Podcasts about Lake Superior

More than a century after the 1913–14 Copper Country Strike, one of its most prominent leaders now has a permanent place in downtown Calumet, Michigan. Anna Klobuchar Clemenc, better known as “Big Annie,” was born in Calumet to Slovenian immigrant parents and became a leader in the strike, founding and serving as president of the Women's Auxiliary No. 15 of the Western Federation of Miners. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Team Big Annie chairperson Vada Riederich about the years-long community effort to raise $150,000 to create a bronze statue honoring her legacy and the August 2026 unveiling. Vada about how a Facebook post grew into a years-long campaign, the people who helped make the monument possible, and what Big Annie's legacy can teach new generations about labor history in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula.Notable Quotes:“She was driven and she would not give up on what should be fair and right.”“At that time when women had no voice and no vote, that's quite an undertaking for a young woman of 25 years old.”“I hope that young people will be inspired to learn more about our amazing history and be proud to share it.”“We're still a young nation and we're still growing and learning from our mistakes…history gives you that information so we can figure a path to correct those mistakes”“So she spoke up at that time, and it led to good things in the future.”Helpful links:Big Annie Statue Projecthttps://www.biganniestatue.com/Keweenaw National Historical Parkhttps://www.nps.gov/kewe/Coppertown Mining Museumhttps://www.nps.gov/places/coppertown-mining-museum.htmKeweenaw Community Foundation – Big Annie Statue Fundhttps://www.keweenawcommunityfoundation.org/big-annie-statue-fundConnect with us:Lake Superior Podcast Page: https://nplsf.org/podcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalParksOfLakeSuperiorFoundationSponsors:Cafe Imports – Minneapolis-based importers of specialty green coffees since 1993, focused on sustainability. Learn more: cafeimports.comNational Parks of Lake Superior Foundation – Donate to protect Lake Superior's five national parks: nplsf.org/donate

Today, Two Harbors is known for its lighthouse, ore docks and scenic Lake Superior shoreline. But in the 1880s, part of its waterfront was home to a notoriously wild strip of saloons and brothels known as Whiskey Row.So how did this rough-and-tumble settlement become the North Shore city we know today — and what are the two harbors that give Two Harbors its name? Host Erica Pearson talks with Minnesota Star Tribune reporter Christa Lawler about the early communities of Burlington Bay and Agate Bay, the railroad and iron-ore boom that transformed the area, and the colorful characters who populated its waterfront. They also explore what archaeologists later uncovered beneath Whiskey Row, including liquor jugs, shot glasses, shoes and even preserved peanut shells. It's the hidden history behind one of Minnesota's most familiar North Shore towns.

