Letters from Thief Lake

By Randy Prachar

Letters from Thief Lake is a compilation of monthly essays written during 2008-2012 for The Middle River Honker, a weekly newspaper published out of Middle River, Minnesota. The essays represent the spirit of life at Thief Lake for my family and me during those years.

So why Thief Lake? What (or where) is this Thief Lake? And who am I that I might represent what life was like during those years when my wife, Milly, and I lived at Thief Lake? Good questions, all.

Thief Lake is a real place. It is a 7000-acre-plus shallow lake in northwestern Minnesota that lies within the tallgrass aspen parklands, a transition zone between prairie to the west and forest to the east. Thus, the diversity of plants and animals surrounding Thief Lake is remarkable, drawing the attention of a variety of outdoor types ranging from hunters to onlookers.

I was the area wildlife manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources at Thief Lake Wildlife Management Area from 2006-2012. Milly and I lived onsite in a DNR residence near WMA headquarters. It was a headquarters not just for wildlife management operations but also for adventures that we shared with our kids, their spouses, and our grandchildren. We are a hunting family, so many of our adventures centered on pursuit of game animals common to the area. But just as conspicuous in our story are the vast array of family experiences lived out in a rural northwestern Minnesota setting.

God figures prominently in Letters from Thief Lake. Milly and I are Christians who try to take our faith walk seriously.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GNNNP9QT
• ISBN13: 9798994618004
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Randy Prachar
• Length: 203 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"