The Historical Alliance of Cook County is excited to announce the third annual "Storytelling from the Back Roads of Cook County," on October 11, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts. The event will feature speakers from members of the alliance representing the different areas throughout Cook County. Schroeder Area Historical Society, Tofte Historical Society, Cook County Historical Society, and Gunflint Trail Historical Society/Chik Wauk Nature Center make up the Historical Alliance.
As part of the event, Margaret Hedstrom will deliver a presentation concerning the history and ongoing preservation efforts related to the historic fishing tug, the Nee-Gee.
The Nee-Gee served as a multi-use vessel in the Grand Marais harbor, utilized for commercial fishing and as a tugboat for towing large pulpwood booms destined for paper mills in Ashland, Wisconsin. The vessel required a crew of three.
The Nee-Gee was owned and operated by the Scott family until the 1950s, when it was acquired by local fisherman Dick Eckel. Following the decline of the trout fishery due to the sea lamprey, the tug was sold to Sivertson fisheries and subsequently used as a "smelter" near the head of the lakes. It was later stored at the Sivertson fisheries in Superior, Wisconsin, and was eventually donated to the Cook County Historical Society in the late 1990s. The vessel was moved and restored in 2003 and currently remains on public display year-round at the Grand Marais Recreational Park (Municipal Campground). The Historical Society manages an adjacent, self-guided fish house exhibit that documents the area’s commercial fishing industry.
David Hakensen, a communications consultant and the immediate past president of the Minnesota Historical Society, will also be presenting. He will discuss his new biography, Her Place in the Woods: The Life of Helen Hoover.
Helen Hoover was a nature writer who achieved nationwide success during the 1960s and 1970s. She relocated from a professional career in Chicago to live with her husband, artist Adrian Hoover, in a rustic cabin on Gunflint Lake in 1954.
Hakensen’s presentation will detail Hoover's career trajectory and her subsequent success writing books about the natural world in northern Minnesota for both adult and young audiences. The biography describes the challenges the Hoovers encountered while establishing a life off the grid and their efforts to adapt to wilderness living, including managing wildlife encounters.
Hoover’s observations of the natural world became the foundation of her literary output, earning her recognition alongside other nature writers of the time, including Sigurd Olson and Rachel Carson. Her published works include The Gift of the Deer (1966) and A Place in the Woods (1969).
Additional speakers include Katie O'Gara, who will be reading excerpts from an interview between Beryl Singleton Bissell and Mary T. Bell. Bell is an author best known for her books on food preservation, but also for Cutting Across Time, Logging, Rafting, and Milling the Forests of Lake Superior, which is the topic of the presentation. Cutting Across Time draws on a variety of historical sources and personal accounts to provide a detailed look at the world of logging, rafting, and milling in the region a century ago.
Bell, along with her husband, Joe Deden, has dedicated over a decade to developing Eagle Bluff, a residential environmental learning center in southeastern Minnesota focused on promoting stewardship of the natural world.
The fourth speaker is Mark Gordon, who, along with his wife Katya Gordon, founded Amicus Adventure Sailing in Knife River, MN, after a year-long sailing trip to the Bahamas with their two young daughters, chronicled in Katya's book. Their focus later shifted to Sea Change Expeditions, a mission-driven organization that uses sailing voyages on Lake Superior for climate change engagement.
Mark teaches at the North House Folk School, and Katya writes about their adventures and climate issues. The family lives in Two Harbors, committed to an intentional lifestyle that promotes social engagement and climate solutions.
The event is free and open to the public.
This event was made possible with funds from the Visit Cook County 1% Events Grant Program.
About the Historical Alliance
In 2023, the Historical Societies of Schroeder, Tofte, Gunflint Trail, and Cook County formed the Cook County Historical Alliance to collaboratively tell the history of the land, its people, cultures, and their interactions over time – bringing understanding to how the cultural heritage shapes, inspires and informs Cook County.
The Alliance values multiple perspectives knowing that history cannot be contained within a single story or point of view, and respects the telling of different perspectives and is committed to exploring and embracing them.
To learn more about the Historical Alliance of Cook County, visit: https://www.cookcountyhistory.org/cook-county-historical-alliance