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is going to cover Midwestern skiing whether you like it or not. Don't worry, Colorad-Bro, it's your turn tomorrow.Welcome to the Storm's short-form, news-focused podcast. Don't worry, I will still write newsletters too. To browse a (robot-generated) podcast transcript, click the “transcript” button above - click on any block of text and the audio will jump to that point in the conversation. Paid subscribers can leave a comment in the article below, or by joining The Storm's chat (also below). I'll respond to some comments in the next episode, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 15.The Zoom transcript (click “transcript” above for the Substack transcript, which will zoom to any point in the video when you click on the associated text block; timestamps below DO NOT MATCH THE VIDEO)Stuart Winchester: Welcome to the Storm! I'm your host, Stuart Winchester. It is Monday, September 14th, 2026. Welcome to week two of the New Look Storm Skiing Podcast. If you missed last week, I am still doing the longer form pod.00:15:53.000 --> 00:16:08.000Stuart Winchester: But I'm cutting way back on the frequency of those. Instead, I am doing a shorter, news-focused pod that I release more often, and whenever possible, that I release the same day that I record it.00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.000Stuart Winchester: And the reason that I'm doing that is because…00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:19.000Stuart Winchester: the world has changed a lot since 2019, when I launched the Storm Skiing podcast, and when I launched it, there really wasn't anything quite like…00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:26.000Stuart Winchester: what I was doing with the long-form audio stories of a ski area's background.00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:29.000Stuart Winchester: I've done a couple hundred episodes at this point.00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:31.000Stuart Winchester: I feel like…00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:47.000Stuart Winchester: They're evergreen. But what they don't allow me to do is to really talk about what's happening in a ski area right now. Uh Especially when there's a lot of things happening and there's a lot of pieces and parts shuffling around as there is right now in the Midwest.00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:51.000Stuart Winchester: with multi-mountain passes. So, what I'm doing…00:16:51.000 --> 00:17:06.000Stuart Winchester: is I'm trying out a little bit of a new format today. The format… we're gonna experiment, we're gonna play around with it. Sometimes there'll be a guest off the top, sometimes I'll have a take off the top, uh, sometimes I'll have a guest on for a longer period, and that's gonna be the case today.00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:22.000Stuart Winchester: Because right now there is so much happening in the Midwest with multi mountain passes and different mountains leaving and joining is completely changing the landscape there. So I want to bring in someone to talk to us at length about that. We'll do a couple other fun things as well.00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:24.000Stuart Winchester: Let's bring…00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:27.000Stuart Winchester: I'm in now.00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:35.000Stuart Winchester: And there he is. Can you hear me, Matthew?00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:34.000Matthew Zabransky: Hey, how's it going, Stuart?00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.000Matthew Zabransky: I can.00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:41.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, I can't hear you. All right. This is a flub, and this is why I haven't heard her.00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:41.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:45.000Stuart Winchester: Because I am not that smart.00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:49.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, you there?00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:50.000Matthew Zabransky: Can you hear me?00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:52.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, yes, I can. Look at that.00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay, perfect.00:17:52.000 --> 00:18:07.000Stuart Winchester: The technology known as headphones. Matthew, this is why you're the production guy, and I generally stick to writing, because I'm an idiot. Alright, I want to introduce today the founder of MidwestSkiers.com.00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:13.000Stuart Winchester: He founded that in 2018, and in 2020, founded MWS Productions.00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:29.000Stuart Winchester: He is making all the Midwest content that I was dying for in the 1990s when I was a teenager living and skiing in Michigan, and the ski mags would completely ignore the region and maybe mention Boyne Mountain or Luton once per year, but he makes.00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:20.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:38.000Stuart Winchester: Top quality content. I link to it all the time in my stuff because no one else quite does it, as well as Matthew Zabranski. Matthew, welcome to The Storm. How you doing today?00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:56.000Matthew Zabransky: I am doing fantastic. Stuart, thank you, first of all, for the opportunity, but more importantly, for also repping the Midwest. I think it's such an important, obviously, region, and you have ties to it, I obviously have ties to it as well, so it's great that we're getting recognition, not only, obviously, in our region now, but on the national, even international scale, so…00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:00.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you so much for doing that. I appreciate it. I'm excited to be here.00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:08.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I love covering the Midwest, Matthew, and I still make it a point to go back and take a Midwest trip every year, because there's…00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:01.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:27.000Stuart Winchester: when I'm doing this podcast, there's nothing quite like making relationships, like showing up at, you know, a 200 vertical foothill in the boondocks in Minnesota. People are like, okay, I'll talk to this guy, even though, you know, I've never heard of him. So, but you are 100% Midwest-focused. I cover it where I can and whenever I can.00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:21.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:26.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:37.000Stuart Winchester: There is so much happening in the Midwest that we could talk about. I really want to focus today on multi-mountain passes. So…00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:34.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:37.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:53.000Stuart Winchester: I'll start by, I'll just set this up and then I'll, and then I'll, I'll let you comment on it. So if you go back about 10 years, there was nothing in the Midwest on multi mountain passes. You know, Vale had started to add a few things to Epic Pass and B Brighton and Afton Alps and Wilmot and such.00:19:53.000 --> 00:20:03.000Stuart Winchester: But the real inflection point came in 2019, when IndiePass came along. 2018, Icon added a couple things. So, right now, I'll give you some stats.00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:09.000Stuart Winchester: Of the 124 ski areas that I have inventoried in the Midwest, that you might have a different count.00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:10.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:15.000Stuart Winchester: They're 117 of those are public. 89 of those are public with aerial lifts.00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:28.000Stuart Winchester: 58 of those, although there's a couple that are just surface toes only, so 58 ski areas in the Midwest are now on a national multi-mountain ski pass. 10 on Epic.00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:32.000Stuart Winchester: 11 on Icon, 37 for Indy. So, so to start out with, Matthew.00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:34.000Stuart Winchester: How has…00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:47.000Stuart Winchester: the acceptance of the Midwest by multi-mountain national passes change the calculus for skiers as they're planning out their winter in the Midwest, compared to what it was for most of history up until just a few years ago?00:20:47.000 --> 00:21:02.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, it's changed dramatically. It's even going back a little bit further. I think the first initial, if you look at the statistics and you obviously know all this offhand, but back when you go back to Vail's acquisition of Wilmont, Afton.00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:19.000Matthew Zabransky: Brighton back in like 2012. I mean, that's really what started to to kick off this like idea of like. Maybe the Midwest has some legs in it, as far as like developing skiers, and then, you know, bringing them into a pass portfolio that could bring them out west. So that was the very early set, you know, early iteration of this. And then, obviously, as we went along, there wasn't.00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:37.000Matthew Zabransky: too many options outside of just the epic pass. But then, like you mentioned, Indie Pass came in, and I knew, and it's you know, as we dive into this, I do want to do a little disclosure here, and like Indie Pass was my very 1st client from a production side of things. So Doug and I, because I I saw the opportunity like there was an absolute gold mine here. I'm like.00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:32.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:33.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:55.000Matthew Zabransky: Because I got to travel around, that's why I started MidwestGears.com, because we were… we were traveling for my wife's job all over the Midwest, and every time we'd go to a new city, Columbus, Akron, I'd be a pass holder at one of these little ski areas, and I'd be like, holy crap, there's a lot of them here, no one's talking about them.00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:15.000Matthew Zabransky: But you know, once you start to realize there was this many, then you're then you're starting to think, okay, like, why isn't somebody coming in here and starting to develop a past that could actually stand on its own. And that's what we've seen the last, I would say, 5 to 10 years. Specifically, we've seen more people traveling around in the Midwest. You'll catch people at any stereo across the Midwest. That's not their home hill, and that's not how it used.00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:27.000Matthew Zabransky: you go ski or one little local place for the most part, you might do your weekend trip up to Boyne or something, but you would never catch people going to some of these really small places, you know, outside of just the local crew there, so it's been really cool to watch people.00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:45.000Matthew Zabransky: travel and discover, more importantly, the different areas, uh, throughout the Midwest. I think a lot of that had to do with IndyPass's push in the Midwest, because, as we're gonna talk about here in a second, it was an absolute auto-buy. Like, there was not even a question about it. From the day it started, when it was, you know, what was that, $99?00:22:45.000 --> 00:23:02.000Matthew Zabransky: up until even just the last year. It was like you almost just were gonna if you lived in the Midwest, and you like skiing, and you don't. You know you like traveling around checking out new things. There was no reason not to buy it. You'd be silly, basically not to, just because how much saturation there was in the Midwest, which I think is going to lead us into our next conversation a little bit here.00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:04.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so, so the…00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:15.000Stuart Winchester: Just being on the ground, before we get to the shuffling around, you know, I'd imagine you're pretty connected with a lot of pretty hardcore skiers, pretty frequent skiers.00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:13.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:17.000Stuart Winchester: How much has…00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:24.000Stuart Winchester: that a… a season… a multi-mountain pass becomes something that the person in the Midwest just…00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:40.000Stuart Winchester: considers or, or automatically buys it as compared to several years ago where you might buy your local season pass, but, but you, you probably, like you said, you wouldn't go around. And when I lived in the Midwest, actually, I always appreciated how close the areas were, so I would just kind of bounce around a lot for.00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:36.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:46.000Stuart Winchester: for deal days or whatever, back when those were still a thing. But how automatic has it become?00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:42.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:23:46.000 --> 00:24:01.000Matthew Zabransky: Very. I mean, there's people that have been buying the IndyPass specifically now. Up until this season, it was like they were probably on their fifth year of doing it and just continue to. And to be honest, there wasn't any reason not to because the pricing has stayed relatively affordable.00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:17.000Matthew Zabransky: they keep they kept strengthening their pro, their their product. I mean, like they just kept adding more ski areas in the Midwest. And so in in a lot of times the pass would pay itself off within a couple of visits based off of some of the redemption rates that you'd be getting at some somewhere like Lutz and Snow River.00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:34.000Matthew Zabransky: um, those are all, like, you know, $100 tickets, so you buy… you go there once or twice, you get two days of each of them, and basically that's already done. So if you already had one of those trips kind of on there, and if you lived in Chicago, you're going to Granite Peak usually once or twice a year. If you lived in Minnesota, you're going to Lutz.00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:52.000Matthew Zabransky: So it almost became this thing. And then you shuffle in like nubs, knob, and all that. So it it very much was like, yeah, we're gonna buy it every single year, you know, we might not. And some people are hardcore and going to all the places they could. And some people were just, you know. Hey? I'm gonna buy it because I'm gonna go for a weekend, so I might as well. And then I have this option of going some other places.00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:47.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:24:52.000 --> 00:25:03.000Matthew Zabransky: it was huge. I mean, I don't… of course, I don't have any of the IndyPass numbers, but I would… I would venture to say that the Midwest had to be a very big portion of their portfolio from the sales and redemption standpoint.00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:20.000Stuart Winchester: So the traditional numbers that Indy has given me, and it's been a couple years since Doug Fish provided these round numbers to me, but he told me about half of their sales came in New England, and 25% came in the Midwest, which is a really big number for a national pass. So you figured the other quarter were coming from somewhere else.00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:05.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:16.000Matthew Zabransky: Cool.00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:19.000Matthew Zabransky: For… yeah.00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:25.000Stuart Winchester: I always give Doug Fish credit, because he's a Pacific Northwest guy, and…00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:40.000Stuart Winchester: Western skiers just love to hate on the Midwest. Everyone loves to hate on the Midwest. It's like the national pastime. It's like the safe thing to make fun of, and you know, I hope you take that personally, because I always do, and I really appreciated that Doug.00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.000Matthew Zabransky: Is…00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:38.000Matthew Zabransky: I do.00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:55.000Stuart Winchester: Included the Midwest from the start. That first year in 2019, he had Little Switz, he had Crystal, he had Cabre Fay, he had a bunch of other ski areas. Really got big in 2020 when he added Lutzen and Granite Peak. Now, I always say his insight was…00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:45.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:02.000Stuart Winchester: that Doug's great insight with the IndyPass was realizing there was value in the mountains that are not.00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:08.000Stuart Winchester: super destinations when you put them all together for skiers across the country. He also…00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:23.000Stuart Winchester: the fact that he extended that to the Midwest is huge, because, yes, I… so, before Icon started adding in into the Midwest, which we'll talk about in a minute, I would always say, Indy Pass is the pass to go to in the Midwest, no one else has anything, and everyone would always say, oh, wait, Epic has 10 mountains. I was like.00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:16.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:18.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:34.000Stuart Winchester: But the Midwest is gigantic. Unless you live in Ohio, they're very spread out, and they're near cities, and there are actually mountains in the Midwest that are more…00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:44.000Stuart Winchester: of, of what you would consider, like, regional destinations. And that, that's your Boyne, Nubs, Lutsen, uh, even, even Spira with the bigger, uh, all the stuff over in the UP.00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:38.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:57.000Stuart Winchester: So Indy really collected them all together, and it was almost too good to be true, because they had over 40 ski areas in the Midwest. Talk about Indy at its peak.00:26:57.000 --> 00:27:02.000Stuart Winchester: And how great of a pass that was for the Midwest here.00:26:58.000 --> 00:26:59.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:17.000Matthew Zabransky: It was too great. We're going to get into this, I'm sure, but I think that's part of the reason for the course correction. There was a moment two or three years ago when I literally turned to Nick, my associate who edits for me and stuff, and I said, with some of the additions they announced at that time, I said.00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:33.000Matthew Zabransky: this is too saturated like it's got to fix itself at some point like it's just. It's too good of a value, and like for skiers, we like anybody that was buying the passes like this is amazing. It makes it like again. It's an auto buy like, why wouldn't you do this? But I knew that this time was going to come at some point. But I'm you know, at least we got to.00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:20.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:50.000Matthew Zabransky: to see what it like. The peak of that was for a little while. We got a couple of years. We've got to be happy for that, to be honest. We're starting to see some of those what I'll call course corrections now and and we're going to continue to see this. I mean, you know that every every year it's going to be something new. Someone's changing. It's just kind of the nature of the business. But.00:27:50.000 --> 00:28:02.000Matthew Zabransky: it was not a shock to me when, um, when these changes were announced, uh, both in the spring and then more recently in the last few weeks and stuff, so it wasn't… I kind of saw it coming, it was just a matter of, like, when was it gonna happen.00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:14.000Stuart Winchester: So everyone left… they seemed as though… Epic and Icon seemed like they were just leaving the Midwest to Indy, to take. And I've always thought that Icon's original sin was when they killed the Max Pass.00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:08.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:15.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:30.000Stuart Winchester: And launched the Icon Pass. They brought all the Powder Mountains, all the Boyne Mountains, uh, all the Intra West Mountains, but they didn't bring Granite Peak and Lutzen, which are the biggest ski areas or most modern, however, whatever metric you want to use in Minnesota and, and Wisconsin.00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:27.000Matthew Zabransky: Yep.00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:31.000Stuart Winchester: So…00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:46.000Stuart Winchester: for a long time, Indy just built up this huge coalition. Started to see some cracks last year. Icon had just two mountains, Boyne Mountain and Boyne Highlands, and honestly, and Boyne has never affirmed this to me, but my hunch is, Boyne said, include our mountains or you don't get Big Sky.00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:40.000Matthew Zabransky: Yep.00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:48.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, yeah.00:28:46.000 --> 00:29:01.000Stuart Winchester: So, so, Icon was like, okay, I guess we'll add these stupid little things. Uh, which is not my opinion of them, but I think that's probably what they thought from Colorado, which is why they dropped Lutzen and Granite Peak. So, last year, we started to see the first crack in Indy's armor.00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:55.000Matthew Zabransky: I was like, don't do that.00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:02.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm.00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:12.000Stuart Winchester: when the Icon Pass… they call them bonus mountains, I call them two-day mountains, because that's what they are. If you have an Icon Pass, you get two days of these mountains. Uh, Buck Hill, Minnesota.00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:27.000Stuart Winchester: Uh joined the icon pass as a two day mountain, which for the listeners, that's no, you get no base pass access, you only get full icon access and there are holiday blackouts. So that's what the two day tier is. They added Buck Hill. Uh Indy said, no, you're not allowed to do that. Remove Buck Hill.00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:30.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, which is a great little, uh, you know.00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.000Stuart Winchester: kind of trainer hill outside of the Twin Cities.00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:40.000Stuart Winchester: And every square inch is used with very maximum effect. So Indy removed them.00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:53.000Stuart Winchester: Buck Hill has been on Icon, and that was sort of the first… when you first saw that, did you think, okay, here we go, Icon is finally starting to realize the value of the Midwest, and if not, what was the moment that you did think that they got it?00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:09.000Matthew Zabransky: I would, you know, the whole time I've been shaking my head a little bit because it's just ironic to me that Boeing, Boeing, one of the biggest companies in, you know, that started in the Midwest, that literally has its roots here. And I'm just shocked that Icon hasn't.00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:26.000Matthew Zabransky: made this push earlier, and it took this long. But that was like the 1st that was the 1st like mention of that. And the other connection that was really kind of just crazy to me is, there's so many people from the twin cities that go to Big Sky like a lot like you talk to people all over the place. They have cabins up there. They.00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:24.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so. Yeah.00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:27.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:42.000Matthew Zabransky: They're traveling there all the time. It's a huge destination for specifically for Minnesota, it seems. So I was always thinking, man, like if they were just to strengthen this pass a little bit in the Midwest, give somebody a reason to, to jump on to the icon pass. They're probably going out to Big Sky anyway.00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:57.000Matthew Zabransky: now all of a sudden, you give them another reason to buy the full pass, you got some… some more local hills, some day… like, weekend trips, you can go up to Lutzen, things like that, and I think that's when… when Lutzen and those guys came on, that was, like, full-blown, that's gonna… that changes everything. Like, everything.00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:14.000Matthew Zabransky: As you know, the lake, Lake Michigan, is a huge divider for the eastern and the western side of what I'll call the Midwest. Basically, if you're on the eastern side of the lake, you're kind of going to stick to mostly your lower peninsula, maybe go up to the UP occasionally. But if you're on the western side over here, in the Minneapolis.00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:31.000Matthew Zabransky: Um, there was really no offerings for Icon, so it really made no sense at that point to buy an Icon Pass. You know, maybe Chicago, you drive up to Boeing, but you're kind of on that cusp there, where it's like, mmm… but I think once they strengthened it this past year, now it's like… it's a fair fight, in my opinion. Now we're.00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:46.000Matthew Zabransky: You know, which one is gonna make more sense for you, or your situation, which it was not, it didn't used to be that way, it just, there was never an opportunity for most people that were on this side of the lake, or in Minneapolis. Sometimes it didn't make sense, unless you're going out to, you know, Big Sky for a week and a half, it, you know.00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:50.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so just a little background for the listeners.00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm.00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:52.000Stuart Winchester: Boyne Mountain and and.00:31:52.000 --> 00:32:08.000Stuart Winchester: what they call the Highlands at Harbor Springs. I'll call it Boyne Highlands because no one knows what I'm talking about when I say the Highlands. So Boyne and Boyne Highlands are two of the nicer ski areas, more built up ski areas in Michigan, and they were long on Icon. Uh, Lutzen and Granite Peak.00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:58.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, this…00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:14.000Stuart Winchester: that, uh, Midwest Family Ski Resorts, which owns Lutzen and Granite Peak, bought, immediately took.00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:25.000Stuart Winchester: four old riblet lifts, put in a high-speed six-pack, the first one in the UP. So, those three ski areas had been indie anchors in the Midwest for years.00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:24.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:30.000Stuart Winchester: This year, for 2026-27 winter, they're going as 5-7 day…00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:42.000Stuart Winchester: mountains each on Icon and Icon Base, and so they are leaving the Indy Pass as a result of that. Now, Icon has also added some more two-day mountains. I'm gonna put those to the side for a second.00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:42.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:50.000Stuart Winchester: How big of a loss was Lutsen and Granite Peak and Snow River for Indy Pass in the Midwest?00:32:51.000 --> 00:33:06.000Matthew Zabransky: It's it's an easy question. I mean the answer just like, go look at the comments on the thread when it was announced, and you could just read how an impactful it was. And I think that was my argument when people started talking about like, Oh, they're you know, hey? Like they're leaving. They're leaving us in the dust, and we we don't like them anymore.00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:29.000Matthew Zabransky: It's probably justified. If you guys are this upset about them leaving, it means they probably had a little more leverage than they should have in that past portfolio. And I think it to that. And again, I don't know that it needs, like, a passion never be so strong, in my opinion. And I'm talking about the business side of things. You're not talking about the skier. Trust me, if I was, like, just skiing Matthew, put my skiing thing on, I'd be like, yeah, absolutely.00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:12.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:25.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:28.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:49.000Matthew Zabransky: Uh, but from the business side, as an area owner, operator, you gotta look at it, like, what kind of value are we getting back out of this pass? Are we the ones carrying your product? Like, that's the other thing to think about, too, right? We don't… you don't always necessarily want to be the top dog in the pass lineup. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn't. Uh, and in this case, I think that they…00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:56.000Matthew Zabransky: they were carrying that pass line up, and I think nothing speaks more to the volumes of how upset people were when they came off of the pass.00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:00.000Stuart Winchester: So we're… I've kind of looked at this as it's…00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:12.000Stuart Winchester: sucks for Indy, it's probably good for the consumer in the long run, because, like you said, you never want too much market concentration, so now you have… you have the Snow Pass coming up, which is… which is Snow Partners in two days…00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:05.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:28.000Stuart Winchester: at each mountain. There's none in the Midwest yet, but I suspect there may be at some point. Right now, they're mostly in the Northeast. And then you have Icon. So, before, I think a lot of people in Michigan probably had Icon, because you could use it for the Boynes, but like you said.00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:44.000Stuart Winchester: if you're not from the Midwest, you're probably just thinking it's like a big square, but there's a lake there, and you can't… I mean, you can take a ferry over it, but it takes all day, right? You have to go to Ludington, and it's like a whole thing, right? So really, you have Michigan, the Lower Peninsula, and then you kind.00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:33.000Matthew Zabransky: Yep.00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:58.000Stuart Winchester: Wisconsin. So, you live on the west side of that, I believe, like, around the Minnesota-Wisconsin line. How immediately did you see people say, okay, well, now, yeah, let's consider Icon that maybe never would have before?00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:49.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:04.000Matthew Zabransky: I think the original, like, when it first was announced, there was just a lot of, like.00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:17.000Matthew Zabransky: oh man, this sucks. Like, now what? You know, what do we do? Because the initial reaction was like, well, I'm not gonna auto-buy this now, I gotta think about it a little bit more. I'm curious because I haven't… it's still so fresh, to be honest, and I haven't, like.00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:07.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:12.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:32.000Matthew Zabransky: but to, like, really figure that question, like, the answer to that question out, but I have… the one thing I have been seeing is a lot more people starting to weigh those options, right? They're starting to look at the passes differently now. Now it's, like, not just, like, we're gonna pick up Indy automatically and, you know, whatever might throw a different pass on there. Now they.00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:26.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:49.000Matthew Zabransky: think about, how am I using my pass? Am I going up to Lutzen for a weekend or 2? Does it make sense for me to just get an icon pass? Am I a pass holder at Lutzen, and want to add it on now that that's an option, and maybe do an out west trip, or if you're granted peak. So I'm starting to see more people analyzing.00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:44.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:35:49.000 --> 00:36:03.000Matthew Zabransky: in an area where they haven't before. So I'll be curious to see this upcoming season will be a really good test to kind of figure out, like, where are those numbers starting to shift a little bit. But, um, from my first reaction is I have a feeling that there's gonna be a pretty big drop in IndyPass sales in the Midwest.00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:20.000Matthew Zabransky: For that reasoning. Um, and then I do think there's gonna be a bit of a spike, um, in, in IconPass sales. I don't think it's gonna obviously affect much on the Michigan side, Lower Peninsula side of things. I think that'll stay pretty stable. But I think this side, for sure, this market, Minneapolis specifically, a little bit of Chicago.00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:25.000Matthew Zabransky: Um, but I would expect to see a pretty good little spike in sales on the IconPass side.00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:35.000Stuart Winchester: So, Lutzen and Granite Peak, I think, huge losses for India. Snow River, less so, just because Powderhorn is right next door, and it's kind of the same size, and it's, you know, gets the same s.00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:30.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm.00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:32.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:53.000Stuart Winchester: Continued building by Icon after that announcement, and, and some, and some continued bleeding by Indy. So, so Icon had a Giants Ridge, which is an excellent ski area up in Minnesota. It's, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it's worth it. Uh, Devil's Head, which is a nice, uh, Madison ski area, and then.00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:45.000Matthew Zabransky: Yep.00:36:53.000 --> 00:37:10.000Stuart Winchester: in Michigan left Indy to join the Icon today, so those all joined Icon today. And then Indy also lost Little Switzerland, Nordic Mountain, and Crystal Ridge in Wisconsin. As of now, they are passless. So, you know, those are small ski areas, but they're really important sort of urban.00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:21.000Stuart Winchester: collectors, but do you worry, Matthew, and I'll say, Indy still has 37 ski areas in the Midwest, but do you worry that their coalition is splintering a little bit, starting to fall apart?00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:17.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:40.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, a little bit. So I'm going to dance around this as carefully as I can because I have connections with all these owners, operators, and I talk to them on a regular basis, so I kind of know more than I probably should. But I'll try to navigate this the best that I can.00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:36.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:56.000Matthew Zabransky: with… when IndyPass started, Doug Fish and the team did a really nice job of making sure that when they signed a ski area on, that they were being very, very intentional about its location, what… who was serving, and then when they would add another person on, a lot of times they would even approach.00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:04.000Matthew Zabransky: some of the nearby ski areas, and be like, hey, we're adding so-and-so, or making sure that those partnerships were all, you know.00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:22.000Matthew Zabransky: You're not too close where you're starting to monopolize business in different ways. I'll talk a little bit more about this in a second. So that was the approach for many, many years. However, I noticed a pretty big change a handful of years ago when it became more about a statistical difference than building those partnerships and.00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:41.000Matthew Zabransky: making those owners feel valued, if that makes sense. So it was like, okay, how can we just continue to pump numbers, get more? And in that process, what happened was a lot of ski areas in a small geographical area. And why has that caused a lot of issues for owners and operators? Is the idea of the IndyPass was, yeah.00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:50.000Matthew Zabransky: to create value with a portfolio of ski areas across the Midwest to rival that of, like, you know, other multi-mountain passes.00:38:50.000 --> 00:39:06.000Matthew Zabransky: Um, but what some of the owners and operators were starting to see was that instead of skiers buying a season pass at their local ski area, what they would do is buy the Indy Pass, ski two days at the ski area that would have been their local ski area, and then.00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:03.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:22.000Matthew Zabransky: You know, in some cases, like in the Twin Cities, you have a handful that are within a two hour drive. So then it became this thing of like, oh, we're starting to see RR like personal season passes drop for then people that are using IndiePass redemptions to treat it as if it were basically a season pass.00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:12.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:40.000Matthew Zabransky: I'm summarizing a lot there. There's a lot, like, to dive into, like, the details, but I can't, unfortunately, go into too much of that. But I think you can probably get the idea of why that was a little bit frustrating for some, um, owners and operators. So they really had to take a deep dive into some of those numbers and start to look at, like.00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:25.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:26.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:30.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:50.000Matthew Zabransky: Where are these people coming from? How are the redemptions being used? And then, you know, how is this pass either, you know, net positive or net negative for us? And, you know, I always tell everybody, it's…00:39:50.000 --> 00:40:00.000Matthew Zabransky: the ski business is, you know, Stuart, is just a very, very low margin business, and it is a business. Like, at the end of the day, like, they have to treat it like…00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:22.000Matthew Zabransky: you know, like you gotta find out where you're losing money, or is there opportunity? And that assessment has to happen on a yearly basis. And sometimes when they run it for their business, they might be finding out that this might not be a great option for them. Or maybe it was, and things have changed. And now it's not so. It's an ongoing assessment. And like I was mentioning earlier, this is going to be a game that is going to play out over the next 10 years, probably where people are going to be switching teams all the time. And.00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:28.000Matthew Zabransky: and just get used to it. I mean, this is gonna be the way it is, unfortunately or fortunately, you know.00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:31.000Stuart Winchester: If you're Indy, what's your next move to try to build your coalition back up?00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:49.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, I think the biggest thing they need to do is get some sort of anchor on this side of the lake. I mean, you've got Nub's Knob on Lower Peninsula, which is a great offering. I think that that really does anchor that side for sure. Over here, you gotta start eyeing up some areas that would serve as that anchor ski area. I know Whitecap was added.00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:38.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:49.000 --> 00:41:04.000Matthew Zabransky: Um, which is good, but I think, like, you gotta think about, you know, what is that replacement for? You know, what is that replacement for Granite Peak? And it immediately comes to mind, like, a Cascade, right? Or one of those. And we all know, like, it's just gonna be a tough sale for some of these operations, because it's always that, like.00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:00.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I think so.00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:09.000Matthew Zabransky: If you're an anchor skier, you've probably got a good operation and a good thing going already, so…00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:29.000Matthew Zabransky: you know, what is the pitch? Why should I join your indie pass? So it's always this give and take a little bit, but, you know, given that we've had a bunch of ski areas now come off of indie, there might be an opportunity to fill that little bit of a void and be kind of that new anchor spot that would then highlight that side of the lake. I don't know. It'll be curious to see kind of how things play out, but.00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:37.000Matthew Zabransky: Um, I think we'll see a little bit of this course correction go on for the next year or two, and then I think maybe we'll see some moves in the future. It's hard to say.00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:43.000Stuart Winchester: That was really good, so I'm gonna extend that question. If you're Icon, what's your next move in the Midwest, and if you're Epic?00:41:45.000 --> 00:42:02.000Matthew Zabransky: If if I'm icon, what I'm circling right now to be quite frank is somewhere in the Chicagoland area. There's an opportunity there, and I don't, you know, of course. What is it? We don't know, but I think if you could add an offering like a full offering to which is a little bit tricky to do. But yeah, like you think of something like.00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:24.000Matthew Zabransky: Cascade, Devil's Head, one of those areas, if you can get it into, like, a full area where you can now grab that Chicago market and have it really well solidified, because right now you're kind of in a, you know, it's about four hours from up to Granite Peak, and then Boeing the other way is something like that, five or something. So you're kind of in that weird dead zone there, so I think there's still a huge opportunity to grab that market, which obviously is a huge market of skiers and s.00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:15.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:20.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:30.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm. And if you're Epic, I mean, they have all city stuff, so what do you do if you're Epic?00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:29.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:49.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, I mean, I think Epic's playing the card that they want. The one thing that I am curious to see with Epic is not necessarily that, it's what's gonna happen with some of these smaller regional ski areas that have kind of been left in the dust a little bit. Paley Peaks is the first one that comes to mind when you start to think about this Snow Creek.00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:46.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:42:49.000 --> 00:43:06.000Matthew Zabransky: These ones that are just kind of in no man's land a little bit. They kind of got brought in with the Peak Resorts acquisition. I'm not sure that they necessarily wanted some of these ski areas, but they came in as a package deal as part of that. So it's just gonna be kind of interesting to see. They need a lot of reinvestment over the next, you know.00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:23.000Matthew Zabransky: 10 to 15 years, for sure, if not even sooner than that. So it'll be curious to see kind of how they approach those sort of areas in those regions, because some of those are in their own land like there is no ski area relatively close to some of them, or a couple of hours to the nearest ski area. So it'll be curious to see how they leverage that going forward.00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:44.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, Matthew, I could sink into that one for about two hours and we could have a talk. I'm going to have to bring you back for that one. But for now, let's move on. And some of the folks who may not be familiar with the Midwest, we're going to talk about some of our favorite Midwest ski areas in just a moment. First, I want to tell you that this podcast is brought to you today by Profile Search International.00:43:44.000 --> 00:44:03.000Stuart Winchester: Profile Search is the only talent acquisition firm in the entire world that is 100% focused on the ski industry. They have used their intimate understanding of skiing and related industries, and of available candidates worldwide, to place hundreds of transformational leaders at the best and most progressive ski areas over the past.00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:19.000Stuart Winchester: 30 years. Profile Search has offices in the US and Canada, and they find and negotiate with the right leaders for their team. If you want to reach out to Profile Search, you can find them at profilesearch.com, and you can get their email or phone number there, or send me a note and I will.00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:26.000Stuart Winchester: make that connection for you. That is profilesearch.com. All right, Matthew, I gave you a challenge.00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:43.000Stuart Winchester: Or, or homework or something. I don't know. I'm sure you didn't have to think too hard about this, but we are going to break down our five favorite Midwest ski areas. We each have five. We'll, we'll start with five and, and, uh, and we'll take turns. Now, these are not what we think are the best necessarily because that's a whole different.00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:47.000Stuart Winchester: Conversation and I tried to think about.00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:59.000Stuart Winchester: If you've never skied the Midwest and are only going to ski here once in your life, where would I tell people to go? So, Matthew, I'll start with you. What is your number five favorite Midwest ski area and why?00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:14.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah. So I'll just just key this up with like, yeah, I agree with you. I went with kind of like I took an approach of uniqueness. There's different things that I enjoy about this years for different reasons, and I'll obviously unpack them as we kind of go through number 5 for me was perfect north slopes.00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:08.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:15.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:32.000Matthew Zabransky: And at its face, you might not think that that's… it's, you know, it's a ski area right outside of, uh, Cincinnati, um, and the southern tip of Indiana down there. And for, you know, for people that have never heard of it, they'd be like, why does this… why is this even on here? Uh, but the moment that you visit there, I think it all becomes very clear. Their throughput.00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:51.000Matthew Zabransky: their snowmaking capacity, their operations. It is a gold standard when we think of how to run a ski area in extremely challenging conditions and environments. Perfect North is the one that comes to mind. The way that they can move people through their rental department is phenomenal. The way that they can have a stable season based off of where they are.00:45:51.000 --> 00:46:08.000Matthew Zabransky: is just absolutely mind blowing. And they've been doing this since day one. So this isn't something that they have. You know they're new to. They've been doing this for many, many, many decades now at this point. So it's it's definitely worth a visit. Their train's really good as well. They have some Olympians that have come out of there just some some good stuff going down at at perfect north slopes.00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:23.000Stuart Winchester: I'm so glad you said Perfect North, because I did not include it on my list, but I think they are one of the best operators in the country. My number 5 is Chestnut, Illinois, and everyone's… you know why, but everyone's gonna say, Illinois? Like, what does it matter with you?00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:23.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:29.000Stuart Winchester: It is so unique, because you get up there, and it's about 500 vertical feet.00:46:29.000 --> 00:46:45.000Stuart Winchester: and you ski down to the freaking Mississippi River. It is… there is nothing else like that in American skiing. It is such a gorgeous view, and there's a train that goes by, and, and, and… the lift system is fantastic. Bunch of, you know, really maintained quads.00:46:45.000 --> 00:47:00.000Stuart Winchester: They have bars, which I like, which most Midwest ski areas don't, but they've retrofit them. Their grooming is phenomenal. Terrain's really good, steep and varied, and then one of the best things is on the backside, and the name of this probably is escaping me, it's like the backyard or something.00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:48.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah. Okay.00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:00.000Matthew Zabransky: Uh, far side.00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:15.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, yeah, so they have a terrain park that could be its own ski area, and it has a lift by itself, and so all the badly behaved teenagers go over there and throw cans around and smoke. Maybe it was just the day I was there.00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:02.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:20.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, but, but my number five is Chestnut, Illinois. Uh, number four, Matthew.00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:37.000Matthew Zabransky: This is gonna be. This is gonna be a deep cut here, and I'll give you my reasoning. So I'm a sucker for community rope toe ski places like it. It warms my heart every time every year there's at least one or 2 that I go to every time I show up. It's just the kids are so excited to show me around.00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:25.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:47:27.000 --> 00:47:29.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm. Oh, love it.00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:38.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:47:37.000 --> 00:48:00.000Matthew Zabransky: They're so passionate and it really brings me back to why skiing is important and what it really is about, right? We talk about the steeps and all this fun stuff all the time, but like when you go to these places, there's just to see a kid just in jeans or whatever it may be after school ripping down. It's so fun. So one of my favorite, if not my favorite rope to ski area in the entire Midwest is a place called Hickory Hills. It's in Traverse City.00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:00.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:18.000Matthew Zabransky: It's a beautiful setting overlooking the bay, and they have just all ropes and one conveyor, and it's stacked. And it was one of the first ski areas in the Midwest to offer night skiing, which I thought was really, really cool as well. Obviously, not a lot of vertical, maybe 200 feet of vertical, depending on which rope you're going on, but it's one of those places you just show up.00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:12.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:30.000Matthew Zabransky: And they've reinvested, as recently as 2018, they built a new lodge, new snowmaking, and you just show up there, and you're just like, it brings you back to that, like, oh yeah, this is some good skiing, like, just…00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:37.000Matthew Zabransky: fundamental, good stuff, you see kids ripping around after school, it's like, it's what I think of when I think of, uh, rope tow places.00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:42.000Stuart Winchester: And long live the rope tow. I mean, it is amazing that I think they run five or six there, right?00:48:42.000 --> 00:48:46.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, I think they have six total, I believe, yeah.00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:59.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I've been there in the summer. I've never skied there. I used to ski at Sugarloaf down the… down the road till that went out of business. My number 4 is one you already mentioned, Matthew. Whitecap, Wisconsin. I just love this crazy ski area. It is…00:48:49.000 --> 00:48:51.000Matthew Zabransky: Yo.00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:04.000Stuart Winchester: I like to be confused when I'm skiing. I like it when a ski area…00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:05.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:22.000Stuart Winchester: Kind of hides its secrets and has lots of little trails and the trail map doesn't quite match up with the, with what you actually see. And, and there's lifts all over the place and there's little pockets and there's, you can tell that they don't care if you ski in the trees. And, and, and Whitecap is, is one of the most confusing ski areas I've, I've ever been to and I love.00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:23.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:40.000Stuart Winchester: it's in the great snow pocket off of Lake Superior, gets 200 or more inches of snow average per year, which is a good thing, because they don't have a lot of snowmaking, uh, there. But I really, really love Whitecap, and by the way, we did not share ours before, so we may have some crossover here. So, uh, what's your number 3, Matthew?00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:39.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:55.000Matthew Zabransky: Number three, I am going with a ski area that I think people around here would know, but I think people on the other side of the lake would not. And it is going to be Welch Village. Welch Village is an area that just, you look at the numbers, you read the stats, and you're like, this place…00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:51.000Stuart Winchester: Mmm.00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:15.000Matthew Zabransky: cannot be that good. But it really is. It skis so much bigger than the stats suggest. I think it's about 300 feet of vertical. They have like 50 something runs. But I think what Welch Village has that a lot of skiers don't is the amount of terrain variation and stepping that they have is just phenomenal for beginners, and the fact that it's only about 40 minutes from the Twin Cities.00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:31.000Matthew Zabransky: is amazing. So they have basically a run for every progression. If you want super steep, now obviously it's only 300 feet of vertical, so it's gonna be a handful of turns, but they have that. If you want something very, very gently sloped, they got that, and basically everything in between. And it's just one of those areas that is a perfect.00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:24.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:41.000Matthew Zabransky: Kind of like just outside the urban reach, right? It's not like in your backyard, but it's close enough where you can easily go for a few hours and just a perfect place to learn how to ski and snowboard.00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:57.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I love Welch Village. I was super impressed when I went there a few years ago, and it's not too far from Vail's Afton Alps, so you can do both in a day easily if you want to, but Welch Village, first-rate operation, absolutely one of the best in the Midwest. My number three is a nostalgia play, and I'm gonna say Boyne Mount.00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:44.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:50:57.000 --> 00:51:13.000Stuart Winchester: The reason I love Boyne Mountain is not because of the fast lift, so they were the first six-pack in North America, and, you know, they put in the first eight-pack in the Midwest, and there's a lot of history there. The first chairlift in the world is there. They moved it from Sun Valley.00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:23.000Stuart Winchester: the single chair from Sun Valley back in the… in the 40s, and it's now the Hemlock double chair. But what I love Boyne Mountain is because when I… back in the 90s, when I lived in Michigan.00:51:23.000 --> 00:51:30.000Stuart Winchester: they would stay open into May. And back then, there was no social media, so no one knew about it, so I'd show up, and there would be…00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:26.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:47.000Stuart Winchester: not kidding, 10 people skiing, and they would be running that six-pack all day, and they would let it bump up, and just run idiots to light, and it's where I learned how to ski moguls, and I've always just been tremendously fond of Boyne for that reason. So while it is one of the nicest ski areas in the Midwest, just on its own terms.00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:34.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:51:47.000 --> 00:52:02.000Stuart Winchester: It's also very steep. It's just, I have that feeling of, you know, that memory of skiing in my t-shirt in May in 1996, you know, down the moguls at Boyne Mountain with five other people, and it was just, it's one of my favorite ski memories ever, and the fact that they.00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:13.000Stuart Winchester: empowered that and did that. When they lost money, there's no way they didn't lose money doing that. It just speaks a lot to the spirit that still animates that company, even though it's a bigger company now.00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:16.000Stuart Winchester: Number two for you, Matthew.00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:31.000Matthew Zabransky: We'll get to this, I'm sure, at the end, but it's cool to see some of that going full circle. I don't want to give too much away. We'll get into that in a second. Number two for me is a pick that I think is going to change a lot this year, specifically because of the new lift alignment, and that's Marquette Mountain.00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:19.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.00:52:31.000 --> 00:52:32.000Stuart Winchester: Mmm.00:52:31.000 --> 00:52:50.000Matthew Zabransky: They have phenomenal terrain up there, they get great snow, and the thing that was always just missing was a little bit of polishing around the edges, and I think they're finally getting to that point now with, uh, you know, a lot of snowmaking investments over the last handful of years. This new chair from Dolphin Meyer, uh, triple gonna run up basically the center of the ski area, and I think it's really gonna change the way that this.00:52:50.000 --> 00:53:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Uh, previously, it was divided into kind of two almost separate pods. It kind of had this weird split down the middle. It was kind of hard to navigate. But given that this one's gonna go right up to the center there, you're gonna be able to get full top-to-bottom access a lot more easily, be able to access a lot more of the terrain across the port, the entire, you know, trail map off the front side there.00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:55.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:23.000Matthew Zabransky: and I think it's 1 of those that like it. This they have the terrain, and there's not many areas in the Midwest that have the terrain. It's usually the other way where it's like, Yeah, okay, we have. You know the infrastructure. We have the location, but we don't have the steeps, or we don't have the trees, or whatever it may be.00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:16.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:34.000Matthew Zabransky: It's a Marquette, good city up there in the UP, really the only major city in the UP, but they have a good demographic up there. And I think with the changes that they're gonna see this year with the new lift, it's gonna be really fun to watch.00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:28.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:44.000Stuart Winchester: Not only do they have the terrain, they have the snow. I mean, they're another one of those Lake Superior. They don't get quite as much as up in the Keweenaw or Snow River, but they do get a fair amount.00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:38.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, yeah.00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:45.000Matthew Zabransky: They do.00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:54.000Stuart Winchester: So my number two, I'm kind of going chalk on these last two, so you can probably guess what my number one is. My number two is a very obvious one, and that's Lutzen.00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:56.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:53:54.000 --> 00:54:10.000Stuart Winchester: You know, for, for folks who have never been to Lutzen, it, first of all, it has a gondola. Now, now it's more of a transit lift. It goes more sideways than up and down, but it does have, is it eight or 900 feet of vertical? I think 800 and, or you could ski down to, yeah, of lift served vertical. And the.00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:01.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:07.000Matthew Zabransky: It's… yeah.00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:26.000Stuart Winchester: enormous. It's really four separate mountains and it goes in all different directions and they have two six packs and they have that Gandhi, which is fairly new. I think within the last 10 years, they built that to replace their older one. Uh That is one of the best run ski areas in the Midwest. Another one that will stay open into May.00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:42.000Stuart Winchester: when they can. Oh, and speaking of views, I mean, the view off of Moose Mountain of Lake Superior just knock you on your ass. It is so good. I really love Lutzen Mountain, which takes us, Matthew, to your number one ski area in the Midwest.00:54:42.000 --> 00:55:01.000Matthew Zabransky: Man, man, this is one, and it's funny ‘cause I'm working on this video right now, and it's a place that every time I leave this ski area or while I'm at this gear, I just have a smile on my face the entire time. It has nothing flashy, but they do everything right, and that's nub knob. I mean, you go to this place and you just…00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:44.000Stuart Winchester: Favorite ski area.00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:00.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:17.000Matthew Zabransky: It's just crazy to me that we were working on this video and my editor, Nick, we got to the end of the video and I mentioned like, “Oh, it doesn't have any high-speed lifts, but it almost feels like it does just because of the way that they're aligned and the way the traffic flows and the way that the runs are cut and everything.00:55:17.000 --> 00:55:34.000Matthew Zabransky: It feels like another one that just, you read the stats and you're like, okay, that sounds decent. But then you get on site and you're just like, this is just a really well run ski area. Snowmaking is always top notch. Grooming is amazing. Lifts spin, they don't stop very often. I mean, everything is just really well polished.00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:33.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:45.000Matthew Zabransky: the core skiing experience, and they really nail it, and again, it's one of those, like, every time I come off the hill there, I'm just like, man, that was a great day of skiing, even if, you know, it's raining outside, I feel like.00:55:43.000 --> 00:55:44.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:55:45.000 --> 00:56:01.000Stuart Winchester: And as a… just to underscore how good of a scary it is, it's right across the street from Boyne Highlands, and it has been, you know, obviously its whole time, but for a scary to succeed, a lot of times, a smaller scary will fail next to a big corporate area, but Nubs has managed to flourish. Matthew, we actually had no crossover, because.00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:47.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:51.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:56:01.000 --> 00:56:16.000Stuart Winchester: as you can probably guess, is Mount Bohemia, and I'm sure that's probably why you left it off. Uh, Mount Bohemia, for the folks who are not familiar with it, I wrote an article last year, I called it, Mount Bohemia, the scarier the Midwest deserves, because when Mount Bohemia opened in 2000, it.00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:03.000Matthew Zabransky: Hey.00:56:04.000 --> 00:56:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Yep.00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:31.000Stuart Winchester: And it has 900 feet of vertical. They do not groom. They have no snowmaking. They get 300 inches annually. It's all, almost all, glades. Their glading is some of the best I've ever seen anywhere, because there's a lot of underbrush in Michigan.00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:22.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:48.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, the place is an absolute riot. Talk about culture. You get on the ground and you're like, oh, what's here? They don't even have a proper base lodge. It's, it's all these yurts and then they have this giant complex of hot tubs for some reason that, that everyone's always in there drinking beer and.00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:55.000Stuart Winchester: And the skiing is just… it's great! It's… it's… there's nothing else like it anywhere in North America, where there's just…00:56:55.000 --> 00:57:12.000Stuart Winchester: that much just free skiing available off of a lift, and Lonnie, the owner, has been on a couple times, and I cannot say enough good things about Nubs Knob, including… and I'll let people do their own research on this, but their season pass is $117, or $99 for… you don't want Fridays and Saturdays, and you get all kinds of reciprocals with it, so…00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:16.000Stuart Winchester: It's not a bad multi-mountain pass on its own. So…00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:14.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:30.000Matthew Zabransky: I was so. I was so nervous the 1st so I went to Bohemia last year for the 1st time ever, and I it has been on my list forever, and I keep like I want to hit it right, because I don't want to like. Just go there and not be able to ski everything. And the entire time I've been super fortunate to see a lot of amazing places in in North.00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:20.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:26.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:49.000Matthew Zabransky: And I was super nervous it was not going to live up to the hype, because I was like, this place is hyped up so much, there is no way that it is going to live up to the hype, and it absolutely did. It's one of the most unique scary areas that you'll ever go to, the operations, the bus system, the hot tub. Nothing makes sense there, but it all does in a weird way. It's an absolute riot.00:57:49.000 --> 00:58:04.000Stuart Winchester: I couldn't have said any better. I always tell people, if you ski one place in the Midwest in your life, make it Mount Bohemia. All right, now, Matthew, what I want you to leave us with today is… I imagine, maybe deliberately, you didn't mention any of these ski areas, but one of the…00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:15.000Stuart Winchester: things that you do an awesome job with every year is covering the race to open in the Midwest. So, so tell us about the race to open. Who's involved?00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.000Stuart Winchester: When it generally takes place and how you cover it.00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:35.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, so the race to open is a pretty big deal across the Midwest. It was something that before I started this website and YouTube channel, I did not really realize a lot, but the Midwest is always usually fighting for one of the first areas to open in the entire country on occasion. It really just depends on the weather.00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:52.000Matthew Zabransky: But what

