Lake Vermilion Resort Association

The Resort Association has received many inquiries regarding the future of Bay View Lodge.  To help answer the questions, we are reprinting the following article which appeared in one of our local newspapers, “The Timberjay”, this week:

“The likelihood of Bay View Lodge reopening as a resort/restaurant is not very good. Jim Ertz, from Dennis Frandsen and Company (the same group that owns Queen City Federal) spoke at the Greenwood Town Board meeting, Tuesday, to discuss various options for the sale of the property, which is now owned by the bank. The property has been appraised at between $1.8 and $1.9 million, but Ertz said the bank is looking to get about $1.2 million in a sale.

‘It just doesn’t seem like it is financially feasible to operate the property as a resort,’ he told the board. He noted the resort had not been kept up over the past few years, and that the kitchen does not meet county code, and would require significant upgrades to reopen.

The property consists of about 14 acres on 650 feet of shoreline. Ertz said they have been showing the property, and will continue trying to sell it as-is for a couple of months. But at some point, he said, they might consider removing all the buildings from the site and dividing the land into lots.

Ertz said there is grant money available from Iron Range Resources to help pay half the costs of demolition, but such a grant would have to be applied for through the township. Ertz said another possibility would be having the fire department burn the structures as a training exercise.

Greenwood Planning Director John Ziegler noted that the property is currently zoned as a resort, and this would allow for renovation and even expansion of the current cabins. But if the buildings are torn down, he said, any new construction would have to meet the requirements of the Lake Vermilion Plan zoning. Zeigler estimated that the property could be divided into three lots under current zoning, and perhaps four or five if a cluster mound system was constructed. Ziegler also noted that if the dock portion of the shoreline was maintained as a joint access, the backlots could be sold with guaranteed lake access, thus adding to their value.

Frandsen Financial also owns land at Moccasin Point and on Oak Narrows.

‘We know this market will come back and stabilize,’ Ertz said, ‘We just don’t know when.’ “

On January 2, 55 birders counted birds in the Cook area for a 24 hour period. The count was done by car, walking or watching yards and feeders.  Weather for the day started with a temperature of -33°F.  Here are the numbers:

• Ruffed Grouse, 12
• Spruce Grouse, 2
• Bald Eagle, 3
• Rock Dove, 130
• Northern Hawk Owl, 3
• Downy Woodpecker, 31
• Hairy Woodpecker, 36
• Pileated Woodpecker, 8
• Northern Shrike, 1
• American Crow, 2
• Common Raven, 139
• Blue Jay, 134
• Gray Jay, 19
• White- Nuthatch, 60
• Red-breasted Nuthatch, 42
• European Starling, 53
• White-throated Sparrow, 1
• Dark-eyed Junco, 8
• Snow Bunting, 10
• American Goldfinch, 530
• Black-capped Chickadee, 707
• Pine Grosbeak, 182
• Evening Grosbeak, 101
• Common Red Poll, 113
• Pine Siskin, 52
• House Sparrow, 9

Some significant findings were:  sighting 3 Northern Hawk Owls verified reports of Northern Owls moving south in search of food; American Goldfinch numbers increased from 33 in 2009 to 530; Red-breasted Nuthatches dropped from 136 to 42; and numbers of Pine Grosbeaks, Pine Siskins and Common Red Polls were much less this year.

Thanks to the North Country Free Press for the information.

The following is an excerpt from the Lake Vermilion Sportsmen’s Club newsletter written by Scott Kelling, Tower MNDNR Parks & Trails:

“The Lake Vermilion area is the hub of a local land trail network that reaches in all directions. The Tower-based Vermilion Penguins maintain the Iron Ore Trail south of Tower and several links to the state trails off Lake Vermilion’s west end. Further north and west are the Bearskin and Wolftrack Trails, which are cared for by the Cook Timberwolves snowmobile club.

DNR Parks and Trails staff is responsible for year-round maintenance and grooming of another 300+ miles of nearby state trails including the Taconite, Arrowhead and Fishing Lakes trails. Voyageurs National Park, Iron Range and Ely area trails are also just a short ride away.

On Lake Vermilion, local volunteers establish 55 miles of ice trails that make travel safer and easier for snowmobilers. In addition to their land trails, the Penguins stake 37 miles of ice trails on the Tower end, while the Cook club maintains 18 miles on the Cook end. Wooden reflectorized stakes are placed every tenth mile to make navigation easy. Intersections are signed with “You are here” maps to help get riders where they want to go. Additionally, the stakes help guide riders around potential trouble spots like thin ice and exposed rocks.”

For up-to-date trail conditions for all the area trails, you can check our web page, Area Trail Conditions.  Information is updated as soon as it is available, or at least weekly.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.

In case you don’t already know - Lake Vermilion has a mail boat which runs all summer delivering mail to over 100 residents with water-access properties.  And you can ride along!  You can find more information and a link on our “List of Attactions” page under “Things to See & Do”.

A little interesting history - the following is a copy of an article titled “Mail Service for Tourists” from the Tower Weekly News, dated July 16, 1920:

“Movement Started to Establish Mail Route on Lake Vermilion

Lake Vermilion is coming to a mail service in the near future.  This idea of a tri-weekly mail service would have been smiled at.  Today it is being demanded.  Get out your scratch book and take down the names of the people living on shoreline and islands from Tower to Isaac Goodwill pleasure resort.  Think of the hundreds of tourists coming for a week or a month who want their mail and newspaper and work from the outside world.  The mail route is coming.  It will be water route rural mail.  It must be covered by boat.  Mail today is being carried free of charge by the boatmen.  But the mail question is the least of their troubles.  They pass by many on their way who have mail and must go after it where the boatmen have left it.  This means a lot of trouble to him, the tourist, and he asks why can’t we have mail at our cabin?

