Scene at the dedication party potluck. Photo by Monique Musick.
The Ida Lane Clausen Gazebo is a small eight-sided gazebo on Village Road dedicated to the memory of a vivacious and talented woman. Eleanor Loback Clausen, or, as she was usually known by her stage name, Ida Lane, was a longtime resident of Ester and a formidable, talented woman. She was a professional musician, singer, and actress; and an excellent gardener and cook (she co-authored a cookbook and contributed many recipes to the Cooperative Extension Service).
The library has a collection of her old sheet music and a recording of her honky-tonk piano playing at the Malemute Saloon, which will form the nucleus of an Ester music archive. Her son Galen Garwood is creating a movie about her life.
Many people helped to build the gazebo and its grounds, including Hans Mölders, Denise Akert-Mohr, Joe Geiss, Deirdre Helfferich, the Rogers family, Boy Scout Troop 92, the Hoeflers, Frank Therrell, Eric Glos, Jill Cameron, and many others.
The library dedicated the gazebo on August 1, 2010.
Unfortunately, the gazebo windows were subsequently vandalized, and on July 19, 2013, Eric Glos, Carla & Deirdre Helfferich, Connie Huffman, Hans Mölders, and Mike & Ritchie Musick removed the broken windows, cleaned up the grounds, planted flowers & weeded, and created a second access path. Denise Akert-Mohr, who supplied the original windows, donated a second set of windows.
On October 28, 2018, the Ida Lane Clausen Gazebo was re-dedicated, with the newly installed stained glass windows, protected by Lexan on both sides, a new plaque and a new circular picnic table in the center of the Gazebo commemorating the event.