Figure out where exactly SS Edmund Fitzgerald transported taconite pellets to. Discover how long it took the Fitzgerald to load and unload taconite pellets. Learn where the Fitzgerald departed from on November 9,1975 including how many crewmen were onboard. Go behind the scenes and get an in depth analysis as to what happened with the SS Edmund Fitzgerald from day she departed starting on November 9. Explore everything that went on come November 10 and how the Fitzgerald herself battled November's Fury. Discover just how deadly the waves had become on Lake Superior throughout the day into evening come November 10,1975. Learn about the Arthur M.Anderson, the ship which stood by Fitzgerald's ordeals between November 9-10,1975. Discover what the Arthur M.Anderson had lost the means to do come 7:20PM November 10. Get a breakdown of what happened mid evening November 10 as well as what has unraveled in the days following Fitzgerald's sinking. Agree if underwater surveying of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald would carry over into 1976. Get introduced to Canadian Singer Gordon Lightfoot including his connection with the Great Lakes. Explore the wide range of theory proposals behind what caused the Fitzgerald to sink. Learn what reforms came about following the Fitzgerald's sinking. Agree if there are any relics of the Fitzgerald on display for the greater public to view up close firsthand. Discover the significance behind what occurred on July 4,1995 including the passing of Canadian Singer Gordon Lightfoot in May 2023. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn everything there is to know about a lock along with an engineering milestone which occurred between 1853-1855 on Lake Superior's American Side. Discover which Michigan City per the state's Upper Peninsula Region is home to America's oldest city. Explore what Canadian Lake Freighter SS Kamloops was built to perform along with discovering if she was more than just a steamship. Learn about the assignment Kamloops got tasked with come late November 1927. Explore what exact weather hurdle made its presence felt on Lake Superior come December 5,1927. Agree if weather elements such as ice contributed to weighing Kamloops down including other factors like fog making navigation non practical. Determine if another bulk freighter spotted Kamloops in the distance along Isle Royale's rocky shoals. Learn if the Coast Guard encountered hurdles during their search and rescue mission. Go behind the scenes and explore why Coast Guard conducted another search come Spring 1928. Figure out significance behind a particular breakthrough involving SS Kamloops come December 1928. Learn what sport divers discovered when they explored Kamloops wreck site. Get an in depth analysis into the reforms which evolved following Kamloops sinking. Learn how Northwest Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, invested heavily in the iron and mineral industries. Get introduced to Mr. Edmund Fitzgerald from his job post to family background connected with Great Lakes. Learn everything that went on come June 7,1958, day SS Edmund Fitzgerald got christened. Determine exactly just how big SS Edmund Fitzgerald was including the most common natural resource item she transported. Learn how extravagant the Fitzgerald's interior truly was for being an Iron Ore Freighter as well as multiple nicknames she earned. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Agree if Lake Superior is so big to where the other four Great Lakes could fit in based upon water volume. Discover what name the Ojibwe or Chippewa People called Lake Superior including interpretations by both French & British. Get introduced to Isle Royale including its oldest lighthouse being Rock Harbor Lighthouse. Explore why Isle Royale had so many shipwrecks occur. Learn exactly what made SS Western Reserve unique for her time come year 1890 including what purposes she served. Discover the nickname SS Western Reserve got bestowed with including type of steel used for building her. Determine how many people were onboard the bulk freighter including a brief timeline of events between August 28-30,1892. Agree if a rare freakish August Gale Storm broke out around late evening come August 30,1892 including any disadvantages working against SS Western Reserve. Determine how quick it took Western Reserve to sink including breakdown of lifeboats. Discover how many survivors there were including significance behind Deer Park Station. Learn more into the reforms made following SS Western Reserve's sinking. Explore what Western Reserve and RMS Titanic had in common. Agree if the wreck of SS Western Reserve had remained a mystery for some time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My hands moved slowly over the pebbled beach as the waves of Lake Superior gently lapped the shoreline. I had found myself a nice spot to sit on the beach, close enough to the waterline to gaze at the rocks being gently tumbled by the waves, but far enough back to have a dry place to sit. As I surveyed the pebbles around me, I spotted what I was looking for. The waxy, red-banded surface of an agate poked out from the shore, beckoning me to pick it up. And though I had found the treasure I was seeking, I was determined to find more during my time along the beach. 

