IN DEPTH

Cook County jury to hear lawsuit against polygamous sect leaders

Tom Olsen — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 19:29:14 GMT

GRAND MARAIS — Jurors in one of Minnesota’s smallest counties will head to the courthouse next week to hear a case involving two men who have attracted international attention.

On the docket at the Cook County Courthouse is a trial in a lawsuit filed against Warren Jeffs, the infamous leader of a polygamous Mormon sect who is serving a life sentence for child sexual assault. Also named is his younger brother, Seth Jeffs.

The lawsuit, filed nearly two years ago, stems from Seth’s controversial purchase and sale of a 40-acre property near Grand Marais several years ago. Plans to build on the site never materialized, but his presence in the remote community attracted significant public outcry.

The plaintiff in the case is Elissa Wall, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who was forced to marry her cousin at 14 and has spoken out about physical, sexual and emotional abuse suffered in the offshoot sect that she described as a cult.

In 2017, Wall won a $10 million judgment against Warren Jeffs in a Utah court — a sum she has yet to collect from the self-proclaimed prophet who allegedly continues to exert control over the church from a Texas prison cell.

The plaintiff claims in the lawsuit that Seth Jeffs, now 52, obtained the money necessary to purchase the Cook County property from his brother, and argues that she should stand to receive $130,000 — the sum he sold it for in 2023 — to collect against the outstanding judgment.

“In order to conceal their actions, the FLDS and its members, including Warren and Seth Jeffs, operate almost exclusively in cash transactions,” Wall said in an affidavit filed in the case. “Upon information and belief, Seth Jeffs acts as a conduit for funds from Warren Jeffs and his agents.”

But William Paul, the Duluth attorney representing Seth Jeffs, has called the case “weak and frivolous” and said the plaintiff “has not provided to date a scintilla of evidence” that Warren Jeffs had anything to do with the Cook County transaction.

Further, the attorney said he can establish that Seth Jeffs and his company, Emerald Industries, LLC, earned the funds from construction work he was hired to do at a Lutsen cabin.

“Claims that Seth Jeffs has received money from his incarcerated brother, who’s been incarcerated from 2006, have absolutely no merit,” Paul told the News Tribune, “and we are confident of prevailing at the time of the jury trial.”

Twenty-year legal saga

Warren Jeffs, who inherited control of the FLDS Church after the death of his father in 2002, has faced many allegations of child sexual assault and the arranging of illegal marriages between adult men and underage girls within the community based at the Utah-Arizona border.

The sect, which still practices polygamy despite the mainstream Mormon church banning it in 1890, is also known for its strict dress code and intense secrecy. Warren Jeffs reportedly married as many as 78 wives, some underage, and has more than 60 children.

He first entered the national spotlight around 2004, when his nephew sued him and authored a book about his experience in the sect. In the following years, he was charged in Utah and Arizona with sexual assault and conspiracy related to Wall’s arranged marriage and other crimes.

A national manhunt ensued, and he was placed on the FBI’s "Ten Most Wanted" list alongside Osama bin Laden before he was eventually apprehended in August 2006.

Seth Jeffs was also arrested in Colorado in 2005 on a charge of harboring his fugitive brother. He later pleaded guilty in federal court and was sentenced to three years of probation.

Wall testified in Warren Jeffs’ highly publicized trial and he was found guilty, receiving a 10-year prison term before the Utah Supreme Court overturned the verdict due to flawed jury instructions.

He was subsequently extradited to Texas to face more serious charges, and was convicted in 2011 of raping two children, 15 and 12. He was handed a life sentence, plus 20 years, and he remains incarcerated in Palestine, Texas.

Seth Jeffs, meanwhile, had another run-in with the law in 2016, when he and 10 other church members were charged in a $12 million food stamp fraud case. Then the leader of an FLDS compound in South Dakota, he later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to the six months he had already served in jail.

Wall authored a book, “Stolen Innocence," about her life, and the sect in recent years has been profiled in documentary miniseries on Peacock, Netflix and Discovery+.

Cook County plans scuttled

Seth Jeffs’ arrival in Cook County in 2018 was not welcomed by residents. He paid $54,000 for the land, 932 Pike Lake Road, about 10 miles west of Grand Marais, and filed permits to construct a nearly 6,000-square-foot pole barn with six bedrooms.

But in May 2019, shortly after a public forum was hosted by advocates and investigators who monitor the FLDS Church, landscaping work was ordered to halt by Cook County due to several “serious” wetlands violations.

Jeffs, in filings in the ongoing lawsuit, said he completed approximately $400,000 worth of work for a couple at their Lutsen cabin. He said he purchased the land with the intention of building his own family residence because “demand was high for construction” and he wanted to live in the area.

However, he indicated he later abandoned those plans because he “was not able to get any work because of negative publicity.”

Jeffs closed on the $130,000 sale in August 2023 — just hours before Wall obtained an emergency order from the court in an attempt to prevent the sale. Approximately $60,000 in proceeds remain frozen in Jeffs’ bank account, by court order, pending resolution of the lawsuit.

Wall and her representatives claim Seth Jeffs’ company is one of many that make up a “loosely knit, shadow organization” controlled by Warren Jeffs after the church lost control of its financial arm due to a series of lawsuits.

Wall plans to testify, as does private investigator Sam Brower, who has spent 20 years tracking the Jeffs brothers and the FLDS and has been a consultant and witness for the FBI and other state and federal agencies.

"I have information that leads me to believe that Seth Jeffs and other FLDS leaders were required to locate and acquire properties around the country that were referred to by Warren Jeffs as 'places of hiding' and 'places of refuge,'" Brower said in an affidavit, calling Seth Jeffs a “devoted brother and leader” and a “trusted courier.”

Warren Jeffs, 69, was served with the lawsuit in prison but has not responded to it and has been ruled in default.

Wall and her Grand Marais attorneys, Richard Furlong and Tyson Smith, declined to comment for this story, as did Brower, citing the approaching trial.

Judge orders case to proceed

Paul, the attorney representing Seth Jeffs, sought to have the case dismissed. He said the plaintiff is attempting to shift the burden of proof by making his client establish where he got the money.

Nonetheless, Jeffs has asserted in a court filing: “I purchased the property with my own money from work I had done, primarily home construction.” And his defense has submitted a copy of a $62,000 check he received for the Lutsen work shortly before purchasing the property, along with other work orders.

Judge Nicole Hopps, however, said there are material issues of fact to be decided by a jury. She noted Wall’s affidavit, which “credibly states that Seth Jeffs was not employed for several years during the underlying case and judgment and admitted to being a middle-man for Warren Jeffs to obfuscate assets.”

Seth Jeffs has acknowledged not having a paying job from 2007 to 2016, with any bills covered by the church. Wall’s attorneys have also cited old ledgers from the church showing cash transfers to him, and questioned the proceeds reported by his company in 2018.

In a pretrial order, Hopps ruled that evidence of Jeffs’ religious affiliation is admissible, but specific practices such as polygamy are not. She said the jury can hear about his fraud case, but his conviction for harboring his brother is too old to be admitted under court rules.

The trial is slated to begin Tuesday and may continue through the end of the week.

Seth Jeffs is now living in Menomonie, Wisconsin, according to court documents.

He stated in a deposition that he didn’t have any contact with his brother from 2016 until 2023, but started writing monthly letters to prison to “let him know now how we're doing as a family, and expressing our love and appreciation for him.” He said he never received a response.

As for his prophet brother’s “revelations,” he said he continues to follow “as well as I possibly can.”

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Future of EPA lab in Duluth remains unclear

Jimmy Lovrien — Fri, 30 May 2025 11:13:00 GMT

DULUTH — Approximately two dozen early-career researchers have been forced out of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s laboratory over the last month when the Trump administration cut a grant and didn't renew a contract to fund their programs.

Meanwhile, the lab’s federal employees — like other EPA employees throughout the agency — have been given the option to retire early, leave voluntarily or apply for a limited number of jobs at other divisions within the agency.

More than two months after the Trump administration’s plans to cut the EPA’s Office of Research and Development were first reported by the New York Times, uncertainty still swirls around the future of EPA’s Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division Laboratory, 6201 Congdon Blvd., which is part of ORD.

A portion of the reduction plan, shared earlier this year with the News Tribune by Science Committee Democratic staff, said the EPA planned to “eliminate” the ORD and expected 50%-75% of its more than 1,540 positions "will not be retained."

Earlier this month, the Trump administration submitted its budget to Congress, which called for a $235 million, or 45%, cut in ORD’s budget.

According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, and a recording of a May 2 virtual meeting obtained by the News Tribune, EPA officials told ORD employees that they could apply to approximately 500 job openings at other offices within the EPA.

Job applications for the new positions and decisions on early retirement or the so-called deferred resignation program were all due a week later, on May 9.

Questions about relocation for the new jobs, however, linger. While one official said the 130 new jobs within the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention would not require relocation and gave Duluth as an example of a place the staffer could remain, a slide showing the organization the newly created Office of Applied Sciences and Environmental Solutions, which account for 300 of the new jobs, only listed locations in Oklahoma, Ohio, North Carolina and Washington, D.C.

Officials said another 30-50 positions would be available at the Office of Air and Radiation and told staff at ORD they could also apply for new positions in the Office of Water.

Questions on the future of ORD were often answered by officials who said the latest plans didn’t directly affect ORD and that more reorganization plans were coming.

Less than a week later, as the May 9 deadline loomed, ORD staff were told, “If you’re interested in remaining with the Agency, we encourage you to apply for any and all of the positions you may be qualified for,” according to an email reviewed by the News Tribune.

However, any mass layoffs appear to be on hold after a federal judge earlier this month blocked the Trump administration from large-scale reductions in force or agency reorganizations of federal agencies, including the EPA, “without partnering with Congress.”

Even so, the lab’s workforce has dropped by about 25 over the last month when a grant was cut and a contract left to expire, both of which allowed early-career researchers to work alongside EPA scientists at the lab. Prior to that, there were 176 employees at the lab, 68 of whom were federal scientists, and the remaining 108 were post-doctoral researchers, student contractors and facility staff, according to an EPA fact sheet updated in April.

It’s unclear how many employees took an early retirement or deferred resignation.

In response to the News Tribune’s request for an interview on what the agency’s reorganization effort and cancellation of the grant and contract meant for the future of the Duluth lab, an EPA spokesperson responded with a brief statement.

“At ORD (Office of Research and Development) and throughout the agency, EPA is continuing to invest in research and labs to advance the mission of protecting human health and the environment,” a spokesperson for the EPA said.

Contract not renewed

A five-year National Student Services Contract between the EPA and Oak Ridge Associated Universities that allowed earlier career researchers to work alongside EPA scientists at seven ORD labs and offices, including Duluth, expired May 14 and a new contract was not approved.

ORAU did not respond to the News Tribune’s request for comment. Multiple sources estimated that approximately 20 researchers, ranging from undergraduates to postdocs, at the Duluth Lab were let go when the contract expired. On its website, ORAU has removed employee spotlight pages that once highlighted the work of its researchers working with the EPA. It also replaced a page of contract information with a thank-you message.

