Mild winter, Lutsen Lodge fire reverberate through North Shore tourism industry
The destruction last week of historic Lutsen Lodge in a fire robbed Minnesota's North Shore of one of the mainstays of its tourism industry, in a year when record warm temperatures had already been a blow.
The fire hit in another mild week for an area that has long depended on winter recreation. Hotels typically booming with ski travel have seen occupancy rates sinking this winter. The night the Lutsen Lodge burned, the general manager reported there were no guests booked — lucky in that no one died in the fire, but an ominous sign of the challenges long-term warming trends are bringing for industries that depend on the cold.
Bookings at area hotels and resorts are down about 30 to 40% compared to most winters, said Linda Jurek, executive director of Visit Cook County, based in Grand Marais.
"Our winter has been one for the abysmal record books," said Jurek, who grew up in the area. "We have had very low snow."
The Lutsen area, about 90 miles northeast of Duluth along Lake Superior, has probably seen the biggest impact because the Lutsen Mountains are most closely identified with skiing, said Aaron Bosanko of Odyssey Resorts, which manages several resorts around the state. When people think ski conditions aren't the best or that some trails are closed, they are less likely to come up at all, he said.
Much like the entire travel industry had to drastically adapt to the pandemic, North Shore businesses have had to pivot this winter. They've highlighted well-groomed ice trails for skating, frozen lakes for ice fishing and the joy of hiking in the woods without having to bundle up, Jurek said.
Winter up north began with a wet, muddy December with almost no snow. That led into a January cooldown and some snowfall in Duluth and around the Arrowhead, said Ketzel Levens, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Duluth. Lake effect snow meant it started to feel like winter a month late, she said.
But Duluth hit 50 degrees last week, cracking a daily high temperature record previously set in 1877.
"Some of those amounts are so low we've actually been setting record low snow depths," Levens said. "The snow on the ground is actually the lowest it's been in northeastern Minnesota."
Further up the shore at higher terrains there is about 2-5 inches of snow. In Finland, there are still 5-8 inches from a major pounding earlier in January, Levens said. The area will see a decrease into almost normal next week, with temps below freezing, high 20s during the day, and low teens and single digits at night.
Until then, the warmer temps are a good opportunity to get out under skies with little light pollution at night, in a period with more than the normal instances of Aurora Borealis. Next weekend's 218 Days festival will feature live music, lodging specials and wellness activities, including the increasingly popular revival of sauna culture, through President's Day. The waterfalls are running beautifully too, Bosanko said.
In the end: "One can't take away the beauty of Grand Marais and the great harbor for lack of snow," Jurek said.
But the destruction of the Lutsen Lodge felt like another big setback. People in the region feel a definite emotional impact, Jurek said. About 40 people worked at the lodge, and a historic legacy dating to the 19th Century was wiped out.
"It was a shocker, that's for sure," Bosanko said. "It's really devastating for the whole community."