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what's exciting in local art.Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.A twilight circus takes over Raspberry Island Erinn Liebhard, artistic and executive director of Rhythmically Speaking, is looking forward to a one-night-only circus and cabaret performance Sunday, Aug. 23. Insomnia Salon Vol. 3: The River Night Circus takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. at Raspberry Island in St. Paul. The free event begins at twilight and is staged by Deeper Water Arts & Jackson Street Arts in partnership with St. Paul Parks. Liebhard notes that there's abundant free parking a short walk from the performance site. Liebhard says: "This show has brought together more than 45 performers to build an amazing twilight river circus, including fire dancers, aerialists, installation artists, giant puppets, food trucks, all manner of dancers and singers and musicians, tarot card readers, and a mysterious woman who tells your fortune by creating a custom fragrance for you. I'm so excited to bring my whole family to this. The show is going to be a totally delightful end-of-summer treat." Opera, drag and burlesque share the stage in St. Paul Isa Condo-Olvera is an actor and singer and St. Paul. She's a fan of both opera and drag, and she says these two high-drama performance styles combine to form "an absolute blast" in An Opera Theatre's Divas & Drag: Young, Sexy, and Baroque. Now in its fifth year, An Opera Theatre has partnered with the Bach Society of Minnesota, which will provide the musical accompaniment to opera, drag, and burlesque performers. The show takes place at the Historic Mounds Theatre in St. Paul, Aug. 21 – 24. Condo-Olvera says the combination "makes for really diverse audiences. There's the opera fans and there's the drag fans, and there's people that love both, like me. It makes for introducing new forms of art to both of those audience members, which is just so exciting and fun. It's also really fun to witness people discovering those new art forms, because the audience is such a huge part of drag." An upcycled quilt collects memories of Lake Superior Kristen McCoy creates designs from used clothes and textiles in Minneapolis under the brand ReThink and she wants to highlight two interactive, upcycled art opportunities at the Flock ArtFest taking place Aug. 21 and 22 at Bayfront Festival Park in Duluth. Resource Renew is hosting a Free Store where people can take gently used art supplies that were locally donated. Visitors can also contribute to Minneapolis-based artist Sadie Ward's Lake Superior memories quilt project by writing their memories of Lake Superior on denim from upcycled jeans. Ward will sew the pieces into a quilt in the shape of the lake. The choice of denim is intentional, McCoy says, not just for its shades of blue, but because cotton is a very water-thirsty crop. According to reporting from the U.N Environment Programme, making a single pair of jeans can take 800 to 1,000 gallons of water, with less efficient jeans soaking up as much as 2,600 gallons. "I like... everything coming together on this art project for Sadie. Having that parallel of using the denim to tell the stories of water, and also [having] a place where we can hold our memories close to us as climate change is making changes to our waterways and also with human impact changing our waterways too."