“ORAU would like to thank EPA for 10 years of successful partnership managing the National Student Services Contract (NSSC),” the website said this week. “We would also like to thank all of our employees who worked side by side with the hardworking federal employees at EPA.“

DOGE, EPA cut UMD training grant

Last month, the EPA cut a $3.5 million grant that trained undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Minnesota Duluth in chemical risk management and water quality protection.

The grant began in November 2023 and was expected to last five years, but it ended abruptly April 30, with a notice from the EPA stating the grant was terminated immediately because the “objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities,” a UMD spokesperson said.

More than $800,000 had been obligated when the grant was cut, with almost $300,000 already paid to the university, according to USASpending.gov.

The Department of Government Efficiency, President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s effort to slash federal spending and programming, now lists the cutting of the grant as a savings on its so-called “Wall of Receipts.”

In a statement, Donn Branstrator, professor of biology at UMD, said the school requested “an orderly closeout” so it can continue the contract until next spring.

“Water quality protection is of vital importance for Minnesotans and people across the country, and the EPA and UMD scientists have a long and productive track record of collaboration in research and student training,” Branstrator said. “Without this funding, the region and the nation will lose out on the training and career development of current and future scientists committed to protecting the environment.”

A UMD spokesperson said one postdoctoral investigator and four graduate students from UMD were in training when the grant was cut, and another two graduate students were expected to begin in the fall. The grant cut affects an additional 15 undergraduate students, seven graduate students and three postdoctoral investigators who would have been trained in aquatic toxicology and ecology.

Lawmakers seek answers

A letter sent in April by U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, both Democrats from Minnesota, to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin demanding answers about the future of the Duluth lab has not been answered by the agency, Smith’s office said. The two sent a follow-up letter to Zeldin urging him to respond to their earlier letter and confirm the EPA would not attempt to reduce staff at the Duluth lab while the court's injunction on large-scale reductions in force and reorganizations is in effect.

In a statement Thursday, Smith said the lab in Duluth and its work on clean and safe water were irreplaceable because of its access to Lake Superior.

“I’m extremely concerned that workers at the lab aren’t getting the clarity they deserve about what’s going on. They are being left in the dark, not knowing if their jobs are safe,” Smith said. “The Trump administration needs to listen to the federal court order temporarily halting any proposed cuts to the lab, but unfortunately this administration has shown a blatant disregard for rule of law and court orders. I’m disappointed the Trump EPA can’t answer a series of simple questions about the future of the lab and these workers, but I’m not giving up.”

In a separate statement Thursday, Klobuchar echoed the need to keep the Duluth lab open.

“The Duluth lab is critical for the Northland and the Great Lakes in a big way — ensuring safe drinking water and supporting our recreation and shipping economy — which is why I continue to press the administration to keep the lab open,” Klobuchar said.

“While the courts have stepped in to block these across-the-board changes, we must continue to protect our Northland and the Great Lakes," she said. "I support making the government more efficient, but it must be done in a way that is based on facts and science, without threatening our economy or putting public health on the line.”

State Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, also wrote a letter to Zeldin in April, but had not received a response as of Tuesday, a spokesperson for his office said.

U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., said he recently met with EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel.

“Congressman Stauber did express his desire for the Duluth Research Lab to remain open due to the important research they perform around the Great Lakes," a spokesperson for the Hermantown lawmaker's office said Thursday. "There is no new update on the status of this lab, and Regional Administrator Vogel relayed to the congressman that this decision ultimately remains with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin."

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Bovey resident wants to close North Country Trail's 'Big Gap'

Ryan Rodgers — Thu, 01 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT

BOVEY, Minn. — At 78 years old, Cavour Johnson says his time is limited for maintaining trails through the sprawling pine woods north of Bovey.

When he learned the North Country National Scenic Trail was struggling to find passage through terrain he’s been wandering since childhood, he sought to forge a scenic route that could be folded into something lasting.

“I’m a trails guy,” the soft-spoken retired dentist said, stepping between jack pines onto a narrow path. In decades past, Johnson built cross-country ski trails at Mount Itasca in Coleraine and helped develop the Mesabi Trail, the paved bike path spanning 150 miles between Grand Rapids and Ely.

The biting wind this late April morning spurs irreconcilable differences between steely clouds and spring sun, both vying for dominance. Wearing several layers of clothing, Johnson walks the high southern bank over the West Fork of the Prairie River, its bottom of rippled sand visible through water tinted like weak herbal tea. Frantic wood ducks scream at Johnson’s approach, while newly arrived yellow-rumped warblers flit unbothered in alder bushes.

“You don’t see anybody out here,” he said. “It’s like you’re way out in the boonies.”

One could make a strong case that there are no "likes" about it, that this place is most definitely in the boonies.

Meandering 4,800 miles from North Dakota to Vermont, the North Country National Scenic Trail crosses eight states and is the country’s longest such footpath. According to the National Park Service, which oversees National Scenic Trails, these paths are “intended to showcase our country’s spectacular natural resources and beauty ... connect communities, significant landmarks and public lands.”

The NCT was created in 1980 and is still unfinished, but its venerable siblings, the Appalachian and Pacific Crest trails, draw thousands of long-distance hikers every year. The NCT enters Minnesota from the west near Fergus Falls before winding 850 miles through the state. After passing Detroit Lakes, it joins long sections of completed footpath through Itasca State Park and the Chippewa National Forest.

Farther on, from Snowbank Lake, east of Ely, the NCT follows 400 miles of preexisting footpath through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and along the North Shore on a network of the Kekekabic, Border Route and Superior hiking trails, until it traverses Duluth before finally reaching Wisconsin through Jay Cooke State Park.

Between Snowbank Lake and the eastern end of the Chippewa National Forest near Grand Rapids, however, lurks a 150-mile section of missing trail, known as The Big Gap.

In 2020, during the pandemic, Johnson cared for someone undergoing medical treatment. To protect that person, whom he doesn’t want named, he socially distanced and found himself cut off from his usual community involvements. He needed to do something to counteract his isolation and caretaking stress. He’d been thinking that the NCT’s proposed route was flawed.

On paper, it ran through a huge swamp surrounding Bear Lake — no way to build a trail there.

He thought he could find a drier crossing just a few miles south that was also prettier and decided to scout a route between Scenic Highway and Minnesota Highway 65, a crow-flight of 8 miles through country he knew well. His parents had bought land here in the early 1950s, and he still owns 40 acres on Hartley Lake, a wide spot on the West Fork of the Prairie River.

I’ve gone into this thinking I might not be around to see the development happen, but am satisfied that I’m contributing.

For decades, he’s maintained informal walking and cross-country ski trails on his land and neighboring county forest. In fall 2020, he set out with a compass, flagging tape and detailed paper maps.

“I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed tramping through the woods,” he said, adding that he got worryingly lost a time or two. Over a couple years, he cobbled together a route and convinced the state’s trail coordinator to come see it.

Matt Davis, based in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, works with the nonprofit North Country Trail Association as the coordinator for North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Davis told Johnson it’d be a tough sell to get the National Park Service to change the route.

The origin of The Big Gap stems from the 2019 redirecting of the trail into the Arrowhead region and away from 75 miles of bog between Grand Rapids and Duluth, the crossing of which would have required building Guinness World Records-worthy boardwalks through aptly named Floodwood. The Arrowhead Reroute accessed a wealth of existing trail and what is arguably the state’s most scenic corner, but had required years of dogged work and an act of Congress.

In other words, changing routes cannot be done on the fly, but, because of Johnson’s persistence, Davis eventually drove to Bovey. In unorganized territory north of town, Johnson led Davis on a stroll along the West Fork of the Prairie River, into what he calls “a church of trees.” They hiked under towering red and white pines that so far have avoided being logged because of their proximity to the river.

Johnson named the two largest pines. Using a species-specific formula for aging trees from the Department of Natural Resources, he calls a red pine with a 9-foot circumference "Andrew Jackson" because it’s about 189 years old and therefore sprouted during Jackson’s presidency. The 11-foot circumference "James Madison" white pine is even older, dating back 211 years to 1814.

Davis stared into the pines and admired the river and decided to propose Johnson’s route to the National Park Service. “I’ve always looked at the trail as connecting pearls, and this is a pearl,” Davis said. In April, the Park Service approved Johnson’s route.

“He found a gem,” Davis said. "Just a perfect spot for a hiking trail.”

After The Big Gap originated as a side effect of the 2019 reroute, the North Country Trail Association’s all-volunteer, Grand Rapids-based Arrowhead Chapter began making tread. Last summer, 2.5 miles of new trail opened in Cohasset, the first of what will eventually be an 18-mile stretch that gets the NCT off roads and into the woods between the Chippewa National Forest and Grand Rapids. Until a woods path is developed northeast from Grand Rapids, hung on Johnson’s trail, the route will follow the paved Mesabi Trail to Ely.

The new piece of NCT leaves Tioga Beach on Pokegama Lake and climbs under oaks a hill inhabited by miniature eastern leatherwood trees. Natural bonsais at only a few feet tall but with the shape of a mature shade tree, the understory leatherwoods are already flowering with tubular yellow blooms.

The trail crests the hill atop a 150-foot-high bluff over the water-filled Tioga Mine Pit. Steely clouds have won the day, and the drably lighted April forest stands in odd contrast with the Caribbean-blue water in the pit.

Atop grown-over mining spoil where ore was once processed, and down to a pond rimmed in cattails and occupied by raucous red-winged blackbirds, the trail crosses a road under the watch of a broad-winged hawk, back for spring and crying atop a tall aspen.

On the other side, the rolling maple forest looks primeval, but the topography was created by mining less than a century before. Spring peepers chant unseen from an ephemeral pond in the lee of the hill. The late afternoon grows quiet until the trail bypasses a pond filled with furious ducks.

The pretty pond looks natural, but was created as a settling pond for mining runoff. The trail spits out onto True Road and continues into the forest on the other side.

Near here in 2022, a long-distance hiker crossed paths with a volunteer trail crew and spontaneously pitched in. Later that year, Aaron Landon became the 13th person to thru-hike the NCT.

“I came into Grand Rapids and spent the weekend with the trail crew learning what is involved with making a National Scenic Trail,” he recalled. “I didn’t realize the amount of work, hours and labor that went into it.”

From March to December, Landon spent 252 days walking the 4,800 miles. He was taken by the region and moved to Ely in 2023. Now, he’s volunteering on the other side of The Big Gap, blazing fresh trail between town and his home on Snowbank Lake.

Johnson is excited about his trail’s inclusion into the NCT.

“I’ve gone into this thinking I might not be around to see the development happen, but am satisfied that I’m contributing,” he said. Then he hopped over a wet spot beneath a steep hill and walked along the river.

If you go What: Help Grand Rapids-based Arrowhead Chapter volunteers close the North Country Trail's "Big Gap" When: 9 a.m. May 16-18 Where: Tioga Beach parking lot, 24308 Tioga Beach Road, Cohasset Details: Bring work clothes, work gloves, sturdy footwear, trail lunch, plenty of water; safety equipment, tools, instruction provided. More info: arw@northcountrytrail.org, facebook.com/arrowheadhikers]]>

On a spring day 100 years ago, a couple went into a swamp, seeking saplings. They found a pair of human legs.

