nights around the campfire.

"Most kids went to camp," Passolt said. "This is where I went."

And he wouldn't have had it any other way. "We feel very fortunate."

By Barb Umberger