Rosie Wollums is about to start her Junior year as an Environmental Studies and Creative Writing major at Coe College. Being in the Northwoods for the first time as a Summer Naturalist Intern at the Museum, Rosie was excited to explore and visit Lake Superior. There she met a snapping turtle with mystery and empathy.

Diving into Lake Superior, Josh has brand-new intel that may finally solve a 100-year-old mystery: the resting place of two WW1 minesweepers. On their way to combat German mines in the Atlantic, the warships sank and took the lives of 79 sailors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Minnesotans have long debated the meaning of “Up North.” Is it everything north of Duluth, or north of Mille Lacs? Are pine trees and lakes a prerequisite? What about loons? Or is it more of a perception — a place defined not so much by location but by mindset? Sigurd Olson wrote his beloved book, “The Singing Wilderness,” to describe the beauty and wildness he saw in what came to be known as The Boundary Waters Canoe Area. He wrote: “The singing wilderness has to do with the calling of loons, with northern lights, and the great silences of land lying northwest of Lake Superior. It is concerned with the simple joys, the timelessness and perspective found in a way of life which is close to the past.”Cal Flyn has never been to the Boundary Waters, but she resonates with Olson's definition. A writer based in the isles off the coast of Scotland, Flyn climbed mountains, plunged into forests and helicoptered to volcanoes for her new book, “The Savage Landscape.” But more than the nature itself, she's intrigued by how we recognize and preserve these wild places. “There is no obvious visual marker that announces one's arrival in a wilderness,” she writes, “and thus, the search never truly ends.” Flyn joins Kerri Miller on this week's Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about what we mean when we say wilderness and why that definition matters. Guest: Cal Flyn is a Scottish journalist and writer. Her new book is “The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness.” Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

What does it mean to be "3 Percent Finn" yet feel deeply connected to Finnish sauna culture? For Sauna Talk Episode 137, Glenn sits down with Michael Nordskog, author of The Opposite of Cold: The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition, recorded live at Sauna Days 2026. Michael grew up in the heart of North American sauna country, and his work has helped document a sauna tradition that runs deep through northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and the greater Lake Superior region. In this conversation, Michael and Glenn get into Finnish ancestry, Northwoods sauna culture, the traditions that took root around Lake Superior, and the way sauna gets passed down through families and communities. It's also a conversation about place, identity, and why authentic sauna has endured in this part of the world long before the current wave of sauna popularity. For those of us who believe sauna is more than a hot room, Michael's perspective is an important reminder: the buildings matter, the löyly matters, but so do the stories and the people who keep the tradition alive. Recorded live at Sauna Days 2026. This episode of Sauna Talk is brought to you by Homecraft, makers of quality sauna heaters and sauna equipment. Homecraft has been building sauna products for generations and continues to support the culture of good sauna across North America. Learn more about Homecraft at homecraftsaunas.com.

FROM THE H2H VAULT: On June 27, 1977, one of Minnesota's grandest mansions became the scene of a brutal double murder. Inside Glensheen, the sprawling Congdon family estate overlooking Lake Superior in Duluth, 83-year-old heiress Elisabeth Congdon was found smothered in her bed. Her night nurse, Velma Pietila, had been beaten to death nearby. What followed was a sensational investigation involving family money, inheritance, an adopted daughter with a troubled history, and the son-in-law prosecutors believed was willing to kill for a fortune. Suspicion soon centered on Elisabeth's adopted daughter, Marjorie Congdon Caldwell, and Marjorie's husband, Roger Caldwell. Roger was convicted of murdering Elisabeth and Velma, but his conviction was later overturned. Marjorie was tried separately—and acquitted. Years later, Roger would plead guilty to the killings, while questions surrounding exactly what happened inside Glensheen that night continued to haunt the case. This is the story of Elisabeth Congdon and Velma Pietila, the extraordinary Congdon fortune, and the 1977 Glensheen Mansion murders—a case filled with wealth, family dysfunction, courtroom drama, and a legacy that remains inseparable from one of Minnesota's most famous homes. Sources used for this podcast Join the H2H In-laws & Outlaws Follow H2H on Instagram Follow H2H on X Send Kris and Rob a Text or Message Start Reading Kris Calvert's Books for FREE Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode: dumb pants, modern society, a spot on state report, AI, Amanda and West scandal, NY and London on Bravo, naughty twins, mahjong, iced coffee ASMR in cute pajamas, AI has ruined the em dash, regulate vs. relegate, Today in Yiddish, get well Ian, Love Trapped, a former Bachelor, committed to the lie, Love Island, real time, do we need this many DJs?, nose-holding, a stan stan, the return of pop!, waiting for the OGs, Ryan meet ups, Marmot Only Fans, the World Cup, ranch dressing, free refills, the funnest soccer player ever; whiskey raccoons, This Week in College Facebook Parenting, black diamonds, Chasing Rabbits, smoked goose chowder, The Best Quiz Show Ever, Odyssey inspired trivia, olive trees, Laura Gandrud, and Lake Superior drama.

