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Top Attractions in Voyageurs National Park

Rainy Lake

Rainy Lake is a relatively large freshwater lake straddling the border between the United States and Canada. The Rainy River issues from the west side of the lake and is harnessed to make hydroelectricity for US and Canadian locations. The sister cities of International Falls, Minnesota, and Fort Frances, Ontario, are situated on either side of the outflow of the river from the lake. Rainy Lake and Rainy River establish the boundary between the two countries. Voyageurs National Park is located on the southeastern corner of the lake, where it connects with Kabetogama and Namakan Lakes at Kettle Falls. Rainy Lake is part of an extremely large system of lakes forming the Hudson Bay drainage basin that stretches from west of Lake Superior north to the Arctic Ocean. The Rainy Lake watershed includes the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, portions of the Superior National Forest on the US side of the border, and the Quetico Provincial Park on the Canadian side of the border. For exploration and fur trade history see Winnipeg River and additional references below.

Kettle Falls Hotel

The Kettle Falls Hotel is a hotel that was built beginning in 1910 in what is now Voyageurs National Park on the Kabetogama Peninsula, at the juncture of Namakan and Rainy Lakes. The hotel was built to replace temporary lodgings, accommodating dam workers, loggers and tourists, and was finally completed about 1913. The hotel is known for its uneven floors. The site was first patented as a homestead in 1910 by Ida May Winslow. The property passed to Minneapolis surgeon Frederick A. Dunsmoor, who in turn sold the land to William E. "Big Ed" Rose, a timberman, in 1913. Rose is reputed to have built the north-south wing of the hotel in 1913. Rose sold his Kettle Falls holdings to Robert Sloan Williams in 1918 for $1000 and four barrels of whiskey. Williams operated a hotel and nightclub in Ranier, Minnesota, with the Kettle Falls Hotel as a sideline. Williams had a number of run-ins with the law, charged with selling illegal whiskey in Ranier and Kettle Falls, and later operated stills and a smuggling operation. The hotel was electrified by 1935. An annex, called the "big house," was built behind the hotel in 1946. Bob Williams died in 1956; his widow Lil and step-son Charlie and his wife Blanche continued to run the hotel. Lil Williams died in 1961. The National Park Service acquired the hotel from the Williams family, who continued to operate it, in 1976. The hotel was extensively renovated in 1986-87. The Kettle Falls Hotel is part of the Kettle Falls Historic District, which includes the surrounding neighborhood and the dam at the falls. The hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 11, 1976. The hotel is the only lodging in Voyageurs National Park, and is accessible only by water.

Jun Fujita Cabin

The Jun Fujita Cabin is a cabin in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States, now within Voyageurs National Park. It was built by Jun Fujita, a photographer and poet who spent a long career in Chicago. The cabin was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Fujita was born in Hiroshima in 1888 and immigrated to Canada as a teenager. He spent a time as a photographer for a Japanese publication, then moved to Chicago and started working for the Chicago Evening Post, which later became the Chicago Daily News. His photography career included the 1915 sinking of the SS Eastland, the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, and the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. In the 1930s, he left news photography and established a commercial photo studio on Harper Street. Some of his clients included Johnson Outboards, Stark Nurseries, and Sears, Roebuck and Co. Fujita completed some of his photography for Johnson on Rainy Lake on the border of the United States and Canada. Fujita's long-term companion, Florence Carr, bought a 4 acres island on Rainy Lake around 1928. Carr and Fujita met each other and began living together in the early or mid-1920s, but did not marry until 1940 due to anti-miscegenation laws. The island was purchased in Carr's name because Minnesota state laws restricted land ownership by non-citizens. Despite her ownership of the island, neighbors never recalled meeting Carr and remember Fujita as the sole occupant of the island. The island was called "Jap Island" by locals, a rather overt ethnic slur. It is now known as Wendt Island. This area of Minnesota was evolving into a vacation spot around the time, having become accessible when railroads reached International Falls, Minnesota and adjoining Fort Frances, Ontario around 1908. Highways to the area were built from Duluth, Baudette, and Bemidji by 1922. The area was still rather remote, since Duluth, the nearest large town, was 150 miles away. The Rainy Lake area was popular with visitors who wanted to fish, hunt, or simply enjoy the wilderness. Some less-reputable recreational pursuits were also enjoyed by the locals, such as gambling, moonshine, prostitution, and other vice. The authorities of International Falls, Rainier, and Kettle Falls apparently tolerated this vice, though it started tailing off during the 1930s. Fujita started building his cabin with a 13 feet by 16 feet structure framed with cedar poles and covered in drop siding. He later added a screened porch with a shed roof on the north side, as well as a log addition measuring 7 feet by 8 feet on the east side. The floor in that room is slightly higher than the rest of the cabin, suggesting that it could have been a shrine. The cabin fits well into its surroundings of large rocks, pine trees, and wildflowers. Some of the architectural design reflects Japanese construction practices, such as modest decoration and a foundation of dry-laid stones. Although he still had privacy on the island, during the time of World War II he gradually stopped visiting the island. This could have been because of its distance from Chicago and the anti-Japanese prejudices during the war. He allowed Fred and Edythe Sackett, owners of a nearby island, to use his cabin from the early 1940s, although he did not sell the cabin to them until 1956. The Sacketts added a bedroom on the south side and added some propane-powered appliances. In 1973, the Sacketts sold the property to Charles and Mary Jane Wendt, their friends from the Rapid City, South Dakota area. In 1985, the cabin and land were acquired by Voyageurs National Park, although the Wendts still lease the cabin.

Kettle Falls Historic District

The Kettle Falls Historic District encompasses a portage site on the United States-Canadian border in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota. Kettle Falls is a drainage channel between Namakan Lake and Rainy Lake on the United States side of the border on the eastern end of the Kabetogama peninsula. A stone and concrete dam was built at the site between 1910 and 1914 by the Minnesota and Ontario Power Company. Two buildings associated with the construction of the dam remain, including the dam keeper's cabin. Another seventeen other buildings, including the Kettle Falls Hotel, comprise the remainder of the district. The hotel is separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district preserves the portage, the dam and the Kettle Falls Hotel's historic context. The portage, known at first as the Portage de Chaudière or the Portage Neuf, was frequented by fur traders at first, following an established trail that later became the trace of the U.S.-Canadian border. An 1890s gold rush brought miners through the area. It was later used by fishermen and lumbermen, with commercial fish camps operating 1913-1920. Illegal liquor was smuggled over the border from Canada starting about 1910 In the 1930s lumbering operations were the chief activity. The dam is about 20 feet high, with four sluiceways, divided into a section called the American Dam and another on the Canadian channel called the International Dam. It featured fishways, which were never considered very effective. The district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 1978.
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