The Neegee, or “friend” in Ojibwe, is a 35 foot fishing tug built by the Scott family at Grand Marais in the 1930's and used here to the end of the 1950's. The Neegee is one of four fishing tugs used in Cook County to allow fishing farther out into the lake. The others were the Atlantis owned by the Kluck family and the Flow owned by Randolph Samskar both fishing out of Grand Marais harbor. The Deer was owned by the Koss family fished primarily out of Hovland. The Neegee, however, is the only one built in Cook County, about  2 blocks away from where she now resides.

The Neegee was built as a “workhorse” for the harbor. She was used not only for fishing but also as a tug to tow large pulpwood booms out of the harbor to be added to a larger boom that would be towed to the paper mills in Ashland, Wisconsin. She required a crew of three and many local men remember their time aboard the Neegee.

Neegee was owned and used by the Scott family into the 1950’s when she was sold to Dick Eckel, local fisherman. The lamprey, however, ended the lucrative trout fishing by the end of the 1950’s and she was sold to the Sivertson fisheries to be used at the head of the lakes as a “smelter”. The Neegee eventually was stored on land at Sivertson fisheries in Superior, Wisconsin until given to the Cook County Historical Society in the late 1990’s.  Grants from the Minnesota Lake Superior Coastal Program (view the project summary sheet), along with many many volunteer hours, helped to stabilize and restore the Neegee. Work continues!

The Neegee working at Isle Royale