Every fall, thousands of bird lovers stand far above Lake Superior, on Duluth's Hawk Ridge, and watch as thousands of raptors soar overhead on their way south. But for all of their abundance, even majestic osprey, hawks, eagles and falcons are affected by the steep declines in bird populations across the western hemisphere.In his gorgeous new book, naturalist and conservationist Robert Macfarlane asks, “What is lost when birds are lost? Above all, the creatures themselves, in their own splendor and right. And for humans — language, story, beauty, possibility, imagination, lifts of the spirit, ways of being otherwise. Birds are our place-makers, memory-keepers, calendars and clocks. They stitch the world's parts together: earth to sky, river to woodland, mountain to sea, country to country, hemisphere to hemisphere.”Click hereMacfarlane's new book, “The Book of Birds,” finds him collaborating once again with artist Jackie Morris for a beautifully illustrated ode to birds. This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Macfarlane joins Kerri Miller to talk about the birds he loves — even though he says he's not really a birder — and lament the disappearance of so many birds from our planet. His hope is that “The Book of Birds” will reignite a sense of wonder because “we will not save what we do not love.”Guest: Robert Macfarlane is an award-winning writer, who has authored many books about nature and our interconnectedness. His new book, “The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss” was co-created with artist Jackie Morris. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

May 11, 1982. Duluth, Minnesota. 33-year old married couple Larry and Debbie Race celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary by taking their boat out onto Lake Superior for an evening cruise. Hours later, Larry returns to shore and calls for help, claiming that a leak prompted them to evacuate the boat in a life raft before they became separated. Debbie's body is soon found washed up on shore and her cause of death is determined to be hypothermia. However, since the life raft cannot be found and there are a number of discrepancies in Larry's story, authorities suspect foul play and eventually charge him with Debbie's murder. Larry is convicted of the crime and receives a life sentence, but even after he is paroled 22 years later, Larry continues to maintain that Debbie's death was an accident. Was Larry Race wrongly convicted for the nonexistent murder of his wife, or was justice properly served? This week's episode explores one of the most heavily debated “Final Appeal” cases featured on “Unsolved Mysteries”.Support the show: Patreon.com/thetrailwentcoldPatreon.com/julesandashley

For generations, the mines of Michigan's Copper Country have been woven into the history of the Lake Superior region. While many of those mines closed decades ago, their stories — and the underground landscapes they created — continue to leave their mark on the communities above them. Today, researchers are combining archaeology, historic records, and emerging technologies to better understand the region's mining history, improve public safety, and explore how these underground landscapes may serve future generations. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Tim Scarlett, Associate Professor of Archaeology at Michigan Technological University. They explore the challenges of mapping abandoned mines, why understanding these underground landscapes matters, and what they can teach us about the past and perhaps the future.Connect with us:Lake Superior Podcast Page: https://nplsf.org/podcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalParksOfLakeSuperiorFoundationSponsors:Cafe Imports – Minneapolis-based importers of specialty green coffees since 1993, focused on sustainability. Learn more: cafeimports.comNational Parks of Lake Superior Foundation – Donate to protect Lake Superior's five national parks: nplsf.org/donate

There’s just one place to catch a wave outside Earth: Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. It’s the only other world in the solar system with bodies of liquid on its surface. And the waves there could reach heights of 10 feet. But future surfers will need to dress carefully; the surface temperature is almost 300 degrees below zero. Titan is half-again the size of Earth’s moon, and it has a dense atmosphere. Rain fills its lakes and seas with liquid methane, ethane, and nitrogen. The largest sea covers about 200,000 square miles – twice the area of all the Great Lakes combined. It could be several hundred feet deep. The Cassini spacecraft used radar to measure Titan’s ponds. It saw waves of no more than an inch or so high. But a recent study says the waves could get a lot bigger. Based on 20 years of observations of waves on Lake Superior, scientists built a computer model of how waves might work on other worlds. The model accounted for gravity, the pressure of the atmosphere, and the properties of the liquid. When the model was applied to Titan, it showed that even gentle breezes could whip up some big waves. But the waves would move more slowly than those on Earth – a slow-motion trip across the sea. Saturn looks like a bright star close to our moon the next couple of mornings. It’ll stand to the left of the Moon at dawn tomorrow, and the lower right of the Moon on Tuesday. Script by Damond Benningfield

We got you covered, text line comments, Happy Birthday to Ely's Jeep Guy, Jeff from Superior talked swimming in Lake Superior, talked climate change with Danno and a deal to disarm Hamas, that Kody Clemens blast once again, the revelation on Fauci, Jerry from Cloquet, and Cory from the Range...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 11, 1982. Duluth, Minnesota. 33-year old married couple Larry and Debbie Race celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary by taking their boat out onto Lake Superior for an evening cruise. Hours later, Larry returns to shore and calls for help, claiming that a leak prompted them to evacuate the boat in a life raft before they became separated. Debbie's body is soon found washed up on shore and her cause of death is determined to be hypothermia. However, since the life raft cannot be found and there are a number of discrepancies in Larry's story, authorities suspect foul play and eventually charge him with Debbie's murder. Larry is convicted of the crime and receives a life sentence, but even after he is paroled 22 years later, Larry continues to maintain that Debbie's death was an accident. Was Larry Race wrongly convicted for the nonexistent murder of his wife, or was justice properly served? This week's explores one of the most heavily debated “Final Appeal” cases featured on “Unsolved Mysteries”.Support the Show:Patreon.com/julesandashleyPatreon.com/thetrailwentcold

In this episode of Sauna Talk, the roles are reversed as Mossy Ben interviews Glenn Auerbach about Sauna Days 2026 at Larsmont Cottages on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Glenn shares the origin story of Sauna Days, from a small gathering of roughly 25 sauna enthusiasts to a sold-out celebration of sauna culture featuring mobile saunas, presentations, breathwork, cold plunges, artisans, builders, operators, and sauna people from around the world. They discuss the beautiful weather, the importance of maintaining enough bench space, the soul of the original Larsmont sauna, and the delicate balance between commerce and "kumbaya." Most of all, they reflect on the community that forms when people gather around good heat, cold water, and a shared appreciation for authentic sauna culture. You'll also hear stories from the benches, the shoreline, the Lake Room, and the spaces between sauna rounds—where strangers quickly become friends and conversations move well beyond sauna. Topics include: The origins and evolution of Sauna Days Sauna Days 2026 highlights Sauna culture in Northern Minnesota The SaunaTimes tribe and spirit of community Mobile saunas, sauna builders, and vendors Lake Superior cold plunging The balance between business and authentic sauna culture What makes Larsmont Cottages an ideal home for Sauna Days A look ahead to Sauna Days 2027 Learn more about authentic sauna culture, sauna building, events, and the Sauna Talk podcast at SaunaTimes.com. Until next time, we'll see you on the bench.

"American Indian Fairy Tales" by William Trowbridge Larned Henry R Schoolcraft offers a rich tapestry of stories originally passed down by Native Americans in the Lake Superior region, preserving their cultural identity and collective wisdom in the face of encroaching civilization. Collected in the 1830s by ethnologist Henry R Schoolcraft, these tales, while recast as children's fairy tales in the 1920s, encapsulate timeless lessons and values that resonate even today. The enduring nature of these narratives highlights the importance of storytelling as a means of cultural preservation and the transmission of knowledge across generations.

Doug Jensen, Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Planner with the MN DNR, talks about bloody red shrimp in Lake Superior

The Forest Service is opening parts of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for overnight use. It could be a reprieve for the region's economy, which has stalled because of wildfires. We'll check in with the mayor of Ely, where most nearby entrances remain closed.Wildfires in Canada have forced several First Nations communities to evacuate. We'll hear what a group in Thunder Bay is doing to help.A small town on the North Shore of Lake Superior is losing its health clinic. We'll talk with two people working to improve healthcare access in the area.Have you heard of cryptocurrency kiosks? They'll soon be banned in the state. We'll find out why.Napheesa Collier returns to the Lynx home court Tuesday. We'll hear how her return is being received by fans.Our Minnesota Music Minute was "Charlie" by Cowboy Thoughts. Our Song of the Day was "Calling Time" by The People Brothers Band.

A Stakes filled weekend at Woodbine – we have the Ontario Colleen, the Hendrie, the Trillium, the Thunder Bay and the Lake Superior. Will trainer Josie Carroll add a King's Plate to her 3 Queen's Plates? She tells us no decision has been made yet about Oaks winner, Luster. Corbourg's Melanie Giddings won another at Saratoga and you'll wish you bet it. Chantal Sutherland won a pair at Monmouth and it won't sadden you if you didn't bet her. How amazing were Jody Jamieson last week? He won 9 Stakes races in 5 days – 7 for his father Carl, then trotted over to Clinton Raceway to win the National Driving Championship. And we speak with jockey Jason Hoyte who was about to win a race at Woodbine, except his horse, Bonjino Warrior had other ideas.

On a cold November night in 1953, a U.S. Air Force jet vanished over Lake Superior while chasing an unidentified radar contact. The crew—Lt. Felix Moncla and Lt. Robert Wilson—were never found. In this episode, we dig into the facts behind the so-called Kinross Incident: radar records, Cold War tensions, conflicting official reports, and the moment two blips merged into one and disappeared.Was it a tragic accident, a Cold War misidentification—or something stranger? No speculation, just a sharp look at one of Michigan's most enduring aviation mysteries.The End of the Road in Michigan is a production of Thumbwind Publications

In Episode 135 of Sauna Talk, Glenn Auerbach welcomes psychotherapist Sierra Blake for a live conversation recorded at Sauna Days 2026 on the shores of Lake Superior. Sierra brings a graduate background in mental health psychology from the University of Minnesota, along with clinical experience working in trauma and addiction medicine. Her work explores the relationship between mind and body, including the potential psychological effects of sauna and cold-water immersion. This conversation moves beyond the usual discussion of what heat does to the body and asks a bigger question: What can shared sauna experiences do for our relationships, our communities, and our sense of belonging? Sierra explains how heat and cold create manageable stress, followed by a calming nervous-system response that may support openness, awareness, and connection. She also shares emerging research suggesting that the benefits of communal sauna may come not only from the heat itself, but from ritual, emotional synchrony, shared challenge, and the feeling of belonging to something larger than ourselves. Glenn, Sierra, and the Sauna Days audience explore: • The connection between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems • Sauna, cold water, and the mind-body relationship • Why shared challenge can bring people closer together • The difference between routine and ritual • Sauna as a generator of "loose ties" and everyday community connection • The role of mindfulness, meaning, and intention in sauna practice • Sauna as a third space outside of home and work • The potential for sauna to become part of a healthier social infrastructure • Why there may be no single "best" way to sauna Across cultures, sauna and bathing traditions have long served as places for healing, reflection, storytelling, and community. This episode offers a thoughtful look at why sauna's deepest value may lie not only in what happens inside the body, but in what happens between people. Recorded live at Sauna Days in May 2026. Learn more about SaunaTimes: https://www.saunatimes.com Subscribe to the SaunaTimes newsletter: https://saunatimes.substack.com

Isle Royale is one of the least visited of America's National Parks. Located in the northwest corner of Lake Superior, it's a tough place to get to.  Access is only by seaplane, ferry or private boat. But once visitors do come, they are likely to return. Karen Bacula has been coming to this remote island since 1997. As a teacher, she also brought students to explore this unique archipelago of islands. Now, retired, she volunteers as director of Michigan Tech's Isle Royale Institute and coordinates Moosewatch volunteers, helping people take part in fieldwork that supports the world's longest-running predator-prey study. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Karen about citizen science, wilderness learning and the lasting pull of Isle Royale.Quotes:“What connected me and made me want to just keep coming back was the beauty, the quiet, the simplicity, but yet incredibly complex whole area of what was there being surrounded by the lake. And many of the people I met were just absolutely wonderful.”“The power of the island, the power of the lake, the serenity, but also realizing that at the drop of a hat, the weather can change. So there's predictability and uncertainty in every step that you take. And I like that feeling.”“There's something special and new about it each time and getting to see the changes.”“We're looking for dead moose and looking for the condition of the skeleton to see what the moose age-wise, health-wise was like, potentially how it died.”“It becomes very cross-curricular at all different grade levels. But they all come out with the big excitement being to learn how the study's done and to learn the field techniques for collecting data for this study.”“Two things I tell them to pack that are not necessarily on the gear list is their patience and sense of humor.”“Work to bring some of what you just felt right now with the people you met and living as close to the earth as you can live, bring some of that back with you and hold on to that.”Helpful links:Learn more about the Wolf-Moose Project:isleroyalewolf.orgLearn more about joining a Moosewatch expedition:isleroyalewolf.org/volunteer-moosewatchLearn more about Moosewatch for Educators:isleroyalewolf.org/moosewatch-for-educatorsLearn more about Isle Royale wolf-moose population dynamics:isleroyalewolf.org/population-dynamicsLearn more about supporting the research through the Wolf-Moose Foundation:wolfmoosefoundation.orgLearn more about the Northern Moose Alliance: moosealliance.org Plan a visit to Isle Royale National Park:nps.gov/isro/planyourvisit/index.htmConnect with us:Lake Superior Podcast Page: https://nplsf.org/podcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalParksOfLakeSuperiorFoundationSponsors:Cafe Imports – Minneapolis-based importers of specialty green coffees since 1993, focused on sustainability. Learn more: cafeimports.comNational Parks of Lake Superior Foundation – Donate to protect Lake Superior's five national parks: nplsf.org/donate

This is High Adventure Rob from High Adventure Scouting.As a part of our series highlighting council high adventure programs, we will be featuring Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan High Adventure in this edition. Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan High Adventure is a part of the Northeast Illinois Council.The Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan High Adventure offers some awesome backcountry experiences.• The base has three high adventure options for Canoeing, Backpacking, and Kayaking.o Canoeing Treks Boundary Waters/Quetico• Travel to the boundary waters area near the Gunflint Trail along the US-Canada border• Moose, black bears, otters, pine martens, and loons are some of the animals in the area Flambeau Flowage• Area filled with islands and coves• Famous area for walleye fishing but northern pike, muskies, bass sturgeon, catfish, bluegill, and many other fish are in the area• Camping at primitive sites• Eagles, ospreys, beavers and sand cranes are some of the animals in the area Wisconsin Headwaters• Trips can be modified to your groups needs• Fishing is excellent from native trout to a range of panfish and gamefish• Eagles, wolves, black bears, seer herons, and hawks roam in this area.o Backpacking Trek Porcupine Mountains• Treks range from 20-50 miles long dependent on crew preference• Permits, equipment, food and an experienced guide are provided.• The area offers a mixed terrain from mountains to lakes Isle Royale• The area is only accessible by boat to the least visited national park crossing Lake Superior's northwest section• Thousands of acres of backcountry camping• Great scenery paired with moose and wolves on the island. Ice Age Trail• Trail winds through the lakes and bogs formed by the last glacier's melting• Set among a forest of spruce, fir, maple, and birch• Excellent introduction to backcountry camping and is a good prep hike for a Philmont treko Kayaking Apostle Island Kayak Trek• Trek led by an experienced guide through the collection of islands in Lake Superior• Stunning geological formations including caverns, arches and pillars only accessible to other kayakers• Camping will be done on the sandy beaches in the area.If this sounds like a cool opportunity, head over to makajawan.com for more information. There is a lot more info on their site.If you want more information on all kinds of high adventure options, head over to HighAdventureScouting.com.

