Our story
It started with a canoe.
In the 1960s, Rob’s grandfather, Fred Logan Bull, paddled across this water to start clearing a lot by hand. There were no roads, no power lines — just the woods, the lake, and a family with a plan.
A canoe and a plan
Fred Logan Bull (1902–1986) crossed the lake by canoe and began clearing the land by hand — the first generation. Every tool and every board came over the water, and Fred built the majority of the Lodge himself, while his wife Laura — everyone knew her as Betty (1904–1990) — stained every wall and helped in a hundred other ways. That same aluminum Grumman canoe still sits at the water’s edge today. Yes, you can paddle it. See the whole build in photographs →
The first guests
Fred and Betty — with Rob’s father, Robert Logan Bull (1931–2008), the second generation, and his wife Carol — raised the Lodge and welcomed its first guests. A perfectionist stonemason spent nearly two years on the fireplace, packing stones home from his hikes one or two at a time — every rock exactly as nature made it. And it was Carol who made the Lodge beautiful: she did all of the interior decorating, and it’s her touch that makes it the warm, welcoming place guests fall in love with.
A loyal following
Word spread of the finely kept lodge on the quiet lake. Families returned summer after summer — many beginning traditions that continue today.
The first renovation
The Lodge underwent its first real renovation — the first kerosene heat was installed and the water pipes were insulated, stretching the season well beyond the warm summer months, and the Lodge was refreshed for its next generation of summers.
A new steward
Care of the Lodge passed from the second generation of our family to the third: Rob (Robert Alan Bull) and Beth (Adams) Bull, whose own Maine roots run through the Adams and Merrill families of Andover and Rumford — all the way back to Susan Merrill, the very first settler child born in western Maine, delivered in Andover in the 1700s with a Native American midwife attending.
Renewed, not replaced
A careful renovation brought in modern comforts — heat and AC, a full kitchen, WiFi — while keeping the Lodge’s original simplicity and charm.
The fourth generation
The Lodge welcomed the first of our family’s fourth generation. Robbie, Nathan, and Teddy Bull are learning the place the way we all did — barefoot, on the dock — and being trained up to carry the baton.
Generations strong
Guests who first came as kids now bring a third and even fourth generation to the same dock — and we keep at it, adding something new to the Lodge every year.
Our vision
A lake house for the generations — ours, and yours.
The Lodge is now passing into our family’s fourth generation, and our vision is a simple one: to keep making it better, year after year — continually updating it with modern amenities while never letting go of the rustic charm that makes it the Lodge. A family lake house, cherished and cared for, and handed down through our family’s lineage in perpetuity.
And that promise isn’t only for our family. Many of the families who stay with us are on their third and fourth generation of summers at the lake — kids who learned to paddle here now watching their own kids learn on the same water. Our hope is that the Lodge remains their second home too: the same red Lodge at the end of the lane, the same loons at dusk, the same dock waiting at the end of the drive — a cherished family lake house for their generations as well.
See you at the lake — this summer, and for all the summers to come.