Barrett Chase — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 12:30:00 GMT

CANYON, Minn. — On a spring day 100 years ago, a couple went into a swamp searching for evergreen saplings and instead found a pair of human legs.

Charles Harris and his wife, who is not named in newspaper archives, made the grisly discovery May 7, 1925, about 25 feet from the side of what is now U.S. Highway 53, then known as the Miller Trunk Road, northwest of Duluth, while looking for yard shrubbery to beautify their nearby farm. They immediately contacted the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, which launched an intensive investigation that led to twists, turns and dead ends but never to the ultimate truth.

The mystery remains unsolved to this day.

Deputies Bert Duff and L.E. Gronseth were the first law enforcement officers on the scene, the News Tribune reported at the time. They recognized right away that the heavily bruised and lacerated legs, found 6 feet apart with no attempt made at concealing them, were the product of a homicide. The deputies believed that the limbs had been severed from the rest of the body with an ax — one just above the knee and the other at the kneecap.

No clues were found nearby. Duff and Gronseth brought the remains to Crawford’s Mortuary in Duluth, where County Coroner Dr. C.F. McComb attempted to determine the victim’s sex and time of death. McComb mistakenly declared the legs belonged to a woman before investigators discovered more of the body — all but the head and one side of the torso. Both of the man’s arms and a thigh had been dismembered, and the nude body had been hacked and mutilated.

McComb determined that the victim had been killed several months prior, and the remains had likely been in the swamp all winter.

Due to extensive decomposition, a Duluth Police Department expert could not identify the body using fingerprints. After days of searching, authorities still could not locate the head, side or clothing. Still, St. Louis County Sheriff Frank Magie remained hopeful.

“The crime is one of the worst in the history of the county,” he said. “The only barrier to tracing it is the time that has elapsed since the murder, and we may be able to overcome this.”

Deputies combed the swamp for any possible clue. They found only a rusted hubcap, which could have belonged to any of the thousands of passing cars on Miller Trunk Road, and a scrap of woolen shirt so decomposed that it was impossible to even tell what color it had been.

Headline of first Canyon murder story. 08 May 1925, Fri The Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minnesota) Newspapers.com

A slight break in the case came May 15. After eight days of searching, deputies found the victim’s left temple and a portion of the nasal area, which appeared to have been removed from the rest of the head with a saw. These pieces of bare bone were found about a mile south of the rest of the remains. As the swamp search continued, other members of Magie’s crew tried to connect the case to one of the numerous local men who had recently gone missing.

Missing persons eliminated

Briefly, investigators considered the possibility that the body was that of Heino Mattson, a sailor from Embarrass who had gone missing the previous December. However, Mattson had a tattoo of an anchor on his right forearm, and the severed limbs found in the swamp bore no identifying marks at all. Mattson's body was found in October 1925, north of Virginia.

A few days later, investigators again tried to tie the remains to another missing persons case, this time believing the victim may have been Fred Beckman, whose wife, Hilma, took her own life by drinking carbolic acid in a sand dock tunnel about two weeks after he reportedly left Duluth in January. Hilma Beckman’s first husband had been murdered in Butte, Montana, several years prior.

However, a photo obtained from a Superior photography studio showed that Fred Beckman had a deep scar on his right forefinger. Though badly decomposed, the remains found in the swamp bore no such scar. News Tribune archives do not indicate whether Beckman was ever found.

Albert Wahl, who went missing in April during a trip to Detroit from his home in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, was also eliminated as a possibility as his description did not match up with the remains. Wahl's body was discovered east of Brainerd in December 1925.

Attempts to connect the remains to an unnamed 26-year-old man from Kathryn, North Dakota, who went missing on a March trip to the Twin Cities, proved futile.

Other reports of missing men came in from Minneapolis and Los Angeles. Neither were determined to be valid leads in the Canyon murder case.

The strange case of Bennie Haight

Bennie Haight 05 Jun 1925, Fri The Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minnesota) Newspapers.com

Benjamin "Bennie" F. Haight, 22, left his family's Railroad Street home in late February 1925 to meet a man at the Superior YMCA. A few days later, his mother, Lydia Haight, found his clothes thrown onto her porch. A subsequent prank phone call claiming to be from the coroner’s office asked her to identify an unclaimed body.

Bennie Haight, a native of Danbury, Wisconsin, had married Olga Edblad, 16, the previous year, but the tumultuous union lasted only three months before the couple agreed to part. Haight had recently quit his job as a Duluth trolley conductor. His former employer described him as being despondent when he quit and said Haight told him he planned to work for a brush company in Wisconsin.

Upon hearing about the body found near Canyon, Lydia Haight wrote to Magie in the belief that the remains might be those of her son. Authorities agreed that his description did fit. Both Lydia Haight and Bennie’s wife, Olga, positively identified the remains.

“It looks like Bennie,” Olga told a News Tribune reporter after seeing the body.

The Salvation Army conducted funeral services, and the body was laid to rest in Forest Hill Cemetery in Duluth. The investigation shifted to finding Bennie Haight’s killer.

However, before long, the case grew more complex. Investigators learned that a few days after his disappearance, Haight checked into a hotel in Mellen, Wisconsin, where they discovered a stack of love letters, suggesting that a jealous husband may have committed the murder.

They also spoke to a West Duluth soda clerk named Clarence Erickson, who claimed to have spoken to Haight the week before his disappearance and said Haight told him about an upcoming cabin party in the outskirts of Superior. Meanwhile, Duluth’s police chief disclosed that Haight was under investigation for writing bad checks at the time of his disappearance.

Haight had two insurance policies totaling $2,500, but the beneficiary, Olga Haight, did not appear to care. She said her husband brought her the paperwork soon after they separated, and she resisted. He threw the policies on the table and left. That was the last time they spoke, she said, though she would occasionally see him when she rode the trolley.

“I wouldn’t take the money — that would be like taking blood money,” she told the News Tribune. “I don’t know anything about the case and I don’t want to have anything to do with it. I want to forget it,” she added.

Lydia Haight attempted to collect the insurance, but it was not paid as she was not the beneficiary.

Square one

The case fell apart in early June when a friend of Haight’s told the sheriff that Haight had enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas. Magie learned that on Feb. 21, it was believed that Haight went to Milwaukee, where he enlisted under the name Bernard F. Haig, giving his address as 2607 W. First St. in Duluth, where he did not live.

Lydia Haight expressed hope that her son was alive but was skeptical. “I have written to the man in Kansas and until I hear from him, I can’t be sure,” she said.

A day after Army officials questioned him about his real name and address, the man who enlisted as Bernard Haig went AWOL. Duluth police were warned of his possible return to the city and were notified of his pending charges for fraudulent enlistment and desertion.

Magie said the dismembered body would not be exhumed, and the investigation would continue with the search for the skull.

Hope wanes

On June 11, Magie put the case on the county’s unsolved list. He told reporters that with “absolutely every clue exhausted, nothing to work on, and with only a remote chance for discovery of the missing skull, I frankly believe that neither identification of the body, nor capture of those connected with the case will ever be made.”

Lydia Haight, in the meantime, emphatically reiterated the belief that the dismembered remains were that of her son. She said Capt. Malcolm Byrne, of Fort Riley, had not responded to identify photos of Bennie Haight as the man who deserted the army camp.

Olga Haight was granted a divorce in 1927 on the grounds of desertion and cruel and inhuman treatment. It is unclear whether Bennie Haight was present in court. When contacted by the News Tribune in January 2025, the sheriff's office's records department reported having no data connected to the case or to Bennie Haight.

A Jan. 6, 2025, information request with the U.S. Army was not answered.

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Study finds high level of 'forever chemicals' in skiers from wax

Ryan Rodgers — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 13:00:00 GMT

DULUTH — For eight hours a day during the winter, Carson Spohn stone grinds, edges and waxes dozens of skis at the Ski Hut, where he’s worked since 2007.

“It’s my deal,” he said. “I love it. I get to sit back here, relax and scrape skis all day.”

Just a few years ago, in preparation for cross-country races like the American Birkebeiner, he’d regularly melt on fluorinated wax for customers that sold for $100 a gram.

Fluorinated, or fluoro, wax boasts superior water and dirt repellency, leading to blazing-fast skis on warm winter days. This better skiing through chemistry was made possible by PFAS chemicals, which in recent years have been found to be harmful to people and the environment, prompting widespread bans.

PFAS, an abbreviation for "perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances," are called "forever chemicals" because they linger for centuries. While waxing, skiers take chemicals into their bodies through inhalation, ingestion and skin absorption.

Until recently, fluoro waxes were widely used in all forms of skiing and snowboarding. In the first study to measure PFAS levels specifically in skiers, the Boston University �� of Public Health released results in November that it found PFAS chemicals in 100% of the skiers and snowboarders tested, with higher levels in cross-country skiers.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, PFAS chemicals “cause reproductive and developmental effects, impair liver and kidney functions, disrupt thyroid hormones, impact the immune system in laboratory animals, and cause cancer tumors in animals.”

The Boston University study found skiers with higher PFAS levels also had correspondingly higher levels of cholesterol, a surprise given the superior fitness level of the skiers tested.

“As Nordic skiers we’ve always known it’s not good, but we justified it by, ‘Oh, we’re only using a small amount and it’s very expensive and we only use it for important races,'" said Dave Johnson, Nordic ski coach at Marshall �� in Duluth.

When health warnings about fluoro waxes began circulating several years ago, Johnson purged the Marshall team’s waxing shed and brought all the fluorinated waxes to Duluth's Western Lake Superior Sanitary District Household Hazardous Waste facility, which will properly dispose of such waxes.

PFAS exposure is not limited to those who apply the wax; it flakes off skis and snowboards and enters the environment.

“Think about Spirit Mountain and all those skis,” said Jake Boyce, wax guru at Ski Hut. "All that snowmelt draining into Knowlton Creek and then the river and Lake Superior.”

A study done in Norway found voles living near a ski trail had PFAS levels six times higher than voles that live deeper in the forest. Those levels are not considered toxic, but due to the persistent nature of the chemicals, predators of the voles could accumulate much higher levels.

“Cross-country skiing is such a silent sport that’s built around the environment,” said Spohn, “but then everyone’s putting poison on the bottom of their skis and goes out in the woods, and nobody talks about it.”

Fluoro waxes are now banned from virtually all levels of competition.

The Boston University study found PFAS levels were highest in ski coaches, veteran athletes and those who waxed more than 100 pairs of skis in a year. A 2010 study on professional waxers found PFAS concentrations in the blood of cross-country wax technicians were as high as workers in a factory that manufactured PFAS chemicals, at levels 45-50 times above average.

These days, when Spohn is asked to put on fluoro wax, he’ll wear a respirator.

“There are a couple people, and their kids ski race, and they want to cheat, and they’re like, ‘Put the good stuff on,’ wink, wink,” he said.

Ski Hut no longer sells fluorinated wax, nor does Continental Ski & Bike in Duluth, which sold its last in 2021. Spohn hasn’t applied any this season. Despite a national ban by the EPA, fluoro waxes are still available for purchase online.

The Minnesota High �� Nordic Ski Coaches Association began banning fluoro waxes from regular season use during the 2016-17 season, though the wax was allowed in postseason races for several years. At the planet’s elite level of skiing, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, or FIS, instituted a complete ban on fluoros for the 2021-22 season. The Birkebeiner ski marathon in Hayward, Wisconsin, followed suit.