Exploring Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula: Hidden Gems & Local Heritage with Brad BarnettWelcome back to the Outdoor Adventure Series! In this episode, Howard Fox sits down with Brad Barnett, the executive director of Visit Keweenaw, the destination marketing organization for Michigan's picturesque Keweenaw Peninsula. Known for its breathtaking natural landscapes, vibrant Finnish-American heritage, and abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation, the Keweenaw Peninsula is a hidden gem at the northernmost tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Together, Howard and Brad explore what makes this region a true four-season destination, from its cool summer escapes and dazzling fall colors to epic lake-effect snowfalls and stunning dark skies perfect for viewing the northern lights. Tune in to discover how Visit Keweenaw is redefining sustainable tourism, supporting the local community, and inviting adventurers far and wide to experience the magic of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Whether you're craving scenic trails, historic charm, or a place to simply slow down and reconnect with nature, this episode will have you planning your trip to the Keweenaw Peninsula.DISCUSSION1. Introduction and WelcomeHoward introduces the Outdoor Adventure Series and welcomes Brad Barnett as the guest 00:06Brad's role as Executive Director of Visit Keweenaw 00:14Personal reflections from Howard Fox regarding visits to the Keweenaw Peninsula and Michigan 00:592. Geographic Overview of the Keweenaw PeninsulaExplanation of Michigan's geography ("the hand" method) and Keweenaw's position 02:29Proximity to Lake Superior and its significance 02:44Fun fact about the latitude being north of most of Canada's population 03:163. Weather and ClimateComparison between Nevada (Boulder City) heat and Keweenaw's cooler temperatures 03:57Lake Superior's moderating effect on summer and winter climate 04:08Introduction of the term "coolcation" 04:14Keweenaw as a destination for beating the heat 04:304. Brad Barnett's Journey to Keweenaw and Role as Executive DirectorPersonal background and move from Kentucky for a doctoral program at Michigan Technological University 04:53Family experiences and attractions to outdoor recreation 05:19Discussion of the region's small population and initial economic development work 06:00Path to working with the Destination Marketing Organization 06:125. Keweenaw Peninsula as a Four-Season DestinationDiscussion on the tourism "seasons" and what each offers 06:56Summer: beaches, hiking, biking, access to nature 07:29Winter: 300 inches of lake effect snow, snow sports, warmer winter temps due to Lake Superior 07:45Spring: waterfalls, dark skies, fewer bugs and crowds 08:43Fall: vibrant autumn colors aided by location and climate 09:166. Dark Skies and Northern LightsHoward shares personal desire to experience dark skies in Keweenaw 10:27Discussion of minimal light pollution and visibility of northern lights 10:55Importance of Lake Superior's geography to stargazing experiences 11:247. Evolution of Visit Keweenaw as a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO)Historical focus of the DMO and its small initial scope 12:38Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on DMO's approach and responsibilities 13:21Broadening focus to stewardship, economic development, and community engagement 13:42Emphasis on responsible tourism and intentional branding 15:018. Community Response and EngagementImpact of visitation on residents and their new role as brand ambassadors 15:38Change in visitor demographics: new, younger, and more affluent travelers post-pandemic 16:50Increased pride among residents and new entrepreneurial opportunities 17:52Recognition of the value of Keweenaw as a destination and readiness to cater to a broader audience 18:479. Website Tour: Visit KeweenawHoward and Brad conduct a virtual walkthrough of the Visit Keweenaw website 20:10Site highlights: activities, events, Finnish American heritage 21:02Destination development and reinvestment in communities 21:45Transparency on how tourism dollars fund local projects and grants 22:14New focus on sustainability and stewardship resources for visitors 23:0510. Stewardship, Sustainability, and Global EngagementParticipation in global tourism think tank (the "Collective") 24:12Keweenaw's approach to balancing tourism with community sustainability 24:39Elevating local organizations and creating opportunities for visitors to volunteer 25:49Encouraging stewardship among visitors and positive customer experiences 26:1011. Economic Impact and Support for Local LodgingImportance of staying with local lodging partners to support DMO efforts 27:32Revenue sources for Visit Keweenaw (bed tax, grants) 28:04Visitor spending helps fund responsible recreation and economic development 28:2312. Storytelling and The Power of Small CommunitiesFeatures on the website such as “The Crossing Place” web series 30:02Importance of sharing stories of volunteers and local community members 30:13Social media presence and connection channels 30:3813. Personal Fulfillment and Aha Moments in Destination WorkHoward and Brad discuss the personal rewards of working in tourism 31:27Creating impactful moments for visitors and the satisfaction of seeing community projects succeed 31:57Example: Opening of Houghton Douglas Falls site and visitor reactions 32:4914. Travel's Broader Impact and ReflectionsDeeper message: importance of simple travel moments and connection to nature 35:01Tourism's power to unite, inspire, and foster empathy in a polarized world 35:54Anecdotes connecting travel to well-being, self-discovery, and community 36:1915. Closing RemarksRecap of Brad Barnett's passion and Keweenaw's uniqueness 39:47Encouragement to visit Keweenaw Peninsula and connect with it as a destination 40:08How to follow and contact Visit Keweenaw via their website and social media 40:14MEDIAhttps://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/keweenaw-peninsula-becomes-the-epicenter-of-sustainable-tourism-in-2026-michigan-summit-will-lead-the-world/https://estonianworld.com/culture/a-michigan-city-named-the-finno-ugric-capital-of-culture-2026/https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2026/04/28/city-houghton-receives-first-ever-bird-city-designation-up/LEARN MORETo learn more about Visit Keweenaw, visit their website at https://www.visitkeweenaw.com or on these social sites:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VisitKeweenawInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/visit_keweenawNEXT STEPSVisit us at https://outdooradventureseries.com to like, comment, and share our episodes.KeywordsBrad Barnett, Visit Keweenaw, Lake Superior, Michigan History, UP Travel, Copper Country, Michigan Festivals, Pure Michigan, Outdoor Adventure Series, Podcast Interview#VisitKeweenaw #LakeSuperior #MichiganHistory #UPTravel #CopperCountry #MichiganFestivals #PureMichigan #OutdoorAdventureSeries #PodcastInterviewMy Favorite Podcast Tools:  Production by DescriptHosting BuzzsproutShow Notes by CastmagicWebsite powered by PodpageBe a Podcast Guest by PodMatchBanner Customization by Nano Banana & Canva

This week in the Outdoor Minimalist public lands news briefing, we're unpacking three stories:1. At the end of June, the Forest Service proposed a rule that could limit when the public has a say in Forest Service decisions.Article that inspired the first segment: ⁠https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/forest-service-moves-to-reduce-public⁠2. New pressures form to develop the Copperwood Mine in Northern Michigan, and we cover what it could mean for Lake Superior and the Porcupine Mountains with Tom Grotewohl, founder of Protect the Porkies.3. Bears Ears & Grand Staircase-Escalante are threatened once again with upcoming Executive Orders, featuring Steve Bloch, Legal Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.Subscribe to the Outdoor Minimalist newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.theoutdoorminimalist.com/⁠Links and Sources:U.S. Forest Service. Forest Service publishes proposed rule to redefine, streamline guidance. https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agency/newsroom/releases/forest-service-publishes-proposed-rule-redefine-streamline-guidanceFederal Register. Organization Functions and Procedures; Public Notice and Comment for Standards, Criteria, and Guidance. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/01/2026-13281/organization-functions-and-procedures-public-notice-and-comment-for-standards-criteria-and-guidancePublic Inspection Copy of Proposed Rule. https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-13281.pdfThe Heritage Foundation. Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership. https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdfProPublica. How Proposed Changes to Grazing Rules Could Limit Public Oversight. https://www.propublica.org/article/public-land-livestock-grazing-ranching-accessProtect the Porkies Campaign. https://protecttheporkies.com/Iron Mountain Daily News. EGLE extends comment period on Copperwood Mine permit. https://www.ironmountaindailynews.com/news/local-news/2026/05/egle-extends-comment-period-on-copperwood-mine-permit/ABC4 Utah. President Trump is expected to issue an executive order affecting Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. https://www.abc4.com/news/politics/inside-utah-politics/president-trump-executive-order-grand-staircase-bears-ears/Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. https://suwa.org/

Where Samuel de Champlain did not actually travel himself, he sent other men to explore the interior of the continent. One was Coureur des Bois or wood runner Étienne Brûlé (1592-1632), the first white man to cross Pennsylvania and later the first to see Lake Superior. 231. Check out the YouTube version of this episode at https://youtu.be/XPBJmHqIuhI which has accompanying visuals including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams. Étienne Brûlé books available at https://amzn.to/43Xmxld Champlain's Dream by D.H. Fischer available at https://amzn.to/3GGi8Kz Samuel de Champlain books available at https://amzn.to/40Ty6ck New France books available at https://amzn.to/3nXKYzy ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 X (twitter): https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM Audio credits: LibriVox—The Makers of Canada-Champlain by N.E. Dionne, read by C. Barratt; Founder of New France-A Chronicle of Champlain by C.W. Colby, read by K. McAsh. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scott Brewer and Kyle Agre are talking hunting, fishing and just about anything you can do outdoors each weekend on Gone Outdoors Radio. This weekend's edition features Northern Minnesota Fishing Guide Jeff Sunding remembering Tom Neustrom's legacy. Sam Tumberg shares strategies for eradicating invasives from our deer habitat now and Forrest Leitch recounts a recent adventure on Lake Superior. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oneida County committee advances interim moratorium on data centers, Crowley drops out of Wisconsin Governor's race, problem wolf forces campground closure on Lake Superior's Isle Royale

