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Artsy Grand Marais

On Minnesota's North Shore, rough-hewn village is a cultural outpost.

A hundred years ago, Grand Marais was a wind-buffeted outpost at the tip of the North Shore, stomping grounds of trappers, loggers and fishermen. The dirt road connecting the village to Duluth often was impassable, and winter provisions had to be brought in by steamer before Lake Superior iced over.

But amid the hardship, there was always art.

Swedish immigrant Anna Johnson was first to create and sell art, at the log trading post she operated with her husband after their 1907 marriage. Trained at Augustana College in Rockford, Ill., she painted, drew and worked in stained glass, leather and ceramics. Some of her many oils now hang in a log replica of her store, the Johnson Heritage Post Gallery.

Other artists came, settling their easels in front of the picturesque fish houses and clapboard churches. One of those artists, a professor from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, founded the Grand Marais Art Colony in 1947. Its classes drew serious artists from the Twin Cities, but also fed the creativity of the locals, many of whom had been taught by Anna Johnson in the schools.

The Art Colony still flourishes in Grand Marais, offering workshops for visual artists,  writers and dancers. The Grand Marais Playhouse has been staging plays since 1971, now in the Arrowhead Center for the Arts, a $3.5 million testament to the importance of arts in a village of only 1,400. The center also is the home base for the North Shore Music Association, which brings in musicians.

On the harbor, the North House Folk School teaches traditional crafts in a building painted Swedish red and nautical skills on a green twin-masted schooner named the Hjordis.

Creativity, obviously, is in the air.

"It’s that lake,’’ says Jim Mahle, who passes on village lore as a Cook County History Museum volunteer. "You can go anywhere here and get a good scene. It shows why that colony went over so well.’’

Built down a hillside and around a natural harbor, Grand Marais looks good in watercolors and pastels. The Sawtooth Mountains rise behind the village; in front of it, a breakwall connects the rocky outcropping of Artist’s Point to a small white lighthouse.

The surrounding forests are where the artists live, bringing their works into town to sell. Sometimes, however, they can be seen in town. Over Eight Broadway Art Gallery, a sign hangs: "Art in Progress.’’ Inside, a painting of sunset over a lake sat on an easel.

"That’s by a man in his ’70s who just got started last fall,’’ said Grand Marais native Nita Anderson, who turned the former dry-cleaning shop into a space for artists. "He’s having a ball. Now he’s done 22, and we’re going to have a show.’’

On any given day, artists and artisans are at work all around Grand Marais. One weekend when I was there, North House had scheduled workshops on Norwegian rosemaling, Anishinabe crooked-knife making, building with stone and the Great Lakes schooner trade.

There also was a half-day Hike Into the Past led by founder Mark Hanson, which is what I joined. Hanson led seven of us past Hovland, into the woods and around Horseshoe Bay, where we came upon a cobblestone beach. It was the site of the Penta Arcanums, or five mysteries, which Hanson himself found three years ago on a camping trip. They’re post-Ice Age pits stacked into the beach — elsewhere around Lake Superior, they’re known as Pukaskwa Pits — that Canadian archaeologists believe are man-made.

"If they’re man-made, this is very, very early man in North America,’’ Hanson said. "That makes you think.’’ Some Ojibwe believe they’re thunderbird nests, he said; others speculate that they represent star formations or were used as fish traps, food storage or watching posts. One Arcanum is the lake’s biggest at 4 feet deep.

On the way back, Hanson talked about the folk school, which he started after traveling to Greenland and Norway, which has dozens of such schools.

"We’d like to get people away from the television and the computer screen and get their hands busy,’’ said Hanson, who teaches students how to build birchbark canoes and Inuit kayaks. "This school is about giving them an appreciation for the simpler things in life. It takes a heroic effort to start a school like this, but a lot of people have come to the party with a lot of enthusiasm.’’

At the Cook County History Museum’s art room, I admired a painting of net menders by Ade Toftey, the newspaper’s late owner and editor, and one of a boat captain by Grand Marais artist Howard Sivertson, who grew up on Isle Royale and has become the pictorial chronicler of North Shore history.

His work is sold around the corner at Sivertson Gallery, which also displays his daughter Liz’s bold, colorful paintings, the woodcuts of local artist Betsy Bowen and the nature photos of Ely’s Jim Brandenberg.

Down the street, in the renovated Fireweed Building, the Gunflint Tavern hosts live music on weekends. The sunny ’’tavern'’  has 11 ales and lagers on tap and offers such dishes as tiramisu, tabouli and black-peppered salmon with chipotle dressing and mangos.  The newer Crooked Spoon Cafe has upped the ante, offering such dishes as ahi tuna steak with ginger scented purple sticky rice, wasabi and tobiko roe.

Grand Marais always has been a little more cultured, a little more creative than a remote town on the North Shore ought to be. And, with a century of momentum, it may just be gearing up.

Trip Tips: Grand Marais

Getting there: It’s 2˝ hours northeast of Duluth.

Arrowhead Center for the Arts: Check its calendar for plays, concerts and other events, 218-387-1284.

Grand Marais Art Colony: Workshops are held year-round, every week in summer. 800-385-9585, 

North House Folk School: Workshops and events are held  year-round. 888-387-9762, www.northhouse.org.

2008 events: June 20-22, Wooden Boat Show and Solstice Festival at North House. July 12-13, Grand Marais Arts Festival.  July 25-27, North Shore Dragon Boat Festival. July 31-Aug. 3, Fisherman's Picnic. Oct. 17-19, Moose Madness Family Festival. 

Accommodations: Rooms in Grand Marais can get quite expensive in peak summer.

The Grand Marais Hotel Company, 800-247-6020, manages five properties,  the Aspen Lodge, Shoreline Inn, Spruceglen Inn and Cobblestone Cove Villas, downtown, and Super 8, on the edge of town. The newly built Cobblestone Cove Villas, facing the harbor, and East Bay Suites, facing the lake, are well-appointed and popular with well-heeled tourists.

There are still several old-fashioned motels on the periphery of downtown, including Nelson's Travelers Rest.

Four miles north of town, the Superior Overlook is a pleasant B&B on the lake, with two rooms and sauna, 877-387-9335.

Many cabins and home rentals also are available.

Camping: Grand Marais Recreation Area, 888-998-0959, has 300 sites on the lakeshore and next to the municipal pool and Folk School.

Dining: In a house across from North House Folk School, chef Judi Barsness prepares knockout meals at Chez Jude, 218-387-9113.

The storefront Crooked Spoon Cafe serves a cosmopolitan menu, 218-387-2779, www.crookeds. The Gunflint Tavern is more casual but very good, 218-387-1563.

On the edge of the harbor, the Angry Trout Café specializes in fresh fish from Lake Superior, 218-387-1265. Sven and Ole's, The Pie Place and My Sister’s Place also are favorites. And be sure to get something fresh out of the fryer at World's Best Donuts.

Shopping: There are lots of good places to shop, but the favorite has to be Joynes Ben Franklin and Department Store, which is stuffed with an oddly compelling assortment of warm slippers, Canadian jams, fleece hats and other things you can't do without.

Information: 888-922-5000, www.grandmarais.com.

Last updated on May 16, 2008