“We test some skis,” race director Ben Popp said. “We hope the fear of maybe getting tested stops most.”

Fluoro bans are mostly on the honor system. Testing devices that provide immediate results are prohibitively expensive, costing around $25,000, and only used by the highest level of competition. Last March, when Minneapolis hosted the world’s best skiers during a World Cup race at Wirth Park, Duluth resident Gary Larson ran the PFAS testing machine for the FIS.

Larson is one of a handful of Minnesotan International Technical Delegates with the FIS. “It’s a pretty slick thing,” he said of the tester, which is a spectrometer connected to a laptop.

A former ski coach at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the U.S. national team, Larson said violations of the fluoro wax ban among FIS skiers are rare. The only instance he is aware of happened last year in a downhill ski race and resulted from tainted waxing equipment rather than ill intent.

“The new waxes are not quite as fast,” Boyce said, “but they’re pretty dang good. The trade-offs for saving our bodies and the environment are well worth it.”

“I’m glad the fluros are gone,” Spohn said as he stood at his wax bench. “But these companies will just find something to replace it. You don’t know what’s in any of these. The stuff is crazy.”

He points to health warnings on the back of a bottle of new, nonfluorinated spray wax that has an icon of a fish floating belly up in water, followed by the word "vaara," which means "danger" in Finnish. As an avid fly fisherman, Spohn said the dead fish image bothers him.

“What’s in them? I couldn’t tell you,” Larson said of the new waxes. “I would hope that anything being used is somehow tested ahead of time.” However, he’s not aware of any such testing.

“You just hope that whatever’s used doesn’t have the same effect as the PFAS," he said. "Who knows? We didn’t know that fluorocarbons were going to be bad.”

Mike Hecker lives in the Twin Cities and runs, with his two sons, a small distribution company that supplies wax to the Ski Hut.

Hecker is well-known in the ski community for managing the Nordic high school state meet. His son, Chris, is the head glide wax technician to the U.S. Nordic team and is currently in Norway waxing skis for the national team, including Jessie Diggins, as she competes for another World Cup title.

When Chris Hecker waxes for the U.S. team, he wears gloves and a respirator. The Heckers sell Rex Wax, made, like most ski wax, in Europe. Hecker credits the European Union’s stricter environmental regulations with prompting the worldwide move away from fluoro wax.

Still, “I don’t have a clue,” he said, as to what the replacement chemicals are in the new waxes. Hecker trusts EU rules in making sure they’re safe.

Student-athletes with Marshall and Duluth East high school ski teams no longer wax their skis. At Marshall, Johnson and the other coaches put on respirators and go into a well-ventilated trailer where they spray on nonfluorinated wax.

“We form an assembly line — one person applying, one person brushing. We can get through 20 or 30 skis in an hour,” Johnson said. “We’re finding our skis are fast, maybe not the absolutely fastest, but they’re competitive.”

East High �� coach Bonnie Fuller-Kask said they've been "hearing about the dangers of fluoro wax for a long, long time."

"As a high school team, 10 or 12 years ago, we started waxing in a trailer outside with vents," she said.

At East, too, coaches do all the waxing, both for the kids’ safety and also “because kids are notorious for using way more than they really need," Fuller-Kask said.

She hoped the new, nonfluorinated waxes would cost less, but they’ve proven to be just as expensive. A film canister-sized container can cost $100. East spends $2,000-$3,000 a season on wax.

Fluorinated or not, Fuller-Kask said the East team will continue to treat the new waxes as potentially toxic. “I don’t know what’s in them," she said. "I hope they’re safer. Our waxers will keep using masks.

“I think people should be really careful when we put these new waxes on because we just don’t know," she said.

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In 1960s, the FBI planned to covertly sterilize a communist horse

Jimmy Lovrien — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 13:31:00 GMT

CHERRY, Minn. — Convinced an Arabian horse imported from Poland to an Iron Range farm was being bred to generate money for the Communist Party USA, the FBI spent much of the 1960s tracking the stallion and its owners.

FBI documents from that era — some digitized and others either not yet digitized or easily accessible online but released to individuals and newspapers in the past and cited in previous coverage — detail a yearslong FBI surveillance campaign by federal officials operating under the assumption that Communist Party USA Secretary General Gus Hall, a Cherry, Minnesota, native, was a silent partner in his brother's horse breeding operation.

It also shows the extent to which the FBI, under its longtime director J. Edgar Hoover, would go to investigate communists, even using an apparent informant in the Duluth News Tribune's newsroom.

The FBI had long been watching Hall when the horse drama unfolded in the 1960s.

Born in Cherry in 1910 as Arvo Kustaa Halberg to Finnish immigrants (he changed his name to Gus Hall in the 1930s while organizing steelworkers in Ohio), Hall in 1951 was among the communists facing five years in prison under the Smith Act for advocating or teaching the overthrow of the U.S. government. After initially fleeing to Mexico, he served the sentence, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned convictions under the Smith Act in 1957.

By 1959, he took his post as general secretary of the Communist Party USA, or CPUSA, a position he held until he died in 2000.

Documents from Operation Solo, the FBI's infiltration into CPUSA, begin to mention Arabian stallions in 1961, noting Hall wanted them for his brothers.

Besides a Cherry horse farm, Hall's brothers, Toivo and Veikko Halberg (later "Hallberg"), had a construction company and a general store. The two were "entrepreneurial spirits," wrote Finnish reporter Tuomas Savonen. Savonen spent 15 years studying Hall and said the FBI's monitoring of the horses was a "crazy story." A chapter of his 2020 doctoral dissertation on Hall examines the Arabian horse saga.

"According to Operation Solo documents, the aim of Hall’s horse deals was to make money for the CPUSA," Savonen wrote. "However, in Solo documents available for this study there was no indications that the party would have received any money from Hall’s horse farmer brothers."

Savonen wrote that in 1961, Hall suggested to Morris Childs, an informant at the FBI, that communists in Poland would donate an Arabian stallion to CPUSA, but Childs opposed the plan and wrote to his brother, Jack, also an informant, that if he were to bring up Hall's request for Polish horses, he'd be "laughed at."

The Polish stallion plan is referenced throughout the Operation Solo documents, but acquiring a horse and transporting it back to Cherry was repeatedly delayed thanks to U.S. tax laws.

In 1966, Toivo traveled to Warsaw, Poland, with Isadore Needleman, a communist lawyer and FBI informant, to negotiate the purchase of the horse. It would still be another two years until the horse arrived in Cherry and more than three years until the FBI gave up on trying to prove that the stallion's stud fees were funneled to the CPUSA.

Savonen, who also published a book in Finnish about Hall called "Moskovan mies vakoilun verkossa" ("Moscow's Man Entangled in Espionage"), in 2023 told the News Tribune earlier this fall that the horse episode shows that Hall wanted to help his brothers out financially.

"I'm not sure they were ever proper communists, but most likely to some extent, they agreed with his horse politics," Savonen told the News Tribune.

However, the FBI convinced the Halberg brothers to fund CPUSA with the money earned from breeding fees. Hall was a silent partner in the endeavor, and they weren't fans of these horse politics.

Sabotage through sterilization

To describe the FBI's attempt to sabotage any breeding plan that may have financially benefited CPUSA, Savonen relied on, among other sources, FBI documents obtained by Toivo's son and Gus Hall's nephew, Dennis Hallberg, the former Lakehead Constructors owner who later led Lake Superior Warehousing Co., which operates warehouses in the Port of Duluth-Superior.

Those documents, obtained by Dennis through the Freedom of Information Act, detailed plans by the FBI to sterilize the horse when it arrived in the U.S.

The FBI sought to intercept the horse when it passed through the Government Quarantine Station in Clifton, New Jersey. It studied injecting the horse with female hormones, subjecting it to high levels of tradition, and crushing or tying the spermatic cords of the horse.

12 Mar 1967, Sun The Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minnesota) Newspapers.com

But getting a veterinarian to perform such tasks covertly would be risky, and the FBI headquarters ultimately scuttled the plan.

"The Bureau has also considered the possibility of artificially causing the stallions to develop a disease which will cause their indefinite quarantine or require their return to Poland upon their arrival in this country," the FBI headquarters wrote in a memo, according to Savonen's dissertation.

FBI-News Tribune collusion?

Once in Minnesota, the horse, Madrygal, wasn't a secret, but his communist origins were. At least for a decade or so.

Longtime reporter Walter Eldot and photographer Karl Jaros visited the Halberg's Cherry farm for a Cosmopolitan section cover story in the March 12, 1967, edition of the Duluth Sunday News-Tribune.

Madrygal arrived 10 months prior and had already won grand champion Arabian stallion at the Minnesota State Fair and several other horse shows.

"Hardly a weekend passes, winter or summer, without visitors coming to look at his horses," Eldot wrote. "Many travel long distances."

Toivo did not disclose the price of the horse but noted he traveled to Poland — his first time on an airplane — to inspect and "hand pick" a horse. The article did not mention Toivo's brother Gus Hall or the Communist Party.

Madrygal 12 Mar 1967, Sun The Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minnesota) Newspapers.com

For over a decade, aside from a few classified advertisements selling descendants of Madrygal, that was that.

Then, on Nov. 24, 1977, the second story in a series by Knight-Ridder Newspapers, which owned the News-Tribune and Herald, on recently-released FBI documents detailed the federal law enforcement agency's surveillance of the horse.

FBI rode Range for 'left-wing' horse 24 Nov 1977, Thu The Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minnesota) Newspapers.com

The article said FBI documents revealed a "strong informant" at the News-Tribune who vowed to keep the FBI updated on the horses' arrival. But later memos said Madrygal had arrived and that the newspaper informant hadn't been contacted, and a later memo said the March 12, 1967, News-Tribune article "exposed" the horse, according to the article, even though it did not mention Gus Hall.

The informant at the News-Tribune was not named.

Eldot, now a copy editor for the paper, said he was not the informant and said he “stumbled” across the story when he drove by the Halberg property.

In a statement, Thomas Daly, editor of the Duluth Herald and News-Tribune, said he did not know of the newspaper’s cooperation with the FBI.

“My first reaction to the saga of the Polish stallion is one of bemusement. Unfortunately, the ludicrous situation not withstanding, these revelations are unsettling. The credibility of the press suffers and this is really all the journalist has going for him,” Daly said in 1977.

“I have no knowledge at this time as to whether anyone now at these newspapers have compromised themselves in this manner,” Daly said. “If I had evidence to this effect, the person would, of course, be discharged."

A few days later, the Minneapolis Tribune on Nov. 27, 1977, published its version of the story. It said the FBI documents "strongly suggested" the News-Tribune's March 12, 1967, story on the Halbergs' horse was a "favor to the FBI." The article claimed that memos said the FBI had a close association with News-Tribune managing editor Jack Fein, who died in 1974.

"This story was released following a contact with the managing editor of this newspaper, a cooperative news source," the memo, written by the FBI agent in charge of its Minneapolis office, said, according to the Minneapolis Tribune.

