Eisenhower spent time at Glendalough State Park

By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower, the former general and commander of military forces during World War II who served as president of the United States, spent time at Glendalough northeast of Battle Lake, in the fall of 1952. This was 40 years before the property became a state park.

Eisenhower stayed at Glendalough during a presidential campaign retreat. Back in 1952 the property was owned by the Twin Cities-based Cowles Media Company. 

It was a local historic day, on Sept. 8 of that year, when Eisenhower, a Republican, toured the Glendalough game farm and took time for fishing. He stayed overnight in the main lodge and attended Sunday worship at First Lutheran Church in Battle Lake.

Ike was elected president two months later, in November 1952. Four years later his vice president, Richard Nixon, stayed at Glendalough after a campaign stop in Alexandria in the fall of 1956. He took time for a short swim in Annie Battle Lake. Nixon was later elected president in 1968.

In the fall of 1908, presidential candidate William Howard Taft spoke to a crowd at the Fergus Falls Great Northern Railroad station while passing through town. Later that fall Taft was elected president of the United States, succeeding Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt who spent his earlier years as a cattle rancher near Medora in western North Dakota.

Otter Tail County is fortunate that these three men (Eisenhower, Nixon and Taft) who each served as president of the United States set foot in this area of west central Minnesota.