City of Oklee adds dumping station to Omar Sundrud Park

As most readers of the Oklee Herald know, over the past few years, there have been improvements made to the Omar Sundrud Park.

It all started in September of 2015 when during a Backpack Blessing ceremony that Elmer Hanson relayed the story of how Oklee’s North Park came in to existence.

This is what he told us that evening around the campfire:

Years ago, it was a very low spot when we had heavy rains and the river flooded, it would fill with water and stay there. Brush, cattails and whatnot grew there, and a lot of trash was thrown there. Lost river wasn’t dredged until 1963. Anyhow, in 1953, Oklee had a major project going on. All the streets were dug up, new storm sewers were installed, streets were refilled with sand and gravel. Problem was, where should all the old dirt go? Omar Sundrud, publisher and owner of the Oklee Herald was Mayor. Elmer couldn’t remember who the councilmen were, could have been Orlo Melby, Bill Seeger, Bert Riel, Frank Cyr and others. Anyhow, Mayor Sundrud said let’s see if we can buy or annex the low land north of the Lost River and east of the highway from the Stromme family. Which they succeeded in doing. All the dirt taken out of the streets in Oklee filled in the low spots and made The Oklee Park. Also, there was more dirt than was needed, so they covered the old city dump southeast of the city and made a nice hill for children to climb and sled down. This all came about from an idea from Mayor Sundrud. I believe the Oklee Park should be named in his honor and called “Omar Sundrud Park”! (Editors Note: These facts may not be 100% right.)

A year later, the City of Oklee decided to rename the North Park in honor of Omar Sundrud and at the Oklee Market Day celebration in August of 2016, the Mayor of Oklee, George Burthwick presented to Scott and Jack, the sons of Omar Sundrud a certificate indicating that a new sign will be installed indicating the new official name: Omar Sundrud Memorial Park.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Omar Sundrud, here is a little background on him. In 1947 he moved here with his wife and three sons to Oklee as he had purchased the Oklee Herald from Iver Gjernes, who was the second owner of the Oklee Herald. Omar Sundrud ran the Oklee Herald until 1974 when the Oklee Herald was purchased by Richards Publishing, who still owns the paper.

Omar Sundrud also during this time he had also been involved in the City of Oklee Council serving a number of years.

In a June 2017 City of Oklee meeting the park was discussed again because of a grant that was granted by Enbridge called the Eco Footprint grant which covered a number of towns in Red Lake County and Oklee was one of the recipients. 

This grant was for a picnic shelter, a portable dock for canoes and kayaks in Oklee. In Plummer it was about the same, but Red Lake Falls received the largest portion of the grant. Electric service was also added to the park so now you can have a picnic in the park and have electricity to run your roasters, crockpots, etc. The Sundrud sign was installed and greets you as you drive in. Camping sites have been designated and in 2018 a dumping station has been added for campers to empty their tanks in. Next on the list is getting water to the park. 

So remember, if you are looking of a nice place to picnic, drop a canoe or kayak in the river for a ride on the Lost River, of just need a place to relax, check out the Omar Sundrund Memorial Park, just across the bridge, north of Oklee.