FBI rode Range 24 Nov 1977, Thu The Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minnesota) Newspapers.com

According to FBI memos cited in the Minneapolis Tribune story, the FBI had hoped to damage CPUSA by planting a story suggesting the revenue generated from the stallion's reproduction was funding the Communist Party, but plans were thrown off by the "good 'cover' story," presumably Eldot's March 1967 article, that made no mention of Hall or CPUSA.

Then, in 1968, another setback for the FBI. Madrygal was sold to someone in Louisville, Kentucky.

While the FBI continued searching for possible connections between the new owner and CPUSA, Hoover, the FBI's longtime director, ultimately stopped the inquiry. In an Oct. 1, 1969, memo, he wrote that "since exposure of this matter might jeopardize a sensitive operation, no further action should be taken at this time" and any Madrygal-to-CPUSA funding would be pretty thin, having only "a very minor effect on party funds."

The Minneapolis Tribune did reach Toivo, who told them the FBI was only interested in the issue because he was Gus Hall's brother and that Hall was "a politician, not a horseman."

"They think up any wild story," he said of the FBI.

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When a communist leader from Minnesota ran for president -- over and over

Jimmy Lovrien — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 12:31:00 GMT

CHERRY, Minn. — Minnesotans running for president haven’t had much luck.

Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, both Democrats, lost the general elections in 1968 and 1984 to Republicans Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, respectively.

But no Minnesotan has run for president in the general election as often — and earned as few votes — as Cherry, Minnesota, native Gus Hall.

As general secretary of the Communist Party USA, Hall ran for president four times — 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984 — but never earned even a tenth of a percent of the popular vote. He earned the most votes in 1976, when he and his running mate, Jarvis Tyner, earned fewer than 59,000 votes.

Born in Cherry in 1910 as Arvo Kusta Halberg to Finnish immigrants (he changed his name to Gus Hall in the 1930s while organizing steelworkers in Ohio), Hall grew up in a large, poor family with “the best library,” according to a Nov. 2, 1980, article in the Duluth News Tribune.

The article, detailing a campaign stop in Virginia, said Hall went to work in the lumber camps around Cotton and Lake Vermilion at age 15, which, on top of a communist upbringing, became an experience that only solidified his political views.

“Working in lumber camps in those days would make a communist out of anybody,” Hall said, according to a Boston Globe article published in the News Tribune on Jan. 24, 1993.

His working-class upbringing was central to his communist origin story.

But it wasn’t always accurate, according to Tuomas Savonen, who spent 15 years studying Hall, the subject of his 2020 doctoral dissertation.

For example, the poor conditions in lumber camps were likely depicted as worse than they were. His dissertation describes a Hall claim to Newsweek in 1984 as “close to unbelievable.” Hall claimed that when he and other lumberjacks slept two to a bunk, his bunkmate died and Hall had to keep sleeping in the bunk with the corpse for days.

Hall also claimed maggots were regularly in the lumber camp beef, which Savonen wrote resembled a scene in the classic Soviet film “Battleship Potemkin.”

“You could really see that he was exaggerating quite a lot. … He wanted to have a proper life story to become a real communist leader,” Savonen, a reporter for the Finnish News Agency covering politics in Helsinki, Finland, told the News Tribune. He also published a book in Finnish about Hall.

The book, "Moskovan mies vakoilun verkossa" ("Moscow's Man Entangled in Espionage"), was released in 2023. Savonen is looking for a publishing house in the U.S. to translate and release an English version of the book.

Later, as leader of the American communist party, Hall’s life was far from a class struggle, largely thanks to millions of dollars in financial assistance from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to Communist Party USA.

“He loved his fancy suits … and he had the fine Arabian racehorses shipped back to Cherry to his sister to raise,” said Aaron Brown, an Iron Range historian and author, who interviewed Hall in 1999 as a 19-year-old reporter working on a series about famous people from the Cherry area. “And he was a man who liked the finer things, and yet he was also purporting to be a man of the people and, of course, the communist message.”

Hall, who died in 2000 at age 90, lived in a nice house in Yonkers, New York, and commuted to the Communist Party USA headquarters in Manhattan every day. Savonen said he had a chauffeur, traveled first class and preferred to stay in four- and five-star hotels rather than at the homes of party comrades.

All the while, some of his friends in Communist Party USA were feeding information to the FBI about Hall and the party's activity, according to FBI files now publicly available.

Savonen said that although the Soviet Union didn’t believe Hall was very efficient — despite all the money he received, he couldn’t grow the party — they appreciated his loyalty.

That Soviet loyalty began in the early 1930s when Hall studied at Moscow’s International Lenin ��.

“After coming back from the Soviet Union, he spoke very highly of the Soviet Union, he was like, ‘Oh, it’s such a perfect society,’ which, of course, it was not,” Savonen said. “Especially then in the early 30s, the whole society was a complete mess. And it was the worst years of Stalin’s dictatorship.”

According to Savonen’s dissertation, Hall returned to the U.S. and settled in late 1932 or early 1933 in Minneapolis, where he was a district organizer for the Young Communist League, part of Communist Party USA. There, he participated in the Teamsters 1934 strike, and, according to another organizer, took part in some of the street fights.

He would then move to Ohio, where he changed his name from Arvo Halberg to Gus Hall so he could work at a steel mill with the intent of organizing its workers. He would become a leader in the 1937 Little Steel Strike, which saw thousands of steelworkers walk off at several steel companies’ mills in a violent strike that left 17 strikers and strike supporters dead. The Chicago Police Department shot and killed 10 demonstrators in what became known as the Memorial Day Massacre.

Hall and other organizers also used violent means, though no one died as a result of their actions. Savonen wrote in his dissertation that Hall “extolled” the strikers who shot at Republic Steel airplanes, and later, Hall was charged for allegedly being the ring leader in a series of bombings during the strike. But after his trial was repeatedly delayed, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was fined $500.

Hall’s attitude toward violence mellowed after the birth of his daughter in 1938, Savonen said.

“After that, he became more peaceful in his ways of doing things,” Savonen told the News Tribune. “He was not that violence-prone anymore.”

Hall would go on to serve in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater in the final months of WWII.

Back in the U.S., Hall faced more legal issues.

In 1951, he was among the communists facing five years in prison under the Smith Act for advocating or teaching the overthrow of the U.S. government. He served the sentence after initially fleeing to Mexico, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned convictions under the Smith Act in 1957.

By 1959, he took his post as general secretary of the Communist Party USA, and his devotion to the Soviet Union continued even after it fell in 1991. However, the Communist Party USA, which he led until his death, was never a powerful political force in the country; its membership remained small.

That became his legacy, overshadowing his role in unionizing steelworkers in the 1930s as an organizer for the Steelworkers Organizing Committee, a precursor to the United Steelworkers, which today represents employees at every operating taconite mine in Minnesota and steel mills across the country.

“You can take and say he was ineffective and too wedded to the Soviets later in life, but in his young organizing days, he played a very crucial role in building industrial unions in the United States,” Brown said. “And so, he’s a mixed bag of historical value.”

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Family navigates grief after Grand Rapids teen lost in 1992

Brielle Bredsten — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 13:00:00 GMT

JACOBSON, Minn. — Just five days after his 18th birthday, James “Jamie” Tennison, of Grand Rapids, entered the Savannah State Forest, never to be seen or heard from again.

It was a warm, overcast afternoon Oct. 15, 1992, when Jamie and his father, James “Jim” Tennison, and friend, Jeff Wohlrabe, set out to hunt grouse.

“I grew up in the Jacobson area and went to high school at McGregor, so that was a familiar area,” Jim said. “We were both fairly familiar with that area that we were hunting, which was about 3 miles south and 6 miles in on the Hedbom Forest Road.”

Furthering Jamie’s confidence in the woods was the training he received during a three-day survival course and Minnesota Deer Hunters Association Forkhorn Camp, and he frequently camped in the woods alone, Jim said.

“He was supposed to be meeting up with a girl in Grand Rapids to go out that evening,” Jim recalled. “He reminded me of that, and we parted ways.”

The hunting party agreed to meet back at the truck at 4 p.m. before Jim and his friend headed south on the reserve line while Jamie went north.

Dressed in ripstop camouflage pants, a lightweight green camouflage jacket with a vest, a red-and-blue flannel shirt and a Los Angeles Kings ball cap, Jamie walked alone with his brand-new Remington 870 Express 12-gauge shotgun in hand.

A billfold containing money and Jamie’s ID and a new pistol his father had given him for his birthday were left behind at the family hunting shack, Jim said.

When 4 p.m. rolled around, Jamie didn’t show. The temperature dropped, and by 6 p.m., cold rain turned into wind and snow. A large fire was built. Shouts and shots were fired, but no reply.

Jim would later discover Jamie’s compass was still lying in the ammo box back at the shack.

“We did hear some shots, so he probably shot some grouse. He got off the trail, off the road, and he got confused,” Jim presumed. “Without a compass in the woods on a cloudy day, you could get really disorientated as far as sense of direction, and I think that he was lost.”

Excursions into the woods showed no sign of Jamie, and the sheriff’s office was notified at around 10:45 p.m.

”I think he looked around, and he found someplace he could hunker down and get as much shelter as he could," Jim suggested, "whether it be an upturned tree or something like that. He dug himself in, and he covered himself up with leaves, and he went to sleep and never woke up.”

According to a deputy’s report on file at the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office, the responding officer stated: “I went out to where they last saw him, sat near that area with my siren going at intervals of 15-20 minutes, at which time, I would shut it off and listen. I did this for approximately 1 1/2 hours.”

Meanwhile, Jim and Wohlrabe stoked the fire 1 mile away, yet reportedly could not hear the siren due to the heavy snowfall.

“Aitkin County basically did not run any kind of search and rescue,” Jim claimed. “They never set foot in the woods at all, didn't do any organizing. It was all done by friends of mine, or volunteers or Minnesota Power.”

The sheriff’s office called off its search for Jamie on the morning of Oct. 20, 1992, according to an article in the Aitkin Independent Age newspaper.

Over the next 10 days, the Tennison family, friends and co-workers conducted extensive searches in the thick, swampy brush and timber-filled woods with floating bogs and numerous predators. Volunteers used dogs, horses and helicopters to comb the area in a grid-style search, Jim said.

“People that suffer from hypothermia, what they do is they run, they start shedding items,” Jim said. “Caps, vests, guns, whatever. We never found anything. So wherever Jamie ended up, all his stuff ended up with him.”

According to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's missing-person poster, Jamie is described as a 5-foot, 9-inch white male weighing 120 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes.

The 12-gauge Remington shotgun (with serial number A442608M) that Jamie was carrying at the time of his disappearance was registered with authorities.

The family also enlisted the help of a well-known psychic, Greta Alexander.

“She had a premonition on a well site on an island that was kind of down in that area,” Jim said. “This was probably a month or month and a half after. We flew over there and checked that island out, and I made trips back there. My brother actually hunted back in that area for several years, and I made several trips down there, too, but I don't do that anymore.”

That winter, the family called off private search efforts for Jamie.

The hunting shack property south of Jacobson was eventually sold. While Jim no longer hunts in that area, he and his daughter, Gina, have an annual tradition of sitting in a deer stand together during each season’s opening weekend.

