Why Carla & Tom Burhoe sold Canoe Island Lodge

By Zander Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer

After 77 years in the Busch/Burhoe family, Canoe Island Lodge has been sold by Carla and Tom Burhoe.

The total sale was $10.7-million — $8-million the mainland property on both sides of Lake Shore Drive and $2.7-million for Canoe Island itself.

The buyers, in an LLC, as of now, wishes to remain anonymous.

“It’s actually so fresh that I haven’t even really had time to process it myself,” Mrs. Burhoe told The Chronicle Monday.

The Burhoes ran Canoe Island Lodge from 1997, when they bought it from Mrs. Burhoe’s parents, Bill and Jane Busch.
“We’re kind of like a camp for families. And the guests come for a week at a time,” Mrs. Burhoe said. So this summer, “every Saturday was hugs and tears.”

The Busches built Canoe Island Lodge, which started operation in 1946.

“My dad bought the island first,” Mrs. Burhoe said. “And then he bought the land and built six log cabins and he married my mom in 1948. They just, every year, built a little more, tore down something, rebuilt something.”

She said neighbors gave the Busches right of first refusal on the land to the north and south, “so they were able to expand to what the property is now.”

About the sale, Mrs. Burhoe said, “We actually made this decision about a year ago, that this would probably be the right timing. And we talked to our key staff very early on.

“Our guests, when they checked in this summer, knew that we were on the market. And so we had a summer of long goodbyes with everyone. It was a very, very emotional summer.”

She said, “I was worried that [guests] would be upset that it was the end of an era and instead, they were wonderful.”

She said one guest said, “‘You’ve given us 25 more years’ because when my parents were ready to make their exit plan…many guests then thought ‘this is the end of our time at Canoe Island Lodge.’”

Why sell? “There was certainly the idea about what happens with the next generation, and our kids had made decisions to go in other directions,” Mrs. Burhoe said.

“But I think really, what accelerated everything was the two years of COVID.”

She said in the “COVID year,” they didn’t actually open — they just rented some freestanding accommodations. It “kept the lights on, but it wasn’t a year that you could be profitable,” she said.

Mrs. Burhoe said it made them “realize that the model we have is very special and unusual” — families staying at the lodge for a week at a time, year after year.

“But it’s also not a model that you see continuing,” she said, comparing it to “all of the places in the Catskills all during the 50’s” that eventually closed.

“So it’s really kind of the end of a model,” said Mrs. Burhoe.

She noted, “2021 was rough because of staffing. And 2022 was rough, because of staffing…I think it became apparent that Tom and I couldn’t work any more hours in a week.

“At some point, you have to say if you’re going to make a transition, do you make that transition when things are on a high note when you’re providing the level of service that you have been providing — that the guests are happy, that the staff are happy and making money and saving money and want to come back.”

“And that’s really the time to leave,” Mrs. Burhoe said, “as opposed to when things are starting to crumble, you know?”

Dan Davies brokered the sale. He said the buyers are “somewhat local….They intend on running it just as the Burhoes have run it.”

Mrs. Burhoe said, “I think that they have a vision for a lot of improvements and less of a camp…I think they’re going to take it to a new place.”

She added, “That made us feel good that it was continuing. It wasn’t going to be torn down and turned into a McMansion, you know?”

“It’s an incredible place,” Mr. Davies said. “The island is really unparalleled on the lake — to have such a large, privately owned island — very, very special.

“No structures on it. Basically they use it as a picnic Island. The lakeside property has incredible views, it’s protected. It’s very convenient to everything.”

“There are very few large tracts like that left, because it really sits on both sides of the road, and it’s fairly substantial size. In my opinion, it’s one of the top two or three resorts on the lake.”

Mrs. Burhoe said her favorite part of running the lodge was the “long term relationships” that they developed with guests and their families, and their staff.

For their closing weekend, “we had four of some of our most entertaining and fun Irish waiters that had ever worked for us. And they all flew back and other staff members came in from out of the area.

“They were guests. They weren’t just bunking in. They wanted to share all of their experiences and their love for the lodge and their relationships with me and Tom, and it was a beautiful way to have a closing weekend.”

Mrs. Burhoe said, “I appreciate so much the experience that we had, and what we were able to continue and the appreciation that the guests had, and all of those relationships.

“It’s a sad time. But I also feel like Tom and I accomplished continuing that legacy of my parents at a time that I didn’t think it would work, and so I guess I’m proud of that.”

“It was a good 25 years,” she said.

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