Recent Presentations

The Gunflint Trail Historical Society takes time each July to remember those with whom we shared our passion for the Gunflint Trail. Join us at the July membership meeting, where, after a brief presentation, we can share a story or two about the lives of those we lost. If you would like to share the memory of a loved one who has passed this year, please reach out to info@gunflinthistory.org.

Please note the time change: Membership meetings will begin promptly at 1:00 p.m. – attend in person at the A. Paul & Carol Schaap Community Center (7401 Gunflint Trail GTVFD Hall #1) or online. A Zoom invitation will be sent out to all members by email on Sunday, July 12.

Treats and conversations follow (thank you to the friends who provide the home-baked goodies each month). If you would like to bring a baked treat for the monthly meetings, please contact Bonnie Schudy at 218-388-9915.

The Gunflint Trail Historical Society has three membership meetings available to all GTHS members. Membership meetings are held on the second Monday of June, July, and August.

Look forward to seeing you either in person or by Zoom.

For a complete listing of all the special presentations and events that are taking place at the Chik-Wauk Campus, visit the calendar of events on the website.

Thank you to all GTHS members for your continued support!

Mark Ellis offers a captivating look into the lives of Minnesota’s iconic common loons, drawing on 15 years of experience photographing these remarkable birds. Through stunning imagery and engaging storytelling, he follows the loon’s journey across the seasons-from spring ice-out on northern lakes, through the busy summer breeding months, and into autumn as they prepare for migration. The presentation highlights intimate moments from the breeding season, with special focus on loon chicks and the compelling dynamics between parents and their young as they protect, nurture, and teach them to survive. Along the way, Mark weaves in practical photography tips, making this program especially appealing to nature enthusiasts and photographers alike.

Keith Morris is an artist, builder, woodworker, writer, master paddler, and woodsman, as well as an inventor holding two patents that improve transporting a kayak.

Generations of his family have lived on the Gunflint Trail since 1915, arriving from Iowa to flourish in the North Woods through mastery of outdoors skills, grit, and gumption.

Whether running a tourist business, hunting, fishing, paddling, skiing, cutting lake ice, building log houses, or flying airplane support in the wilderness, the Morris family’s Gunflint Trail life is as creative and inspiring as Keith’s spectacular illustrations and engaging essays on trail life as he has lived it, from 1950s to 2026. His family has operated on Poplar Lake since 1915, offering early flying services and running Nor’wester Lodge, which gave Morris a unique upbringing in the remote northern Minnesota wilderness.

Keith has famously paddled 100 miles in a single day and, on one occasion, was tracked by a wolf pack deep in the Boundary Waters.

This presentation will be held at the Chik-Wauk Nature Center.

All presentations are family-friendly and free to the public.
Donations are always appreciated. Take your time driving up the Gunflint Trail National Scenic Byway!

Presentations are sponsored by Visit Cook County and the GTHS Gift Club!

Cary J. Griffith is the author of eight books, four non-fiction, and four fiction. His non-fiction includes Lost in the Wild, Opening Goliath, Gunflint Burning: Fire in the Boundary Waters, and Gunflint Falling: Blowdown in the Boundary Waters. His fiction includes Wolf Kill, Cougar Claw, Killing Monarchs, and Dead Catch (out June 2024). He is the recipient of a Minnesota Book Award and a Midwest Book Award.

Cary will talk about Gunflint Falling and his newest book, Grizzly Narrows, the 6th Sam Rivers mystery and the latest non-fiction book, The Prism of the Wolf.

On July 4, 1999, in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), a bizarre confluence of meteorological events resulted in the most damaging blowdown in the region’s history. Gunflint Falling tells the story of this devastating storm from the perspectives of those who were on the ground before, during, and after the catastrophic event—from first-time visitors to the north woods to returning paddlers to Forest Service Rangers.

This presentation will be held at the Chik-Wauk Nature Center.


All presentations are family-friendly and free to the public.
Donations are always appreciated. Take your time driving up the Gunflint Trail National Scenic Byway!

Presentations are sponsored by Visit Cook County and the GTHS Gift Club!

Billy Needham came up to the Trail from Duluth in 1929, looking for work, and ended up staying the rest of his life. Billy lived most of his life on his property on the Gunflint Trail. He
purchased the land around 1927 for $1. After living in a tent for three years, Billy built the cabin on a narrow strip of land between
Hungry Jack Lake and West Bearskin Lake.

Billy spent his time being a fishing guide and trapper for years.
He was an avid woodsman and hunter. Well, with woodworking, Billy carved and made many of his own wood artworks. Billy’s
furniture was in high demand from the local cabin and
resort owners.

Tommy Banks and his wife, Reta, built their cabin on Hungry Jack Lake in the mid-1930s.

The property’s original buildings included the main cabin (complete with a hidden compartment under a false floor in the living room bookcase), a garage (with living quarters above for Tommy’s bodyguards), a generator building, a boathouse, a “maid’s” cabin, a root cellar, and an outhouse.
Tommy was an avid sportsman, enjoying hunting and fishing with his friend Billy Needham.

According to Billy Needham, on his first fishing trip out with Tommy Banks and several of his bodyguards, they were fishing out of a large canoe on Rose Lake. Someone at the party hooked a very large northern. After a long battle with the fish, it was finally brought up to the canoe. However, Billy, upon seeing the fish, realized it was too large to land the fish in the already crowded canoe. Billy decides to pull out his hunting knife to cut the fish loose. With that, Tommy’s bodyguards all drew their pistols and dispatched the fish in a blaze of bullets.

Erik Simula is a Finnish-American birchbark canoe builder, wilderness guide, and writer from
Duluth. He holds a Master’s of Tribal Resource and Environmental Stewardship from the
University of Minnesota. He was formerly executive director of the Schroeder Area Historical Society and led the development of the Cook County Historical Alliance. He works for the US Forest Service and lives in Finland, Minnesota.