“We drink coffee and eat treats and tell stories as much as we hunt,” Jim said. “Gina has struggled with losing her big brother that she looked up to, but she's turned out to be a very beautiful young woman with a huge circle of supportive friends and a good job.”

Because of Jamie’s past, Jim said there was speculation among some people that his son may have run away, but the thought never entered his mind.

“He was just a fun, adventurous little guy. Loved to try just about anything. He was an outdoors kid. You know — hunting, fishing, camping,” Jim said. “We had no difficulties with Jamie until he got into middle school, and he had trouble with the administration.”

According to a supplemental report by an Aitkin County deputy on the day Jamie was reported missing, his mother stated that when he was 14, he ran away and was found a few miles away in a teepee-type arrangement and seemed quite comfortable.

“My son was a very bright person who liked to press boundaries,” Jim said. “Like any parent-child, when you have a kid that's acting out, you have difficulties. But I would say it was a pretty healthy relationship between the two of us.”

Jamie had been placed at Northwest Juvenile Training Center in Bemidji.

After returning to the family home on Pokegama Lake in Grand Rapids, the plan was to have Jamie finish the last few months of high school and graduate with his class.

“But that didn’t happen,” Jim said.

In an Aitkin County Sheriff Investigation Report dated Nov. 1, 1992, an officer had contacted Jamie’s then-girlfriend at the center, who said she had not heard him talking of running away, and she hadn’t heard from him since he disappeared.

Jim firmly believes his son succumbed to the elements, also leaving behind a younger sister, Gina, who was 14 at the time, and mother, Mary Tennison.

“I know a lot of people have been through like circumstances," Jim said, struggling to find the words as he choked up, "and a lot of times it leads to separation and divorce of the parents, and conflicts. In our situation, it didn't do that because my wife never blamed me."

A year following Jamie’s disappearance, a memorial service was held at United Methodist Church. For over a decade, loved ones gathered at the “point last seen” to pay tribute to Jamie.

Now, only Jamie’s immediate family gathers each October for a bonfire at their home in Grand Rapids in remembrance of him.

“We still think about him a lot,” Jim said. “You don't come through something like that unscarred, that's for sure.”

While Jamie’s body was never located, a bronze plaque honoring his memory can be found at the family’s plot at Wildwood Cemetery in Cohasset.

To prevent similar tragedies, Jim partnered with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to help establish the Jamie Tennison Memorial Compass Fund through the Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation in 1994.

The program receives support from various community partners, including the Itasca County Chapter of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. Jim estimates at least 60,000 compasses have been distributed in Itasca County since the program’s inception at a cost of over $100,000, though those numbers are outdated.

In addition to adding survival and orienteering training to firearms safety instruction for youth in Itasca County, students are provided with a compass and brochure of Jamie’s story. Instructors are free to structure the program into their course as they see fit.

“I've had multiple people stop me and thank me and say, ‘You have no idea how many lives this could have potentially saved by all these kids having a compass,'" Jim said.

Anyone with information about Jamie Tennison is asked to call the Aitkin County Sheriff's Office at 218-927-7435.

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Who was Tim Walz before his rise to vice presidential candidate?

Peter Passi — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 13:00:00 GMT

ST. PAUL — A month ago, few Americans knew who Tim Walz was. But when Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota’s governor as her running mate, Walz was suddenly thrust onto the national stage.

In recent weeks, news publications have raced to profile Walz and dig into his past, exposing both the positive and negative. They have not come up empty on either front.

As many Minnesota voters know, Walz has proven to be a skilled politician with a knack for coming across as a down-to-earth guy.

You can chalk much of that up to his life experience. Born in 1964, Walz grew up in Valentine, Nebraska, a small town with a population of about 2,600 near the South Dakota border. After high school, at 17, Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard and enrolled at Chadron (Neb.) State College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in social science in 1989.

Upon graduation, he spent a year teaching in China before returning to accept another teaching job at a high school in Alliance, Nebraska. There, he met his wife, Gwen, who was also a teacher.

Flashing lights

While teaching in Nebraska, Walz was pulled over for speeding and then charged with drunken driving.

A State Patrol officer clocked him doing 96 mph in a 55-mph zone. After pulling him over, the trooper detected the smell of alcohol on Walz’s breath, and he was asked to perform a field sobriety test, which he failed. A subsequent lab test revealed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.128% at a time when the state’s legal limit was 0.10%. That threshold has since been lowered to 0.08%.

Walz pleaded guilty to a lesser reckless driving charge and was fined $200 plus court expenses.

As for Walz’s excessive speed, his attorney, Russell Harford, told the presiding judge that although it sounded “a little bizarre,” his client, who had been going about 70 mph, did not realize he was being followed by a State Patrol vehicle as it approached.

According to a court transcript obtained by Minnesota Public Radio, Harford explained: “The officer didn’t turn on his red lights and he — and somebody came up real fast behind him, and he didn’t know what they were doing. So, he sped up to try to get away, fearing that somebody was after him.”

When the officer hit his lights, Walz slowed and pulled over, finally realizing that he was being tailed by a squad car.

Walz had no excuse for driving while intoxicated, however. Harford said his client felt he had let down students who looked up to him as a role model and offered to resign after his arrest. But the school’s principal talked him out of it.

As a politician, Walz has owned up to the incident and said it prompted him to quit drinking altogether.

Even though the crime occurred nearly 29 years ago, it has reemerged as a potential campaign liability.

Cynthia Rugeley, head of the University of Minnesota Duluth’s political science program, suggested that if Walz attempts to minimize the arrest, it might not play well.

She suspects Walz will choose another course, potentially turning a negative into a positive.

“I think he’s going to say: That incident was a turning point in my life,” Rugeley predicted. She noted that George W. Bush similarly employed an effective life-changing anecdote during his campaign about going cold-turkey sober after his 40th birthday when he woke up with a bad morning hangover.

Move to Mankato

In 1996, Tim and Gwen Walz relocated to Mankato, where he took a job teaching geography plus social studies and his wife taught English.

By all accounts, the city of 46,000 residents proved a good fit for the couple.

Noah Hobbs, of Duluth, grew up in Mankato. As a high school sophomore, he took a global geography class taught by “Mr. Walz,” as Mankato West students called him then.

“He just had an infectious energy that he brought to class all the time,” Hobbs recalled. “He made learning fun and accessible. And he treated all students as individuals who he met with the same level of joy you see him display today.”

Hobbs was not an academic standout, describing himself as a "C"-level student in many classes.

“But the fact that he took the same amount of time with me as he did with 'A' students and high academic achievers was really impactful. It meant a lot to me, and I think the world of Mr. Walz,” Hobbs said.

In his junior year, Nathan Hood took a geography course from Walz and said it’s little wonder that many students refer to him as one of their favorite teachers of all time.

“He was encouraging, and he was not the kind of teacher who was going to tell kids to sit down so he could lecture them. He brought people in and got students engaged,” Hood said.

He got the sense Walz genuinely cared about each student.

“Mr. Walz was one of those teachers who made you want to do well in class. It was almost like

you

wanted to do well because

wanted you to do well,” Hood said.

Walz also was part of the coaching team that led Mankato West to its first state football title in 1999.

Hood was not on that particular team but played as a second-string defensive tackle under Walz, who served as Mankato West’s defensive coordinator. He remembers coach Walz for his high-octane locker room speeches.

“He could really fire you up and get you excited,” recalled Hood, who sat out his senior year after breaking a foot.

“He was tough as a coach,” Hood said. But while competitive, he recalled Walz always made an effort to get non-starting players, like Hood, into the game whenever the outcome did not appear to be clearly on the line.

Say something

Sherri Blasing, who now serves as Mankato West’s principal, lived next door to Tim and Gwen Walz for 20 years, until he was elected governor.

The neighboring families, both with school-age children, became fast friends and shared a garden on their property line. Blasing recalled being in the backyard with Gwen one day when she received a call informing her that her husband was being detained by the Secret Service.

Walz had taken his class to see George W. Bush, who was making a campaign stop in Mankato, and one of the students was denied entrance because he had a John Kerry sticker on his wallet. Walz questioned why a high school student shouldn’t be allowed to see the visiting president of the United States.

Blasing said Walz used that story as a lesson to share with future students. “He’d say: 'If you see something going on that you don’t think is right, you need to get up and say something or do something about it.'"

“I think he inspired students to take on challenges and make the world a better place for everyone,” Blasing said.

Walz wasn’t afraid to lead by example.

When some of West’s first openly gay students sought to form a Gay-Straight Alliance, Walz stepped forward to serve as a faculty adviser.

Blasing said that was totally in keeping with Walz’s values.

“That’s what good teachers do,” she said. “No matter what a student’s background is or who they are, every kid needs to feel valued and to have that sense of belonging.”

Military service

Walz spent 24 years in the National Guard and was promoted to serve as command sergeant major, the Army’s highest enlisted rank, by the time he retired in 2005.

New Ulm Police Chief David Borchert served five years with Walz in the same Guard unit, the 34th Infantry Division of the 125 Field Artillery Unit. At the time, Borchert was a sergeant and Walz was a first sergeant.

“He was a very good leader. Over the years, you could always count on him,” Borchert said, adding that because of his reliable follow-through when Walz said something would get done, it did.

Borchert pointed to a personal experience when he had been approved for competitive leadership training in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, but a missing form threatened to send him home, where he would most certainly wait a year or more to be re-enrolled, postponing an anticipated promotion.

He called Walz, who assured him the needed documentation would be hand-delivered the next day, even though it involved a lot of complicated rigamarole. The paperwork arrived in time, as promised.

Borchert said Walz was particularly skilled at motivating people under his command and fortifying morale.

“Realistically, he’s probably one of the smartest guys I’ve ever served with,” Borchert said, remarking on his ability to connect and empathize with fellow soldiers.

Some have questioned the timing of Walz’s 2005 retirement. The paperwork went through just two months before his Guard unit was slated for an Iraq deployment.

But Walz said he submitted the necessary paperwork about a year in advance of the planned deployment and had reenlisted for four more years in 2001, after 20 years of service, in the wake of the 9/11 attack. Military service members qualify for full retirement benefits after 20 years.

Political factors also played a role in Walz’s decision to retire, as Borchert noted.

“I don’t think anybody should ever question someone else’s military service,” Borchert said. “He served his time, and basically, he couldn’t run for Congress and be in the Guard.”

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, picked to run for vice president on the Republican ticket alongside former President Donald J. Trump, is a Marine veteran who recently took issue with a video posted by the Harris campaign that featured Walz explaining his support for banning domestic sales of assault weapons.

In the piece, Walz said: “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”

Vance noted that Walz had never served in a combat zone and accused him of “stolen valor,” based on the video.

The Harris campaign responded with a statement: “In his 24 years of service, the Governor carried, fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times. Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American's service to this country — in fact, he thanks Sen. Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It's the American way."

Walz was deployed from 2003-2004 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, but he served in Italy, helping to supply troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Vance also is not a combat veteran.

The controversy has stirred emotions on both sides, as evidenced by an Aug. 8 post on X (formerly Twitter) by Jennifer Cady, a retired major from the 148th Air National Guard now serving as chair of the Duluth Chamber’s Military Affairs Committee.

