Editor’s note:Bryan Hansel originally posted this tribute to Lutsen Lodge (also called Lustsen Resort) on Feb. 6 his Facebook page after a fire destroyed Lutsen Lodge, Minnesota’s oldest resort and a North Shore landmark. We are reprinting his tribute with his permission.
Last night, the historic Lutsen Resort main lodge burned down. It was the oldest resort on the North Shore. This lodge, the third built on this spot, was over 70 years old and was designed by Edwin Hugh Lundie, a famous architect who was born in Iowa but made Minnesota his home. This is the second Lundie lodge on the location, and it opened for business in 1952. The first Lundie lodge lasted from 1949 to 1951 before succumbing to a laundry room fire. A kitchen fire destroyed the original lodge in 1948. It stood for 55 years.
This is a big loss to the North Shore and to tens of thousands and maybe more of visitors who fell in love with the lodge and the North Shore because they came to Lutsen Resort. The resort was more than a business for many of us; it was a gateway to the Northwoods and a nexus of connection to all the tourists who had come to the area stretching back to those who arrived by boat or a dirt trail or highway. It was a connection to stories of Prohibition when the guests would visit a nearby speakeasy and whiskey smuggling operation. It was a place where many couples connected in marriage, and a place where families connected in reunion; it was a place where foreign workers formed friendships with American workers and sometimes fell in love, married and stayed here bringing their joy to us. Families were made there, and it was a place where we could connect with and marvel at the fairy tale of it all. We could believe the story that in 1885 old man Nelson bought all the land for the resort and the ski hill for the change he had in his pocket.
Of course, the history of the land goes back further than the white Scandinavian settlers. Before the resort, the Poplar River served as a major Ojibwe canoe highway and important route connecting Lake Superior to the inland waterways. When visitors put their feet into the water of the Poplar River, even if they didn’t know it, they were connecting to all the people who traveled that route over the 1,000s of years that they did. The history of the land and the Ojibwe and their ancestors at Lutsen stretches back to the end of the Ice Age and the beginning of Lake Superior itself.
Keri and Pierre stand in front of the Lutsen Resort main lodge after being married in a blizzard
Bryan Hansel
This is my favorite photo of the exterior of the lodge. This couple, Kari and Pierre, were married at Lutsen Resort, and I thought it was great that they went through with an outdoor wedding in the middle of a blizzard. I asked them if I could photograph them and they let me. To me, this photo speaks of the relationships that formed around the lodge more than any other I took there. Even the harshest winter blizzard wasn’t going to stop their marriage.
When I first moved to northern Minnesota about 20 years ago, I got a job at Lutsen Resort guiding sea kayaking, teaching cross-country skiing and guiding other activities such as fly fishing and adventure camps. It’s also where I started my photo workshop program. I worked there for a couple of years. I have a lot of fond memories of Lutsen Resort, the people I worked with, and especially of the owners at the time, Scott Harrison and Nancy Burns. Ultimately, it is the people that make a place special. If good people own a business, and they create a good culture and a good place to work, it’ll be a good place. Scott and Nancy did that. And before Scott and Nancy, the Nelsons did that.
The old hydroelectric power plant on the Poplar River. The background shows the covered bridge that was destroyed in a 2022 flood.
While I have many stories that come out of guiding there, I’ll share one of my favorites from the history of the lodge. The Nelsons, the original owners, built the first power plant on the North Shore to power lights in the dining room. The power plant used the Poplar River to generate hydroelectric power. You can still see some of the remains of the plant on the river today. In the fall when the fallen maple leaves floated down the river, they’d jam up the sluice. That would cause the lights to dim or go out in the dining room. During dinner service when that happened, the waitresses would have to run out to the power plant and clean out the maple leaves to get the lights to come back on. Then they’d run back and continue serving the guests. The waitresses lived on site in the small red cabin on the left of the main road as you come into the resort. Imagine the job description they answered when they applied for the job, “Live at a beautiful remote resort in the middle of nowhere, work as a waitress and learn to maintain a power plant.” That’s just one of many stories of the history of Lutsen.
A fire like this can serve to break a location from its history. A tradition can carry forward when a location is rebuilt, a completely accurate reproduction can fail to capture a place’s spirit, or something new can take shape. The Lundie lodge embraced a timeless way of building that modern buildings seldom do. It seemed eternal, and seemed to expand in a way that felt organic. We won’t know what the future will bring until the current owner decides what to do, but the main lodge will live on in many of our memories. It meant a lot to many of us, and it’s sad to see it gone.
The photographer portaging a canoe past Lutsen Resort after following the Ojibwe canoe route from what is now the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to the mouth of the Poplar River
Bryan Hansel
Timeline of the lodge
~8000 BCE First people arrive in the Lake Superior region and begin to use the area
1863 Charles Axel Nelson born in Norkoping, Ostergotland, Sweden
1881 Nelson came to America
1885 Papers filed for homestead
1886 First guests stayed at the Nelson home
1893 CAA built house that had hotel rooms on the second floor
1896 School built at top of hill behind the resort
1887-1910 Steamships ran supplies up the shore and to Lutsen Resort
1918 Road is open to Duluth
1918 Electricity introduced to the resort via water powered electrical plant on river
1920s Lobby, dining room and 30 rooms added to the main lodge
1928 Cliff House built
1948 First fire destroyed original main lodge. The fire started in the kitchen.
1948 Ski hill opened
1949 Lundie-designed main lodge opened
1951 Second fire destroyed main lodge. The fire started in the laundry room.
1952 Second Lundie-designed main lodge opened
1955 Dupont’s Mylar Bubble is built over the pool; first of its kind in the world
1964 First chair lift installed on Ullr Mountain
1967 Conference room added to main lodge
1968 Sea Villa Townhome development started
1977 Alpine slide opened
1980 Ski area separated
1988 Lutsen Resort sold to Scott Harrison and Nancy Burns
1993-2000 Lakeside Log Cabins developed
1997 Sea Villa Guest Services building opened
2003 Poplar River Condos opened
2005 Cliff House Townhomes developed
2018 Lutsen Resort sold to current owners
2022 Historic floods destroy covered bridges over the Poplar River
