The Chisago City Heritage Association is very grateful for the support it has received.
The foundation of this organization was the work done by Vernon Shoquist and acquisition of historic photos and other materials he was able to put together. Vernon was Chisago City's historian for many years and had accumulated pictures, postcards, papers and other ephemera. He was also responsible, along with the Chisago City Booster Club, for the publication of Building Chisago City in 1981 the 75 anniversary of Chisago City's incorporation.
In 1996 the Chisago Lakes area celebrated the 150th Jubilee of the Swedish Immigration. Charles Gramling and Ernest (Jim) Murphy Chisago City formed the Chisago City Historical Society, a chapter of the Chisago County Historical Society, and raised the funds to hire Ian Dudley to design and cast the statue of Vilhelm Moberg.
In 1998 Donna Colberg, then president of the Chisago City Historical Society, organized a celebration in honor of Vilhelm Moberg's 100th birthday.
For years Donna gave walking tours of the historical Chisago City.
In 2002, after the Shoquist materials became available, the historical society moved to incorporate separate from the County Society as the Chisago City Heritage Association, a 501 c(3) organization. Upon review of the materials Vernon had accumulated Donna Colbeg, Charles Gramling and Marilyn Mays decided to pursue a new book to share even more of Chisago City's history.
Moira Harris was contracted to write the book to be titled By The Shores of Ki-Chi-Saga in time for the city's sesquicetennial in 2005. She used Vernon Shoquist's material along with interviews, original research, and other materials shared by members of the community.
The next project was to consolidate what information was already in possesion on the Dahl House Summer Resort and Hotel. To produce something that reflected the nature of the Dahl House in 2008 Jack Doepke was asked to produce a DVD that put together the story of Frank Dahl and the Dahl House. At that same time Donna Colberg coordinated the fund raising for and reconstruction of the Dahl House pillars, the only remnat of the resort.
The next years saw several original productions by Jack Doepke. The first was Chisago City: The Town That Moved, which he wrote and directed, and was based upon original research and the archives of the Heritage Association. This was put on as a play during Ki-Chi-Saga Days 2010 and was a mixture of live narrators, slides and live actor vignettes.
In 2011 Jack again produced a play for Ki-Chi-Saga Days this time based upon the historic camping heritage that Chisago City has. Both the Minnesota Camp Fire Girls and the Y.M.C.A. had their first camps on Green Lake in Chisago City. The Ghost of Camp Ojiketa was also a mix of narration, live action and historical information presented in slides.
The website dates back to 2000. Originally designed by Jenny Michaud, additonal work to put it up was done by Ellen Glenna. In 2012 Jack Doepke did another rewrite of the site and additional editing was provided by Holly Gruntner.