She wrote: “To me, as someone who retired from military service after 20 years and was deployed overseas four times in the post-9/11 era — vet brothers who put down the service of other veterans are the worst, and doing so often says more about them than the person they are trying to one up.”

Political ambitions

Come 2006, Walz challenged incumbent Rep. Gil Gutknecht in southern Minnesota’s traditionally conservative 1st Congressional District.

Looking back, Gutknecht called the election “a perfect storm.”

He pointed to public anger directed toward George W. Bush and the war at the time as well as dissatisfaction with poor farm commodity prices.

Running as a veteran who questioned Bush’s leadership, Waltz struck a chord. As his campaign gained momentum, additional outside funds began to flow into the race.

“They were literally running attack ads against me on Saturday morning cartoon shows,” Gutknecht said.

Although Walz was portrayed as a political moderate at the time, Gutknecht believes he stood further left.

“I sensed that beneath the veneer was a very liberal person. He was a teacher’s union liberal from Day 1. But that’s not the image he projected,” Gutknecht said.

Walz remained popular with his constituents, however, and went on to serve six terms in Congress before entering the governor’s race, where he again prevailed over Jeff Johnson, the Republican nominee.

Gov. Walz

During his first term as governor, Walz faced a divided Legislature. Then-Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said, “I think he negotiated in good faith.”

He noted that during Walz’s first year as governor, Republicans bargained for lower taxes, yet Walz was able to garner more support for education.

From a budget standpoint, Gazelka said, “When he had someone holding him accountable as far as the money, I think it turned out all right.”

But later, when the DFL gained control of the Senate, House and governor’s office in 2023, Gazelka said the subsequent results were much different.

“When he didn’t have anyone holding him accountable, in one year they increased the Minnesota budget almost 40%. But we didn’t have checks and balances.”

Under DFL leadership, Gazelka said the Legislature took an $18 billion surplus and spent it, making future deficits a greater likelihood.

But in an opinion piece, District 8A Rep. Liz Olson, DFL-Duluth, hailed the result of the session.

“The 2023 legislative session brought wins for Minnesotans and was the result of folks making their voices heard on issues that deeply matter to them," she said.

She went on to say: “DFL lawmakers and Gov. Tim Walz worked together closely to make investments in schools, address gun violence, make significant progress in tackling climate change, enact sweeping protections for workers, cut taxes for working families and seniors, make game-changing investments in housing, protect reproductive freedom, and much more.”

“We also made robust investments in our local communities, including infrastructure and public safety,” Olson said, calling it “the most productive legislative session in generations.”

For all their political differences, Gazelka acknowledged what he called Walz’s “country charm” and referred to it as “endearing to a lot of people.”

Former House Speaker Kurt Daudt said that behind closed doors, Walz likes to talk a lot and strongly holds to his positions, although he’s not opposed to cutting deals by horse-trading when expedient.

“I’d say he’s more transactional, sort of like Sen. Gazelka,” Daudt said. “My style is more, if you ask me for something, I want it to be the right thing to do,” explaining that he personally needs to be sold on an idea before he is likely to support it.

Daudt said he and Walz have “a little bit of a love-hate relationship.”

They share a passion for vehicles, with Daudt owning a 1966 Ford Bronco and Walz driving a 1972 International Scout.

“He loves that we have that in common,” Daudt said, noting that they text one another when they see comparable vehicles for sale.

“I think he so much wants to be friends," Daudt said. "But the thing that holds him back from really being friends is: I don’t think he can get over the fact that I could be friends with him and still not like the stuff he does. He can’t be friends with someone who doesn’t agree with him or who is critical of what he does."

Daudt suggested that’s because “he believes so strongly in what he’s doing. Right?”

“That thin skin is his Achilles' heel,” he said.

Excitement and uncertainty

Hobbs said he can hardly believe his former high school teacher is in the running to become a U.S. vice president.

“It’s refreshing to have someone who is not an attorney, not independently wealthy, not a political heir or not Ivy League-educated. It’s a little bit like ‘Mr. Smith goes to Washington,'" he said.

Blasing said Walz joining the Harris ticket has excited her whole community, but it also sends an inspirational message to local students.

“If he can become a vice presidential candidate, think of what you could be. One of us is there now,” she said.

The political rhetoric will likely intensify as November approaches and much of the negative attention seems to have focused on Walz.

Professor Rugeley noted that while the vice presidential nominee is certainly a consideration, most voters are primarily motivated by the person at the top of the ticket. And if Walz continues to be the primary target of the Trump-Vance campaign, she suggested it could be to Democrats’ advantage, especially if Walz continues to come across as “a likable guy.”

“So, you don’t want to punch on him too hard,” Rugeley said.

This story originally misstated the number of terms Walz spent in Congress. It was six terms. It was updated at 6:45 p.m. Aug. 13. The News Tribune regrets the error.

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Lutsen Lodge: Destroyed by fire, scorched by controversy

Brielle Bredsten — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 14:09:53 GMT

LUTSEN — A fire Feb. 6 destroyed the state’s oldest operating resort, the historic Lutsen Lodge, leaving only memories of what once was a place of celebration, gathering and tradition for guests.

Bryce Campbell, the colorful and controversial owner since 2018, has vowed to rebuild the lodge. But will insurance cover millions of dollars in damages? Whether this northern Minnesota gem will return is uncertain as the State Fire Marshal's investigation continues.

Campbell’s grandiose vision for the lodge was unraveling for some time before a fire resulted in its complete loss. According to public records from the State of Minnesota and Cook County, the multimillion-dollar plan was plagued by Minnesota liquor tax delinquencies, state fees for unpermitted work, unresolved fire code violations and multiple lawsuits in Minnesota District Court from contractors, employees and property owners who say they were never paid.

Is it unreasonable to expect the Lutsen Resort to rise from the ashes, despite his promise to rebuild?

Campbell didn’t respond to the News Tribune’s multiple requests for an interview for this story.

2001: Campbells start acquiring properties

Campbell, 39, is the owner of North Shore Resort Co., which falls under the Campbell Hospitality Group, an Ontario-based company he founded with his late mother, Sheila Campbell.

In 2001, Campbell and his mother bought the Reston Creemee Drive-In in Manitoba, Canada. It was sold in 2013.

In 2007, Campbell Hospitality Group bought Main Street Inn and Suites and Rest’n Inn, both in Manitoba. According to Empire Advance, a Manitoba-based weekly publication, both properties were renovated under the Campbells’ ownership.

On July 22, 2010, a kitchen fire at the Rest'n Inn caused irreparable damage to the hotel, according to the Reston Recorder, a since-closed newspaper in Manitoba.

At the time, Pipestone-Albert Fire Department Chief Jack Berry told the Recorder that the fire commissioner believed the incident was caused by a faulty electrical system in the grill area. According to the Office of the Fire Commissioner’s report, it appeared the fire originated from a deep-fat fryer and was deemed accidental.

Rest’n Inn also included two restaurants: Brycington’s and Aurora Bar & Grill. Eighteen employees were displaced after the fire and the Campbells sold the hotel in 2014.

The four-unit Main Street Inn and Suites, still owned by Campbell, is home to three apartments/condos and a chiropractic clinic.

Campbell Hospitality Group acquired the Roadrunner Motel in Rainy River, Ontario, in 2010. The Campbells planned to physically relocate six of its 18 units to the Rest’n Inn in Manitoba.

The motel was renamed “Walla Walla Inn” and reopened in 2011 with the help of Patti Diebel and her parents, John and Mary Sanderson, according to the Rainy River Record newspaper. Rainy River town records show that Campbell sold the Walla Walla Inn in early 2022 to 13805921 Canada Inc., a federally incorporated business.

In February 2014, Campbell Hospitality Group bought the 70-room Copper River Inn and Event Centre in Fort Frances, Ontario, with the help of the Rainy River Future Development Corp. and two other lenders. The Copper River Inn underwent a complete remodel with plans to reopen in March 2014, according to the Fort Frances Times. The addition of the inn's new Copper Taphouse and Grill opened in June 2018.

Campbell told the Northern Ontario Business news site that the hospitality group invested $3 million into the inn’s renovations, earning him recognition from the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce as 2015 Entrepreneur of the Year.

2016: Lawsuits begin

Under Campbell’s ownership, the Copper River Inn and Event Centre were involved in several lawsuits with the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Local 175. The union holds bargaining rights for the inn’s housekeeping, hospitality and front desk employees.

A court board had dismissed two applications, on March 28, 2017, and March 9, 2018, to decertify the union. These efforts followed the filing of two lawsuits by the union involving cases where two probationary employees at the inn were both found to be wrongfully terminated by Arbitrator Dana Randall in Ontario Court of Justice.

On Dec. 19, 2016, a 17-year-old probationary employee was wrongfully terminated after reporting workplace harassment, according to Ontario Court of Justice. A second grievance was filed Feb. 17, 2017, regarding the same employee, who alleged she had been sexually assaulted by a hotel guest on Nov. 6, 2016.

Both grievances were awarded by arbitration on May 17, 2019, including $1,000 in damages regarding the employer’s failure to respond to the sexual assault allegations, according to the law, and compensation for lost wages.

The case regarding the employer’s response to the sexual assault allegations was raised again in Ontario Superior Court of Justice Divisional Court. On July 19, 2021, the court ruled in favor of the union, which claimed the awarded damages were not enough, for a new hearing to be held before a new arbitrator, as well as awarding it $10,000 in associated costs.

On April 27, 2018, Copper River Inn employee Cindy Baker slipped and fell at work during her fourth probationary shift and suffered a significant Workplace Safety and Insurance Board-recognized injury. Baker was paid for three weeks of lost employment and returned to work with restrictions.

Originally hired as a part-time employee, Baker was then scheduled for a 48-hour workweek. After Baker complained to her supervisor, she was still required to work the hours, which resulted in “agonizing pain” and immobility.

On June 15, 2018, the Safety and Insurance Board instructed Baker to undergo an appointment, which determined she could return to work with numerous physical restrictions and with modified shifts limited to four hours. This was not accommodated by the employer, according to Ontario Court of Justice.

Then, according to Ontario Court of Justice, Baker was wrongfully terminated June 19, 2018, at the direction of Campbell. On Nov. 9, 2020, Ontario Court of Justice ruled in favor of the union on a damage award of $20,000 in Baker’s case.

Randall stated in the arbitration decision that Baker “had to put up with being portrayed as lacking charisma and flair in circumstances where she was fighting through pain that the employer willfully turned a blind eye.”

Under oath, Campbell said employees were upset that the union was spending their dues on arbitration. According to Ontario court documents, Board Vice Chair Mary Anne McKellar found that Campbell “either did not appreciate or did not care what representative authority the union held with respect to the employees.”

The court document also alleged that under Campbell’s management, the hotel was “chronically delinquent” in forwarding membership documentation to the union for new hires, and in forwarding dues it had remitted.

Further, McKellar stated, “The facts of this case support an inference that Mr. Campbell either was behind the initiation of the termination campaign, or that he created a climate in the workplace in which employees would perceive that a (union) termination application was desirable.”

2018: Campbells buy Lutsen Resort

In 2018, the Campbells purchased the Lutsen Resort. That August, Campbell took out mortgages on Lutsen Resort with Republic Bank, Inc. for $4.73 million and from North Shore Land Co. for $675,000, which matured in July 2023.

