The Chik-Wauk Museum on Saganaga Lake will open this weekend with new buildings and exhibits featuring Border Country’s history.
Operated by the Gunflint Trail Historical Society in partnership with the Superior National Forest, the museum is housed at the former Chik-Wauk Lodge, which operated as a fishing resort from the 1930s to 1980s. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 and opened as a museum in 2010.
This year’s temporary exhibit tells the story of Tommy Banks and his friend Jack Needham. Banks was a gangster and bootlegger active in the area during the 1930s. Needham was his friend and cabin caretaker, and known for making furniture and maps. The exhibit includes items on loan from the current owners of Tommy Banks’ cabin, Mary and Gary Connell. They have collected newspaper articles, photographs, and artifacts related to Banks and Needham. There is also an oral history available for listening from John Hutchinson, the Connells’ grandson who has learned a lot about the history.
A new Interpretive Cabin at the site will show visitors what an early cabin on the Gunflint Trail might have looked like.
The museum is also finishing up a new timber-frame pavilion to display historic watercraft from the region. It was constructed by 20 volunteers working with staff at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais. The 24-foot by 36-foot building will be home to vintage watercraft that were integral to early life on the Gunflint Trail.
“The canoes and boats were donated by private resort owners and citizens and will tell the unique stories of how the Gunflint community was explored, settled and grew,” said Dave Tuttle of Gunflint Trail Historical Society. “The new watercraft exhibit building was supported through a tremendous amount of private financial donations, many volunteer hours, and some state grant funding.”
One of the featured boats is the last of a fleet of fishing boats that worked on North and South Fowl Lakes in the 1920s and 1930s. It was donated by Clearwater Lodge, which displayed it on their front porch for many years. It will also display the birchbark canoe of Benny Ambrose, a trapper and prospector who lived on Ottertrack Lake in what is now the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness until his death in 1982.
There will be an open house to celebrate the new structures on July 1, although there will still be work to do finishing the watercraft building. Fundraisers throughout the season will seek to raise funds to complete the displays inside the building.
The museum is located on 50 acres along the Gunflint Trail, and also features walking trails and nature activities.
Chik-Wauk Museum is located at 28 Moose Pond Drive, Grand Marais, MN 55604. The museum will be open daily May 25 through October 20.
Every Tuesday from June 18 until August 20, from 2 to 3 p.m., Forest Service naturalists will present about different Northwoods topic on Chik-Wauk Museum’s front porch (if inclimate weather will be moved to inside Chik-Wauk Nature Center). More event listings are available here.
Learn more at the Chik-Wauk Museum website.