In Life on the Mississippi (1883), American author Mark Twain wrote:The White-bear Lake is less known.

It is a lovely sheet of water, and is being utilized as a summer resort by the wealth and fashion of the State.

It has its club-house, and its hotel, with the modern improvements and conveniences; its fine summer residences; and plenty of fishing, hunting, and pleasant drives.

[3]Twain also noted the Native American tradition of maple sugar making on the island in White Bear Lake:Every spring, for perhaps a century, or as long as there has been a nation of red men, an island in the middle of White-bear Lake has been visited by a band of Indians for the purpose of making maple sugar.

[3]In 1883, Mark Twain documented a version of The Legend of White Bear Lake which he ridiculed.