Date November 20, 2011Comments
On the Gunflint Trail, woodsmoke is mingling with snowflakes. Skim ice covers the edges of most lakes’ bays and slender icicles hang in rows off cabin eaves. Many critters in the forest have settled in for a long winter’s nap.
But the Gunflint Trail Historical Society doesn’t hibernate during the winter months. While Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center is boarded up until May 2012, GTHS board members and employees have plenty of tasks to keep themselves busy.
Our projects and tasks include:
- Continued oral history work (Know of someone with a ton of Gunflint Trail history and stories? Would you like to be interviewed yourself? Please let us know. We’re actively working to expand our collection of oral history interviews. The collection isn’t complete without your story!)
- Archival work: continued archival work keeps us organized and helps us be a better resource to outside researchers.
- Exploration of creating museum video dvds for resale in museum shop. We’ve received many, many comments from visitors who would like to take a piece of Chik-Wauk home with them in the form of a DVD. Are you one of those individuals? If so, please comment below and let us know so we can form a more accurate idea of how much demand there is for this.
- 2012 scheduling. We’re always looking for naturalists and historians who are interested in sharing their knowledge with Chik-Wauk visitors. If you’d be interested in giving a presentation or leading a nature walk during the 2012 season, please contact us at info@chikwauk.com
- Possible exhibit additions
- Giving the GTHS website a fresh, updated look
Want to learn more about what’s happening with the Gunflint Trail Historical Society? The Gunflint Times, the biannual society newsletter, comes out later this month. By becoming a GTHS member, you’ll make sure you don’t miss a single issue and you’ll support GTHS efforts year-round.
What are things you’d like to see at Chik-Wauk next season? What ideas do you have that would help us improve? Let us know below!
Date November 16, 2011Comments
It’s the third annual “Give to the Max Day” today, the day when the website Give MN asks Minnesotans to dig into their pockets and support their favorite Minnesota nonprofit.
Individuals can use the GiveMN.org website year-round to locate and donate to Minnesota nonprofits. However, on “Give to the Max” day (also called the Great Minnesota Get-Together) there are extra incentives to donate. Each hour today, donors are entered into a drawing, known as the Golden Ticket to win an additional $1000 for their nonprofit. At the end of the day, $10,000 are given away to one lucky MN nonprofit. All you have to do to get the Gunflint Trail Historical Society in the running for those prizes is donate today in the Gunflint Trail Historical Society’s name.
Participating in “Give to the Max” day on behalf of the GTHS is easy. Just head over to the Gunflint Trail Historical Society’s Give MN website and look for the “Make a Donation” box on the right-hand side of the page. The donation process is fast and secure: literally, a two-click procedure. You can pay with Visa, Mastercard, or American Express and can also schedule weekly, monthly, or annual payments.
But why donate to the Gunflint Trail Historical Society today?
- You get more bang for your buck with when you donate online. While grant funds can cost nonprofits 20 cents per $1 raised and direct mail campaigns as much as $1.25 (yowzers!), an online donation costs organizations like the GTHS just 7 cents per $1 raised.
- Any donation over $25.00 can be applied to a Gunflint Trail Historical Society membership. Let us know you’d like your gift applied to your membership dues by clicking “add a designation” in the “your donation” box on the second page of the donation process and type “GTHS membership.”
- Your donation promotes the preservation of Gunflint Trail history. Your gift helps the GTHS conduct oral history interviews, create archival space, reconstruct a historic cabin on Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center grounds, expand museum exhibits, and much more.
- Your donation helps the Gunflint Trail Historical Society ensure Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center remains an important educational and community facility on the Gunflint Trail, by helping the GTHS maintain nature trails, fund naturalist programming, and maintain the building and grounds.
- Your gift keeps the Gunflint Trail Historical Society growing and strong.
- Your gift is completely tax-deductible.
Prefer not to charge your donation? No problem. Just head over to our official website and click on the large “donate” button in the middle of the page to process your payment from your bank account through the Vanco server. This donation won’t be part of the “Give to the Max” festivities, but it is still very much appreciated.
Thank you for including the Gunflint Trail Historical Society in your giving!
Date October 19, 2011Comments
Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center is now closed for the 2011 season. We will reopen on Memorial Day weekend next spring. Thanks to everyone who made for a wonderful second season!
Date October 1, 2011Comments
The tamaracks along the Tamarack Alley hiking trail are just starting to develop a warm, yellow glow. While many of the deciduous trees along the Gunflint Trail have reached the peak of their autumn color, we predict there’ll plenty of fall color to soak up in the next couple weeks.
