Coon Lake Beach 
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Photographer captures heart of Coon Lake Beach
by Kevin Patrick McCahill
Staff Writer
In the heart of Minnesota, west of Wyoming, the small community of Coon Lake
Beach sits, mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world.
Here residents know each other like family, and meet every day for coffee
at one of the three local hangouts: the store, the bar and the community center.
Years from now, this place and its people might likely have been forgotten.
That is, until Peter Trainor and his camera came along.
Trainor is a photographer who turned his lens on the city he lives in, and
created a photographic collection celebrated by the city in an exhibition
last week.
"The story is about the people of Coon Lake Beach," said Trainor,
his Alabama drawl thick. "I took pictures to preserve this place historically"
The southerner moved to Minnesota 20 years ago after his home of Gulf Shores,
Ala., got wiped away by a hurricane. Trainor, who presents his art under the
name Peter Dennis, said Coon Lake Beach reminds him of his past home.
"It's a small community, out of the way of everything," he said.
"I fell in love with it and took an interest in the people."
The city itself has a unique history In the 1920s the Minneapolis Star newspaper,
in hopes of creating a summer resort, offered a discount price for land around
the lake, if readers bought a subscription to the newspaper.
Photographer/see page 2
The black and white photos of Peter Trainor capture a variety of life in the
Coon Lake Beach neighborhood, including this lake scene. Coon Lake Beach is
west of Broadway Avenue on the Ham Lake/East Bethel border.
Photographer.
continued from page 1A
The idea was only slightly successful, but over time, people began moving
in permanently Now, there are over 200 homes in the community.
While sitting around reminiscing one day, someone in town said that a book
should be written about the people of Coon Lake Beach. This caught
Trainer's attention.
"I'm not a writer," he said. "But I thought I could take pictures
here."
Trainor, 47, built a darkroom in his house to develop film and print his photos.
Trainor likes the quirks of the locals, and their exploits, including people
who have turned tractors into hot rods and cattle troughs into hot
tubs. Trainor describes the city as "reality TV without the TV"
Trainor began taking pictures in his youth with his father, who was an avid
photographer.
"I've been stumbling around with it ever since," he said. "It's
one of those things you never really learn completely" Self-taught, Trainor
takes his camera everywhere, including on his motorcycle during road trips.
He's taken pictures across the country, from New Orleans to Utah.
Trainor recently held a show at the Coon Lake Beach community center. All
the proceeds were donated to the city. Some of Trainer's work can be seen
at the Coon Lake Beach Web site.
He has received positive response from citizens. t "He's our local Ansel
pAdams," said Mike Stokes. "Pete would bring his pictures to pancake
breakfasts, and people would say 'Pete, these are incredible!
"He's captured the breadth
of our community up here. Everything from the people who have lived here all
their lives to the Veterans to the kids playing on docks. These are moments
we take for granted and he mirrored them onto paper."
Part time, Trainor is a wedding photographer for Ellis Photography in St.
Paul. Full time, he's a truck driver, a profession that is the inspiration
for his next project. Trainor is taking photographs of truck drivers at truck
stops.
But he still isn't finished photographing Coon Lake Beach, because Trainor
is concerned about its future. He worries its fate will be similar to that
of Gulf Shores. After the hurricane, condos were built, forcing families out.
"People will be driven out," he said, worried about the future of
his quiet city and its blue-collar residents. "In 20 years, this will
all be gone."
Kevin Patrick McCahill can be reached at 651-407-1230 or at pressreporter@sherbtel.net.