The Christian life is not first the struggle to become better people, but the gradual unveiling of what we have already become through Christ. We have been fashioned to be the dwelling place of the living God. Every act of repentance, every hidden prayer, every battle against the passions, every tear shed in sincerity serves this one purpose: that the heart might become a temple in which God delights to dwell. For St. Isaac, holiness is never an end in itself. He does not call us to a perfection rooted in fear or spiritual achievement, but to the purification of the heart so that it may receive the divine Guest. As one cleans and adorns a sanctuary before the arrival of a beloved friend, so we are called to cleanse the inner chamber of the soul through humility, watchfulness, and prayer. The goal is always communion. God does not seek servants who merely obey Him outwardly; He desires children whose hearts have become His resting place. Seen in this light, repentance is transformed. It is no longer the anxious rehearsal of failures, nor the despairing gaze of one consumed by guilt. It is learning to see life beneath the light of eternity. Isaac continually asks us to remember that we will one day stand before Christ, not because he wishes to frighten us, but because only in that light do we begin to understand what truly endures. The honors we pursued, the comforts we clung to, and the anxieties that consumed us will all pass away. What remains is love. Whom did we comfort? Whom did we forgive? For whose sake did we endure hardship? Into whose hands did we entrust our heart? These are the questions that reveal whether we have already begun to live in the Kingdom. This vision gives extraordinary dignity to the hidden life. Every unnoticed act of patience, every quiet sacrifice, every refusal to judge another, every secret prayer offered for the world becomes part of the adornment of the temple. The soul is gradually made spacious enough for God. Holiness is formed less by extraordinary deeds than by thousands of small acts of fidelity that no one but Christ may ever see. Perhaps nowhere does Isaac's tenderness appear more clearly than in his understanding of tears. He knows that true repentance cannot be manufactured. We cannot force ourselves to feel sorrow, nor produce compunction by sheer effort. Even repentance is a gift. Therefore the heart finally prays with complete honesty: “I have no repentance. I have no tears. My heart has grown cold.” Such a confession is itself the beginning of healing, for it abandons every illusion of self-sufficiency. The soul no longer presents achievements to God, but poverty. And this poverty becomes the place where grace quietly enters. The prayer that follows reveals the very heart of the Gospel. Every wound of Christ becomes healing for our wounds. His Passion heals our passions. His Blood purifies our corruption. His Cross raises the mind that has been dragged downward by sin. His pierced hands lift us from the abyss into communion with the Father. Salvation is not merely the forgiveness of sins but the gradual healing and transfiguration of our entire humanity through participation in the life of the crucified and risen Christ. This is why Isaac never leaves us gazing at ourselves. Even after the deepest self-examination, he directs every thought toward Christ. The purpose of seeing our poverty is not discouragement but desire. We discover our need so that we may discover the inexhaustible mercy of God. The deeper the wound is known, the more wondrous the Physician appears. In the end, the Christian life is astonishingly simple. We become what we behold. We learn to welcome Christ into every corner of the heart until His presence becomes our peace, His humility our strength, His tears our repentance, His love our very life. Then the promise of the Apostle is fulfilled. The temple is no longer empty. The cloud of divine glory overshadows the soul, the light of Christ quietly dawns within, and the heart discovers the joy for which it was created from the beginning: to become the dwelling place of the living God. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:03:48 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/post/philokalia-ministries-summer-retreat 00:09:56 susan: US plays at 8 tonight  I will miss the first part to hear you Father 00:10:58 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/post/philokalia-ministries-summer-retreat 00:19:48 David Swiderski, WI: Does anyone have the page I was on vacation near Lake Superior last week and forgot my book. 00:32:02 Kate: Could you explain what he means by “words which give rest to your God…” 00:33:26 David Swiderski, WI: I am reminded of something my Grandfather used to say revelation did not stop 2000 years ago it occurs everyday, in every person,  we meet every moment and each day we are called to learn to reach for the divine. 00:38:15 Julie: These passages feel like the most beautiful tools to awaken in us how to get closer to what God wants from us…all love, to see our unworthiness our wretched selves 00:39:03 John ‘Jack': I find the more I feel “touched by God” or have a God moment, the less I can share it, because I KNOW what I've experienced, and if I share it with another that hasn't it is often lost on them and o find myself somehow disappointed at the lack of communion over the moment. 00:42:18 John ‘Jack': Replying to "I find the more I feel “touched by God” or have a God moment, the less I can share it, because I KNOW what I've experienced, and if I share it with another that hasn't it is often lost on them and o find myself somehow disappointed at the lack of communion over the moment." I keep a LOT to myself now 00:44:35 David Swiderski, WI: This is so true one can't really explain in language the love for their children, loved ones without it seeming transactional to others. Even the northern lights one can't explain without experiencing them sometimes it is best to just leave it vague it shines, awesome, amazing. 00:48:25 Erick Chastain: So that works by love of Christ? Or how does it work? 00:48:41 Erick Chastain: (The passion curing our passions) 00:49:02 David Swiderski, WI: Father I had been reading a lot on the meditation of the 5 wounds in fact this is on every altar, the Jerusalem cross when did this tradition go away. I have been trying to take on this practice on Fridays in adoration 00:53:50 David Swiderski, WI: https://www.fisheaters.com/5wounds.html 00:54:42 David Swiderski, WI: Once I started doing it I had to buy a new crucifix. ha ha 00:56:17 David Swiderski, WI: Even some of the wounds have disappeared in modern art. I love the Latin American versions very expressive in churches 00:59:46 Maureen Cunningham: Shoulder Of  Christ from carrying the cross 01:12:48 David Swiderski, WI: I have realized in the past few years my efforts still lead to faults it is only begging let me love you more that grace seems to come and while I cherish it I know I am full of faults daily.. I just keep the hand outstretched hoping to be more than I am. 01:14:22 John ‘Jack': Reacted to "I have realized in the past few years my efforts still lead to faults it is only begging let me love you more that grace seems to come and while I cherish it I know I am full of faults daily.. I just keep the hand outstretched hoping to be more than I am." with

Artists, authors, and activists Sol Anzorena and Tom Grotewohl join Our Hen House to discuss their grassroots campaign, Protect the Porkies, fighting a proposed copper mine that threatens Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains, Lake Superior, and the North Country Trail. They break down the ecological risks of toxic mine waste, light and noise pollution on wildlife, and how their small local movement grew…

Are Michigan and Huron separate lakes – or have we been counting the Great Lakes wrong? There may actually be four Great Lakes: “Lake” Huron and “Lake” Michigan could actually be considered “lobes” of one big lake — big enough to unseat Lake Superior as the world’s largest freshwater lake by surface area. We hear two takes: one from a scientific perspective, and one from a cultural perspective. GUESTS: Eric Anderson, director of hydrologic science and engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. Eric Hemenway, humanities program manager for the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Cover image credit: Aaron - stock.adobe.com/302750092 Want to submit a question to On Hand? Do it here: Online Submission Form Call us: 734-764-7840 Email us: onhand@michiganpublic.org See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The bald eagle has been the patriotic symbol of America for 250 years. Most folks can remember the first time they saw this majestic bird soaring in the wild. There was a time when sighting them, even on Lake Superior,  was rare, but today these birds of prey are making a comeback. Their return represents one of America's most visible conservation successes. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Ed Hahn, Director of Advancement and Marketing Communications at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota, about the bald eagle's recovery, how to recognize young eagles and what visitors can learn by meeting an eagle ambassador face to face.QuotesEd Hahn says the species has made "a complete and total recovery" and calls that "a truly incredible accomplishment for Americans to take some pride in," adding, "We accomplished that through public action."“But just like everyone else, we truly do wish that they could be living their full lives as intended as wild eagles out in the wild.”“We have to work with them to educate the public and we have to be sharing those birds with the public.”“Bald eagles are covered in approximately 7,000 feathers.”“There's always new things to learn about eagles.”Helpful LinksLearn more about the National Eagle Center:https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/Plan a visit to the National Eagle Center:https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/visit/Meet the National Eagle Center's eagle and raptor ambassadors:https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/the-ambassadors/Watch the EagleWatch Cam overlooking the Mississippi River:https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/eaglewatch-cam/Learn what to do if you find an injured bird:https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/found-an-injured-bird/Learn about bald eagle recovery and management from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:https://www.fws.gov/program/eagle-managementConnect With Us:Lake Superior Podcast Page – https://nplsf.org/podcastFacebook – https://www.facebook.com/NationalParksOfLakeSuperiorFoundationSponsors:Cafe Imports – Minneapolis-based importers of specialty green coffees since 1993, focused on sustainability. Learn more: cafeimports.comNational Parks of Lake Superior Foundation – Donate to protect Lake Superior's five national parks: nplsf.org/donate

https://www.outdoornews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/June-27-long-show.mp3 Tim Lesmeister and Rob Drieslein start the show with a discussion about – count ’em – 9 new state record fish in Minnesota. Then annual guest Ron Hustvedt, Jr., visits to talk about Lake Superior lake trout fishing and the recently wrapped Minnesota State Youth Clay Target League Championships, plus a quick Game Fair preview. New monthly columnist Colleen Foehrenbacher from Lanesboro jumps into the show to talk about outdoor education at the Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center where she's the executive director, plus she shares her experiences as an adult-onset hunter. Lesmeister and Drieslein wrap up the show with numerous topics including a widening bait and attractants ban in Minnesota (five new counties) and a catch-and-release great white shark off Nantucket. The post Episode 598 – MN record fish, Lake Superior lakers, State Trap shoot update, Colleen Foehrenbacher appeared first on Outdoor News.

Predator hunter Chris Kreiner is my first guest this week. He talks about summertime coyote hunting. Then, Steve Windom of Outdoor Mentors has details on the upcoming golf outing. Hour two kicks off with Justin Wangeman from Kimars Charters. Justin talks about fishing Stannard Rock in Lake Superior for trophy lake trout. "Michigan's Meteorologist" Mark Torregrossa is up next with a look at our summertime weather pattern. Hour three features Dr. Ali Shakoor. Ali talks about the science of fishing. We wrap it all up with Chef Dixie Dave Minar and another great recipe.

This week's episode is taking us from a funeral home where people can get unique urns to the dark depths of the Great Lakes – where there was recently a research expedition to find out what's going on with the zombie fish phenomenon. Featuring audio from Mike Rogers and the Other Side of the News out of KRLD 1080 in Dallas, WWJ Newsradio in Detroit,

This week's episode is taking us from a funeral home where people can get unique urns to the dark depths of the Great Lakes – where there was recently a research expedition to find out what's going on with the zombie fish phenomenon. Featuring audio from Mike Rogers and the Other Side of the News out of KRLD 1080 in Dallas, WWJ Newsradio in Detroit,

No other American colony projected such extensive power with so few people. We recount how the French explored the vast northern region they called “Canada” for decades in pursuit of furs and the Northwest Passage, but repeatedly failed to plant a lasting colony in the harsh and forbidding land—until they found in Samuel de Champlain a leader with the shrewdness and grit to overcome the severe cold, the vast distances, and the treacherous politics of the Saint Lawrence basin. We trace the growth of Quebec from little more than a warehouse in the frozen wildnerness to a thriving town, controlling the most critical gateway into the continent and serving as the hub of a lucrative trading network, a vast constellation of mission towns and outposts (including the Christianizing experiment known as Montreal), and most importantly, a formidable indigenous alliance system that dominated the continenet from the Atlantic to Lake Superior. Finally, we consider the disasters of the mid-1600s, including deadly epidemics and warfare with the Five Nations, that brought Canada's most important allies to their knees and threatened to wipe the colony off the map. Please sign up as a patron to support the podcast! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632 Previous lecture discussing the history of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (aka the Iroquois Confederacy or Five Nations): https://historiansplaining.com/individual-episodes/the-hiawatha-belt/ Previous lecture, discussing the dynamics and importance of the fur trade: “History of the United States in 100 Objects, no. 24 – Beaver-Fur Stovepipe Hat” -- https://historiansplaining.com/individual-episodes/beaver-fur-stovepipe-hat/ Previous lecture on the first French colony on the North American mainland, Acadia: https://historiansplaining.com/individual-episodes/acadia-first-foothold-in-the-north/ Image: Engraving depicting the battle of Lake Champlain, July, 1609, published in Samuel de Champlain's “Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain,” 1613, based on a drawing by Champlain himself Suggested Further Reading: Riendeau, “A Brief History of Canada”; David Hackett Fischer, “Champlain's Dream: The European Founding of North America”; Moogk, “La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada”; Linteau, “The History of Montreal”; Greg Koabel, “The Nations of Canada” podcast,

This week's episode is taking us from a funeral home where people can get unique urns to the dark depths of the Great Lakes – where there was recently a research expedition to find out what's going on with the zombie fish phenomenon. Featuring audio from Mike Rogers and the Other Side of the News out of KRLD 1080 in Dallas, WWJ Newsradio in Detroit,

This week's episode is taking us from a funeral home where people can get unique urns to the dark depths of the Great Lakes – where there was recently a research expedition to find out what's going on with the zombie fish phenomenon. Featuring audio from Mike Rogers and the Other Side of the News out of KRLD 1080 in Dallas, WWJ Newsradio in Detroit,

This week's episode is taking us from a funeral home where people can get unique urns to the dark depths of the Great Lakes – where there was recently a research expedition to find out what's going on with the zombie fish phenomenon. Featuring audio from Mike Rogers and the Other Side of the News out of KRLD 1080 in Dallas, WWJ Newsradio in Detroit,

Steven Rinella and the MeatEater crew discuss: Georgia's Argentine tegu problem with Daniel Sollenberger of the Georgia DNR; the Centennial State's fight for constitutional hunting rights with Dan Gates of Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management; the Trump administration's opening of wildlife refuges to hunting; giant trout in Lake Superior; and more. Connect with Steve and The MeatEater Podcast Network Steve on Instagram and Twitter MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

News stories for this week include a “fall” off the cliff incident from Tettegouche State Park on Lake Superior, In Oregon, 2 women were kidnapped from their tent off of a popular hiking trail, human remains of a missing National Laboratory employee found in a New Mexico forest; A drone harassing a grizzly sow and cubs in Yellowstone,  multiple arrests made in a national forest in Georgia, and a 2:00am assault and gunshot injuring a toddler in a campsite in the Olympic National Forest.Support the show!For bonus content join our Patreon!patreon.com/CrimeOfftheGridFor a one time donation:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/cotgFor more information about the podcast, check outhttps://crimeoffthegrid.com/Check out our Merch!!  https://in-wild-places.square.site/s/shopFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/crimeoffthegridpodcast/ and  (1) Facebook

A Wisconsin company signs a new deal to supply generators to data centers. Its stock price is soaring. One of the Democratic candidates for governor may not make the ballot after falling short on valid signatures. And, officials say someone broke in and stole the beacon from a famous lighthouse on Lake Superior.

Preview: Charlie Detelich and Una Schneck investigate planetary waves, specifically on Titan, comparing its fossil fuel lakes to Lake Superior. They aim to observe wave-driven erosion on Titan's coastlines to understand unique planetary environments.