Whatever your reason for being on the Trail this autumn, be it leaf-looking, wildlife viewing, grouse hunting, hiking, paddling, or something completely different, make sure to squeeze in a visit to Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center. We remain open every day through Sunday, October 16 from 10-5. Admission, as always, is $2 per person or $5 for family.
There are bargains to be found in the gift shop as part of our end of the season sale: 25% off all clothing, 15% off all books, and assorted discounts on various gift items such as jam, plush toys, and Northwoods memorabilia. If you’re looking to jump start your holiday shopping, look no farther than the Chik-Wauk gift shop. With every gift purchase from the shop, you support the museum, the Gunflint Trail Historical Society and local artists: such a deal!
We hope to see you at Chik-Wauk soon, before the 2011 season is going, going, gone!
Date September 15, 2011Comments
If you’re anywhere in Minnesota, chances are in, recent days you’ve heard a little bit about the Pagami Creek Wildfire. The fire, ignited by an August 18 lightning strike about 14 miles east of Ely, exploded in Monday’s high winds. The fire now covers 100,000 acres and has burned primarily in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Lake County.
Wildfires are always stressful events that can stoke fear and misinformation. Rest assured, although the Pagami Creek wildfire is a very major wildfire event, it remains a long, long ways off from the Gunflint Trail and Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center. As the crow flies, we’re at least 30 miles from the fire’s most northeastern edge. Since Tuesday, we’ve seen a stretch of cool, humid days which help check the wildfire’s growth.
In fact, we haven’t had any Pagami Creek smoke since Monday’s blow-up. (Unfortunately for Wisconsinites and Chicagoians, the wind has been blowing smoke their way for the last couple days. Sorry!) Although you may experience some heavy smoke as you drive up Lake Superior’s North Shore on Highway 61, the Pagami Creek wildfire is no reason to delay your autumn visit to Chik-Wauk or the Gunflint Trail.
While you may not find any smoke when you visit the Trail, you’ll find a lot of other things. The upper Gunflint Trail is currently wearing its autumn coat of yellow and red foliage. The moose, deer and grouse all seem to have been a little more active in the cooler temperatures. The air now carries that decidedly autumn crispness and that crispness in turn always seems to make the sky a little brighter blue.
For the best updates on the Pagami Creek fire, we recommend you check out the fire’s Inciweb. If you’d like to learn more about Gunflint Trail wildfires, check out the wildfire panel in the museum. Books in our reading corner offer a more in-depth look at wildfire history, especially the Ham Lake Fire of 2007.
After all, this is a fire dependent ecosystem. And even when there’s a fire in the forest, North woods life goes on, just as it always has.
Date August 26, 2011Comments
A tasty fundraiser for the Gunflint Trail Historical Society is now in its fourth year. The “A Taste of the Gunflint Trail” open house event returns on Sunday, September 4 from 11-5. It’s your chance to peek in at various historic Gunflint Trail lodges along the Gunflint Trail while supporting the preservation of area history and filling your belly with delicious homemade goodies.
To participate, just follow your nose (the “Taste” signs) up the Trail. The signs’ll direct you to businesses participating in this year’s Taste event.
The following businesses are opening up their lodges and serving up some of their finest fare:
- Bearskin Lodge –Sally’s Mushroom Soup
- Trail Center – Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Wild Mushroom Couscous, Ten-bean soup, Bread Pudding with Pumpkin Syrup
- Gunflint Lodge – “Walleye Chowder”
A small donation is suggested per “taste.”
This year’s featured venue is Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center (formerly Chik-Wauk Lodge) where homemade pie and ice cream will be served on the front porch as part of an old-fashioned social. There’s a $5 suggested donation and coffee and lemonade will also be served.
After you’ve eaten your fill, venture inside the museum to enjoy the interpretative and interactive exhibits on Gunflint Trail history. Local authors John Hendricksson, Betty Hemstad and Beryl Singleton Bissell will also be hanging out inside, ready to sign books. Once you’re through the museum, you can stretch your legs on Chik-Wauk’s network of six hiking trails and don’t forget to swing by Chik-Wauk’s first-ever sidewalk sale on the front lawn. You’ll find an assortment of gift items at 40% off. The sale is a one-day only, exclusive Taste of the Gunflint event.
We hope we’ll see you at this year’s Taste!
