A Couple of Days in Grand Marais

Wednesday, September 3 through September 4, 2025

We were able to snag a few nights in Grand Marais (1306 souls). The town is a tourist destination, has a small boat marina and a lighthouse near the entrance to the harbor. The nice RV park is municipally owned. Our RV site is on the far south end of the park. Behind some tall bushes is a clearing with a big tent in it.

Hmm, they must have had a wedding or some other event before our arrival. Nope, wrong guess. The event was coming and it was a music festival. Workers were setting up the acoustics and the stage for the event and the base tones/music was LOUD. So sorry we are leaving the morning of the very loud music festival. Darn!

We toured the cute little town and had a piece of delicious berry pie at a greasy spoon downtown. We wandered around the 2 block downtown purchasing some merchandise to help support the local economy thrive.

The real reason I wanted to come up the west coast (locals laugh at the term “west coast as if its the coast of an ocean) of Lake Superior was to visit the most wonderfully decorated restaurant that I’ve ever seen.

But first on to Grand Portage which is located 6 miles south of the US/Canadian border.

Grand Portage National Monument, designated a National Monument in 1958, lies entirely within the boundaries of the Grand Portage Ojibwe Indian Reservation. The reconstructed depot celebrates fur trade and Ojibwe ways of life. The British North West Company built its inland headquarters at Grand Portage; the post was active until 1802 when the area became a part of the United States. At that time the British North West Company moved north to Thunder Bay, Canada. An interesting fact concerning the post; when the “owners” of the North West Company met at the post they were treated like royalty. They sat at their own dining table, used their own fine china and utensils and luxuriated in meals consisting of 14 to 16 courses!

We head back towards Grand Marais and find the restaurant we are looking for: the Naniboujou Lodge and Restaurant. We stumbled upon this complex eight years ago, had a great lunch and thoroughly enjoyed the decor. This place was being built in the mid- 1920’s and was to serve as a private men’s club. The club was to have an 18 hole golf course, a swimming pool and other luxurious amenities. But the stock crash of 1929 put an end to all the plans, leaving only a small hotel and a great dining hall. We went inside and were told by staff that they no longer are serving lunch, only breakfast and dinner. Rats! However they graciously let us browse the facility, including that beautiful dining hall. The ceiling decorations, by the way, are paper mache.