A petition will be circulated erelong among these people of Lake Vermilion and forwarded to Washington looking towards the securing of a mail service.  Vermilion Dam guests have their mail brought to them by carrier.  But the cottager takes his paddle or his outboard motor and goes miles mayhap for his.  This mail service would cover about three months of the year and close with the closing of Lake Vermilion.  Postmaster Helm is interesting himself on behalf of it.  Every Tower citizen should help him in every way they can, as it would add to the usefulness of Tower’s office, and Lake Vermilion as well.  We then would be on the map a little larger than before.  The project is feasible and we should see it to its fulfillment.”

Once again on the drive to the Resort Association office along County Road 115, I was priviledged to see some wildlife up close.  Not one, but 2 bald eagles were feeding on something  just off the shoulder of the road.  As my car approached, they took flight - a spectacular sight from my vantage point of a few yards away.  Just another perk of living and working in this beautiful Northwoods.

On the drive between Tower and Cook  this morning on County Road 115, which runs along the south shore of Lake Vermilion, I was stopped by a timber wolf crossing the road.  I was thinking about work and not paying much attention to my surroundings when the truck about a quarter mile in front of me suddenly slowed down.  I saw an animal crossing in front of it - too large for a dog, but not walking like a deer.  Immediately it dawned on me that it was a wolf.

I am partial to wolves.  Several amazing photos of wolves are in my living room.  For some reason I feel a connection to them.  As I drew near, I pulled over to the side of the road to get a close look.  I was very grateful to the wolf, which paused a few feet from the shoulder, turned and looked at me in a perfect pose.  Of course by the time I grabbed my cell phone and zoomed in, the wolf had turned and sauntered into the cover of the trees. 

As I put my phone down, I saw that the couple in the truck I had been following had turned around and come back to look at the wolf.  We smiled and waved, sharing one of those priceless moments of nature that don’t come along very often.

The recent news about finding the spiny waterflea in Lake Mille Lacs reminds us how vulnerable our waterways are to the threat of invasive species.

Here are links to several resources:
News release on spiny waterfleas in Mille Lac

Sportsmen’s Club of Lake Vermilion on preventing introduction of invasive species

Protect Your Waters website

In May of this year, the Lake Vermilion Resort Association partnered with the Sportsmen’s Club of Lake Vermilion to provide an invasive species prevention training.  Several volunteers and resort owners were taught how to inspect boats - what to look for, where to look, and how to pass the information on to boat owners so they can check their own boats as they transport them from one body of water to another. 

The Lake Vermilion Resort Association remains committed to protecting Lake Vermilion for future generations.  Please help us in our efforts.

Each year the Sportsmen’s Club of Lake Vermilion (SCLV) sponsors a loon count on the lake.  This year’s counting is set for Monday, July 15.  The following is an excerpt from the SCLV’s website:

Lake Vermilion has always been known for its large population of loons. To lake residents and frequent visitors, the loon has been something special. One never tires of the haunting cries in the early morning or late evening hours, the sight of a loon cruising the open waters of the lake with his head below water looking for a meal, or the special scene of a loon chick — or maybe two — riding on a parent’s back to keep warm.

In the early 1980s, news of large loon die-offs off the coast of Florida had the Club worried. They could have been “our” loons. So in 1983 the Sportsmen’s Club began keeping count of the loons on Lake Vermilion every summer.

The task was quite large: thousands of acres of water, many bays and islands, and a bird that wouldn’t sit still long enough to be counted only once. But if enough volunteers could be on the water on the same day, at the same time, an accurate count could be taken. Today, the Lake Vermilion Loon Count is the longest running, single lake count of common loons anywhere in the United States.

For more information and a chart of the loon counts since 1983, visit the SCLV’s website here:

http://www.sportsmensclublakevermilion.org/htm/loonct.htm

June 6 and 7 was “Take-a-kid fishing” weekend in Minnesota. There is also a “Take-a-kid ice fishing weekend” in February. These are just two of the programs the Minnesota DNR is sponsoring to try to help reverse one of several disturbing trends in outdoor recreation (fishing, hunting, recreational boating, wildlife viewing, etc.).

Here are the figures for Minnesota for the years 1996-2006:

• State park visitation (same parks) - down 12%
• Resident anglers licensed in Minnesota (aged 16+) - down 16%
• Resident hunters licensed in Minnesota (aged 16+) - down 9%
• Recreational boating in Minnesota - down 15%

And Minnesota is doing well compared to the rest of the nation!

This trend is across all age groups.  Different reasons have been identified: 

1. For older adults - accessibility is becoming a problem.
2. For people in their 30s, 40s and 50s - work and family pressures limit time and money available.
3. For younger adults - other competing interests and lack of skills and knowledge of the outdoors.

The trend among youth, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation:  kids 8-18 now devote, on average, nearly 7 hours a day to sitting in front of various electronic media.  As a result, they are spending 50% less time outdoors than their parents did.  That leads to one of the reasons given for the lack of participation by young adults - lack of skills and knowledge.

The best way to help reverse this trend is exposure to the outdoors.  If you have children and/or grandchildren, think about ways to get them involved and interested in nature and the recreational opportunities it provides.  Turn off the electronics (not just the TV - think about the things that are taken along when you leave the house - cell phones, laptops, MP3 players, handheld games, DVD players in vehicles).  Help kids learn how to fish or camp or even just find interesting things on a hike.  If you absolutely do not have the time and resources, their are camps, groups like the Boy and Girl Scouts, Campfire, etc.

The future of outdoor recreation in the US is in our hands.