Date July 30, 2011Comments
After our loon chicks hatched two weekends ago, we were afraid we might have run out of “newness” at the museum and nature center. After all, how to you follow-up a pair of fluffy little loon chicks getting feed by Mom and Dad, taking rides on their parents’ backs, and trying their hardest to dive underwater?
But just when the loon family became infrequent visitors to the bay, just we thought we were out of tricks for 2011, the temporary exhibit arrived.
The exhibit space behind the fireplace in the museum’s main room is a designated temporary exhibit space whose content is swapped out annually. Last year’s exhibit focused on the evolution of the Gunflint Trail from a footpath to a two-lane, paved National Scenic Byway. This year, the exhibit is devoted to the history of Chik-Wauk Lodge.
Although many museum visitors are well aware of the museum building and property’s “past”, many visitors don’t realize that the building which now houses the museum was once the main lodge building of Chik-Wauk Lodge. Now museum visitors can learn about Chik-Wauk Lodge, which operated from 1934-1980. The exhibit details the ownership history, the construction of the building and resort and everyday life at the lodge.
There’s always something new to see at Chik-Wauk!
Date July 15, 2011Comments
Maybe you’ve been up to Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center recently and you’re wondering if it might be the right time to join the Gunflint Trail Historical Society. Or maybe you haven’t made it up to Chik-Wauk yet, but are planning to head up this season. Either way, now’s a great time to join the Historical Society. Why?
The Gunflint Trail Historical Society is a private non-profit who operates Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center. Formed in 2005, the Historical Society devoted its first five years to developing, refurbishing, and opening Chik-Wauk. Now the Historical Society manages the museum, collects historical data, conducts oral history interviews, and plans and develops future exhibits for the museum. Members of the GTHS are invited to play in active role in the society by volunteering at the museum or attending monthly meetings during the summer season. Perhaps most importantly, Gunflint Trail Historical Society members and their guests receive free admission to the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center.
The Gunflint Trail Historical Society has recently made it even easier to join the society: Now you can join online. You can opt to pay in full, or you can set up a recurring payment that can occur weekly, monthly, or annually. We hope people will find this new system easy to use and will appreciate more flexible payment options. Your feedback is welcomed at info@gunflinttrailhistoricalsociety.org.
Your contribution is tax-deductible and helps keep Chik-Wauk and the GTHS strong! We so appreciate your support.
Date July 2, 2011Comments
Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature is OPEN this Fourth of July weekend. Although many historical and cultural sites run by the state government are closed due to the state shutdown, Chik-Wauk is the joint project of the U.S. Forest Service and the Gunflint Trail Historical Society and is not affected in the least by the shutdown. We remain open everyday from 10-5. Admission charge is $2 for an individual or $5 for a family.
If you need a break from the sticky July heat; we’re air-conditioned! Come enjoy our presentation of Gunflint Trail history (complete with hands-on exhibits, video displays, and a reading library) and our network of hiking trails this Fourth of July weekend.
Date June 30, 2011Comments
Since before Chik-Wauk opened for the season, a loon couple have been making a splash in the museum’s bay.
Chik-Wauk volunteer extraordinaire Phyllis Sherman donated a loon nesting platform to the museum this spring. After covering the PVC pipe platform with native plant debris and mud, volunteers anchored the platform in Chik-Wauk’s bay.
Within a week a loon couple had claimed the nest, laying their first eggs of the season on May 26. The loons incubated the eggs for eleven days, but when the black flies drove the loon off the nest, a circling eagle ceased his opportunity and destroyed the eggs. After two weeks of mourning and construction work around the nest, the loons lay their second clutch of eggs on June 18. During the nesting interim, volunteers placed vertical sticks around the nest’s edge to dissuade the eagles from a second attack.
Loons typically lay 2 eggs, but sometimes one and very rarely, three. We’ve seen at least one egg tucked in the nest. The loons take turns sitting on the nest and because male and female loons look almost identical, although male loons are usually a little larger, it’s basically impossible to tell if Mama or Papa is sitting on the nest.
We are hopeful for a happier ending for our loon couple this time. Loons incubate their eggs for 27-30 days before the chicks hatch. After hatching, the chicks still have to overcome many obstacles, like the gigantic snapping turtle who likes to sun itself on a large rock in the bay, before reaching maturity. The chicks are about 11 weeks old when they learn to fly. If our loon couple welcomes a new addition (or two) in a couple weeks, they’ll have to work hard to keep their little one safe and make sure the chick(s) are strong enough to make the long flight south this fall before the lakes freeze.
