Gold Mines on Rainy Lake

Voyageurs National Park offers the opportunity to visit the gold mine district, and take in a lot of scenery within the park. It all starts at the Rainy Lake Visitor Center on Black Bay. Pick up one of the printed pieces on this aspect of Rainy Lake history there and get your ticket for the tour. Tour boat schedules can be found at the park's website. http://www.nps.gov/voya

Plan on having a little extra time before the tour boat departs. The Rainy Lake Visitor Center has a small museum display on transportation in the area. Voyageurs is so named because of the french fur traders, or Voyageurs, that plied the waters of the park for a century or more. The waterways through Minnesota and Ontario made up the major transportation route.

The Visitor Center also has a small theatre to show some films that will help you better understand the history of the park, and appreciate the scenic beauty. A self-guided nature trail will take you to marshlands and highground around Black Bay. Take the hike and you will learn more about the geology and the wildlife habitat of the area.

After gold was discovered in 1893, Rainy Lake City sprang up on the shoreline east of Sha Sha point at the mouth of Black Bay. At one time, 500 residents traded at the dry goods, hardware, furniture store and other retailers. They did business with the Bank and the Post Office and they kept 17 saloons busy. There is very little left of the townsite, but Voyageurs National Park is working on development of interpretive trails, signage and rest stops.

There were many small mines throughout the district, and many colorful people. The Interpretive staff at Voyageurs will fill you in on some of these details as you tour past Rainy Lake City enroute to the Little American Mine, perhaps the best preserved example on the lake.

The tour takes you from Little American to the east, where you pass by Bushyhead Island and another of the mines. This one is easy to spot because the shaft is right at water level. Also, this is the only horizontal mine shaft in the district. As the boat heads east, you will pass by many islands where wildlife spotting is pretty common. You can spot whitetail deer, black bear, a variety of small mammals, bald eagles and all types of waterfowl. You will probably hear a loon calling and it is not uncommon to see one diving for dinner.

The tour will also go past the historic Oveson Fish Camp, where the park service is beginning the work of adding interpretive signage to help you better understand this part of the history of Rainy Lake.

The May 2011 issue of field and Stream features International Falls and Rainy Lake on page 44. Many area atractions are listed and the excellent multi-species fishing is promoted. I would place a link to their website here, had I been able to find a web version of the article. The best I can do is this photo of the magazine.

keep scrolling down for a quick overview of other activities at Voyageurs National Park, plus, there will be links to other information sources. If you have any questions, email me at cvb@rainylake.org I'll get back to you.

What could be more relaxing than your own personal huge screen view of a spectacular sunset on Rainy Lake. Houseboat sites are designed to handle that specific type of camping, and there are tent sites throughout island studded Rainy Lake.

Day use sites offer opportunities for a beach break, a picnic or a hike.

Koochiching County maintains a few campistes outside of the park on the south side of Black Bay. These sites are noted on the County Recreation maps. Voyageurs National Park sites are noted in the map pictured above.

Rainy Lake is a world class fishery. Walleye are most sought after, and you can catch some pretty big fish. Rainy has abundant large size breeding walleye because of a protective slot limit. All walleye between 17 and 28 inches must be released back into the lake. You can keep some eating size fish and one trophy size fish over 28 inches.

The International Falls Bass Chamnpionship highlights the great smallmouth bass fishing. The tournament has a unique format that puts two anglers on Rainy Lake one day and Rainy River the other. The total weight of the two days of fishing determines the winner. In 2011, Jeff Gustafson and Scott Dingwall won their third championship. The photo however, shows John Cann and Ted Olson, Falls area natives that won the event in 2009. This is a catch-and-release tournament with a great record for returning the fish to the lake or river alive and well.

Crappie in Rainy Lake are prized for their size, and can almost always be caught in Black Bay. Big Pike are commonly caught along the rocky shorelines of Jackfish, Black, Cranberry and Lost Bays.

If you bring your own boat to explore the gold mine district, you will not be far from some great spots to drop a line, so bring your fishing gear.

Bogs to Rocks and Bird and Wildlife Viewing in Voyageurs Country of Northeast Minnesota are free publications available throughout the Voyageurs National Park region. Both publications include maps and checklists.

Request your own copies by contacting me:

Pete Schultz
Int'l Falls, Ranier and Rainy Lake CVB
301 2nd Ave.
International Falls, MN 56649

cvb@rainylake.org
1-800-325-5766