On Earth Day, April 22, 2009, Erik and his dog Kitigan embarked from Grand Portage on a four­ month, 1,000-mile birchbark canoe voyage encircling the 1854 Ceded Territory. From Lake Superior, Savana Portage, the Mississippi River, and the Canadian Border, Erik tells his unique story of our cultural, historical, mythological, and relational transformation, which drives his forthcoming book, Arrowhead Journey.

David will discuss his new biography about the life of Helen Hoover. Helen was a best-selling nature writer from the 1960s and 1970s who lived on Gunflint Lake with her artist husband Adrian. David will explore Helen’s career in Chicago before moving to the Gunflint Lake area in 1954 and her success writing books for adults and children.

Her Place in the Woods captures both an awakening to the power and fragility of the natural world and the efforts and talents of an extraordinary woman defining herself as a writer. Though Helen Hoover would move on from the secluded North Woods, as she wrote in her final book, The Years of the Forest, “From this time on it would be both here and with me wherever I might be, as long as I should live.”

During the late 1950s through the early 1970s, Helen Hoover’s stories and essays of life in the wilderness on northern Minnesota’s Gunflint Lake, published in popular magazines and several bestselling books (including The Gift of the Deer in 1966 and A Place in the Woods in 1969), found millions of fans and earned her accolades alongside nature writers like Sigurd Olson, Rachel Carson, Sally Carrighar, and Calvin Rutstrum. Hoover’s unlikely history of leaving a corporate career in Chicago for a small cabin without electricity or running water—with no interest in hunting or fishing—is just one chapter of the remarkable life that David Hakensen describes in Her Place in the Woods. This first complete biography illuminates how Helen Hoover (1910–1984) made a place for herself and for countless readers in, as she put it, the world of her time. David’s book will be available to purchase at Chik-Wauk Museum.

The Hoovers were woefully unprepared for life off the grid and slowly learned how to convert sheds into chicken coops and fend off bears.

Social encounters presented their challenges, with Helen’s fiery personality leading to clashes with hunters and other Gunflint neighbors. Gradually, the Hoovers settled into the rhythms of their remote homestead, and Helen would craft a prolific literary livelihood from her keen observations of nature and encounters with animals in the surrounding woods.

Most people know the BWCAW as a canoeist’s paradise. But the best-kept secret is that several overnight backpacking trails can be found only on foot. Martin Kubik will share photos, maps, stories, and origins of the Kekekabic, Powwow, and Sioux Hustler trails. Hiking on these paths offers unmatched solitude, immersion in the deep forest, and potential survival experience for the unprepared. Martin will cover the gear, food, and clothing basics for a trip you will enjoy, not endure.
Time permitting, Martin will share about his winter trek in the BWCAW, a snowshoe day hike in a quest for a forgotten campsite, a what was supposed to be an easy day trip that ended up being a 20-hour nighttime ordeal, getting by at night with only a small emergency pen light.

Martin Kubik, who guided in the BWCAW out of Gunflint Trail, was a US Forest Service firefighter and survived capsizing in an open canoe on Lake Superior. A lifelong advocate for hiking trails in the BWCAW, Martin is a recipient of several outdoor volunteer awards. He is the founder of the Kekekabic Trail Club, the 3M Outdoor Club, the BW Advisory Committee, and the Boundary Waters Heritage Trails. After retiring from 3M Co. as a printing specialist in 2018, he enjoys sewing custom camping gear, exploring wilderness paths that are less traveled, and adventure storytelling. Martin can be reached at martin.kubik@bwheritagetrails.org.

Ryan has spent the last decade living on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. As a wildlife professional working for county and federal governments for the last 8 years, he has had the privilege of being involved with wildlife monitoring efforts, exciting research, and implementing habitat improvement projects. He’s explored his wildlife and nature photography passion. Realizing the power of visual storytelling as a tool for conservation. He loves documenting the natural world and is constantly amazed by what we can learn.

The talk will explore the intersection of art and science through wildlife photography and conservation. Specifically, Ryan will share a bit about his journey as a wildlife photographer and visual storyteller. One of his favorite and most rewarding photo techniques is the use of camera capturing remotely triggered camera. He will share the history of camera capturing, how it has evolved, and what mysteries we can uncover using this technology.
You can view Ryan’s Photography at: Ryan Pennesi Photography

Mark Hansen takes attendees deep into the history and lore of the Gunflint Trail. With vivid storytelling and striking images, Mark brings to life the legendary “old timers” who shaped this rugged corner of the Northwoods.

Unforgettable characters like Benny Ambrose, the last man to live in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, will be featured, along with the hardy pioneers who carved out lives on this wild and beautiful land. Audience stories are encouraged—so bring family tales to help keep these histories alive.

Mark Hansen takes attendees deep into the history and lore of the Gunflint Trail. With vivid storytelling and striking images, Mark brings to life the legendary “old timers” who shaped this rugged corner of the Northwoods.

Unforgettable characters like Benny Ambrose, the last man to live in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, will be featured, along with the hardy pioneers who carved out lives on this wild and beautiful land. Audience stories are encouraged—so bring family tales to help keep these histories alive.

Mark will summarize his photography background and overview his loon photography technique and loon interaction etiquette. Through photos and accompanying stories, Mark will illuminate loon life during the breeding season from migratory spring return after ice-out through to fall migratory departure. The dedication of loon parents will be illustrated during nesting through to care, training, and protection of loon chicks and maturing juveniles. Primary natural and human conflict hardships in the lives of loons will be illustrated to emphasize the need for loon conservation efforts and expand appreciation for these magnificent birds.