At that time, there were 150 employees, previous owners Scott Harrison and Nancy Burns stated during an interview with the WTIP radio station.

Then, the Campbells bought Superior Shores in Two Harbors from Joe Re on Jan. 1, 2020, for nearly $15 million. The record-high resort sale included 131 of the total 184 units of its lodge, lakehomes and Burlington Bay condos, according to Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

While Campbell's Canadian businesses were reported to have suffered greatly during the pandemic, he said his Minnesota businesses thrived — thanks to Twin Cities tourists, according to an article titled "COVID-19 recovery vastly different in Canada vs. the U.S." published Sept. 16, 2020, in the Fort Francis Times.

Meanwhile, Campbell said the programs offered by the federal and provincial governments during COVID-19 covered half of his losses. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, North Shore Resort Co. received over $1.8 million in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans between 2020 and 2021, retaining roughly 130 jobs.

In 2021, Bryce Campbell served as treasurer of Visit Cook County Board of Directors. He was appointed to a three-year term by the Lutsen-Tofte-Schroeder Tourism Association.

On Aug. 12, 2021, Sheila Campbell died. She and her husband, Kendon Campbell, operated a 600-acre cattle farm near Reston.

2023: Projects encounter challenges

The Campbells planned to transform Lutsen Resort into a luxury boutique lodge with the addition of a $4 million Nordic spa.

During the Cook County Board of Commissioners meeting Dec. 17, 2019, Campbell expressed concern that a newly proposed tax classification of short-term rental properties would impact his investments, such as the development of the spa, which he planned to submit building applications for the following year.

Campbell told commissioners he needed the ability for 60% occupancy on the property, but under the proposed classification, most of the resort's units would be limited to 50% occupancy. In that case, Campbell said he would move the spa to Two Harbors.

A conditional use permit application dated July 11, 2023, for the proposed Nordic spa stated it would replace the resort's saunas, hot tubs and pools. Upon review of the permit application, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources recommended denial, citing concerns about the potential of runoff contamination into the Poplar River and Lake Superior. The DNR also noted that changing the area’s topography would negatively impact the environment.

Lutsen Resort’s lodge was located at the mouth of the Poplar River and Lake Superior. It hosted lodging, two restaurants, events, a pool and massage services, and nearby on-site housing for its staff. Its eastern property boundary is the Poplar River, which hosts the Poplar River Condo Association on the opposite shoreline. To the west is the Lutsen Resort Townhome Association, under separate ownership.

Several nearby property owners heavily scrutinized plans to expand the resort. Cook County received numerous letters of opposition.

On Aug. 9, 2023, Campbell appeared before the Cook County Board of Adjustment to request a variance for an expansion of the Lutsen Lodge and for the construction of a separate three-story, 32-rental unit chalet.

The proposed construction of the spa would have included the removal of the bluff north of the parking lot. The request was tabled, pending completion of an Environmental Assessment Worksheet.

The following month, Campbell hired McMillan Tree Service to clear trees in this area.

At the Board of Adjustment meeting Aug. 9, 2023, Campbell requested a variance to replace the pedestrian bridge destroyed by the Poplar River flood in 2022. However, there would be no pedestrian easement. "It's always been a viewing bridge more than an actual accessory bridge,” Campbell said.

The bridge request was approved under conditions that the resort obtain the proper permits from the Department of Natural Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers and an easement agreement from the Poplar River Ridge Condominium Association.

During the planning commission's public hearing, Ann Sullivan, ex-officio planning commission member and county commissioner, commented publicly as a private citizen, stating that in addition to the Environmental Assessment Worksheet, she believed the issues with the resort’s prior public waters violation with the DNR should be resolved.

Sullivan was referring to the cease-and-desist order that was issued by the DNR to Lutsen Resort on Sept. 7, 2022, to halt unpermitted work on the pedestrian bridge on the Poplar River during fish spawning season.

Two days later, the DNR authorized limited emergency work, which expired Sept. 15, 2022. However, a DNR officer observed ongoing work that was beyond the limited emergency authorization and ordered all work stopped at that time.

The investigation into this matter is ongoing by the Minnesota DNR, Cook County Soil and Water Conservation District and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to Gail Nosek, DNR communications director.

Grand Portage Reservation Water Quality Specialist Margaret Watkins also voiced concern about the resort's application to place a salt spa next to a trout stream without a plan for wastewater treatment.

Former employees speak out

"(Bryce) had a very specific vision on how he wanted things done, and it was not necessarily in line with the market that's in this direct area," said Quinton McCorquodale, former facilities director for Lutsen Resort's housekeeping and maintenance department.

McCorquodale was hired Oct. 3, 2022. "It was significantly slower than other properties that I've worked in this field," he said. He was among other employees laid off after the fire.

McCorquodale claimed Campbell was marketing the resort to “DINKS,” an expression referring to households with “dual income, no kids.”

“The majority of business in Lutsen prior to that had been kind of built on the Duluth area and locals,” McCorquodale said. “With the loss of that, he was not able to pull in as many people from Minneapolis as he had relied on."

Former staff members recounted that just months before the fire, Campbell changed the menu at The Strand, a high-end restaurant in the main lodge, to a single five-course meal option at $125 a person.

"I effectively saw the dining room almost dead in a month or so," McCorquodale said.

Alex Hilterbrand was hired by Lutsen Resort in January 2023. "I had responded to a recreation manager position,” she said. “They put me at the front desk.”

In her position, Hilterbrand said she fielded many calls from people complaining that the resort was "pushing out the community."

"Neither Edward (Vanegas) nor Bryce are from the North Shore area,” Hilterbrand said. “They were trying to turn the resort into something that didn't really match the vibe of what the people of Minnesota are like.”

Vanegas was the general manager of the Lutsen Resort.

From $3,000 bottles of wine to charging roughly $1,000 for a three-night stay, several residents, longtime guests and staff claimed the resort was out of touch with the local hospitality market, Hilterbrand said.

Further, Hilterbrand described the resort's employee residences as being "disgusting" and "moldy," with one of the two buildings having a cockroach infestation.

Improper inspection and maintenance was also alleged to be the root of a 2022 personal injury lawsuit filed with Minnesota's Sixth Judicial District Court on July 20, 2022, by a guest, Jessica Meli, who was significantly injured Dec. 24, 2020, due to icy parking lot conditions at the resort.

Hilterbrand quit after five months working for the resort due to the working environment. She now works for the Virginia Parks and Recreation Department.

"I knew in my heart of hearts working there that something was going on below the surface," Hilterbrand said. "And I just couldn't put my finger on it."

According to McCorquodale, he began covering the front desk after Hilterbrand quit.

“It was just a slow attrition and we didn't have the finances to replace those people,” McCorquodale said.

Resort mourns 2 employee deaths on same day

Staff and residents have raised questions about the drowning death of 20-year-old Saunder Strong.

Strong was hired as a dishwasher and was later offered a position as an activities guide for summer 2023.

Given her past experience as a park ranger, naturalist and outdoor educator with a degree in wilderness management and recreation programming, as well as a two-year certification in backcountry guiding, Hilterbrand believed Strong was unqualified.

"Mind you, people from the Twin Cities, they're a little bit different from the people up north in that a lot of them don't have the outdoor experience to really know what they're contending with when it comes to the cold, the lack of service, how harsh and unforgiving being outdoors can be," Hilterbrand said.

She recalled warning Strong on May 9, 2023, about the dangers of whitewater kayaking during snowmelt runoff season.

Later that afternoon, the resort's accountant, Kay Spielman, died in what is said to be a freak accident when a rock went through her windshield while she was driving near Two Harbors.

"The interesting thing is we only really acknowledge Saunder's death," Hilterbrand said. "After that, it was really just like, 'Leave it alone. We don't talk about it again. We're going to move on.' "

Homeowners demand payments

In July 2023, Campbell reportedly put the Superior Shores Burlington Bay condos on the market, offering a $100,000 Home Depot or Wayfair gift card to the first 20 buyers to close on a condo before September of that year.

On Nov. 20, 2023, Superior Shores condo unit owner David Kuiti, of Hermantown, initiated a civil lawsuit with the State of Minnesota's Sixth Judicial District Court in Lake County for over $100,000 against North Shore Resort Co. containing three counts: tortious interference with a business opportunity, willful breach of fiduciary obligation and duty to act in good faith, and civil theft.

According to the court document filed on March 12, after Kuiti refused to sell his condo unit to Campbell at a price significantly lower than its market value, Campbell, serving as president of the Superior Shores II Condominium Association, removed the unit from the rental pool. Kuiti went on to act as his own rental lease agent and alleged that Campbell, through his employees and agents, “continued a pattern of harassment” by refusing to allow reasonable access to renters of Kuiti’s property, according to the lawsuit.

A court case involving the operation of Superior Shores is ongoing in Lake County.

In March, the nearby Lutsen Resort also suffered a significant revenue loss when it offloaded the Poplar River Condos in what McCorquodale described as a “semi-amicable split” in partnership with the homeowners association.

In fall 2023, HOA members of Cliffhouse Townhomes and Lutsen Log Cabins, managed by Lutsen Resort, claimed they began seeing payments lapse even as their properties had bookings.

Cabin owner Bob Nagel is among the 10 vacation rental property owners who filed individual lawsuits in Sixth District Court against North Shore Resort Co. for non-payments from around August through December 2023.

“About five years ago or so, Bryce took it over,” Nagel said. “It wasn't very long afterwards the payments would be late and late and late. There were just all kinds of excuses. They wouldn't answer the phones. They wouldn't answer emails. Eventually, then you would get paid."

Since the News Tribune last reported on Lutsen Resort’s lawsuits with various rental property owners in February, six more Cliffhouse Townhome owners filed conciliation court claims. North Shore Resort Co. submitted a motion to dismiss each of the overall nine claims, arguing that the property owners had no legal right to an individual claim as members of larger homeowners associations.

The court ruled against North Shore Resort Co. in eight of the conciliation cases on April 28, totaling $113,792. One of the property owners voluntarily dismissed his case at the advice of his attorney.

"Let's say you have something inside that needs to be replaced,” Nagel explained of the property management arrangement. “You're supposed to be able to call him. Then he goes out and finds people to do it, and he bills you for it.”

Cliffhouse Townhomes, Lutsen Log Cabins and Poplar River Condos, all previously managed by Lutsen Resort, switched to Cascade Vacation Rentals, a separate North Shore property management company unaffiliated with Campbell, by the end of 2023.

Lutsen Sea Villas, which broke ties with Lutsen Resort three years ago, is now managed by Odyssey Resorts.

Lack of revenue reaches boiling point

The dwindling number of guests at the resort and restaurant had become apparent to the public. Revenue declined and debt continued to mount for the resort as contractors, concessionaires and employees alleged they went unpaid:

After several attempts to collect what he claimed were overdue payments for services, Mike McMillan, owner of McMillan Tree Service, said Campbell promised to pay him after Nov. 1, 2023, as the resort awaited a financing package to come through for its remodel. On March 7, 2024, McMillan Tree Service filed a lawsuit against North Shore Resort Co. in Sixth District Court alleging failure to pay for over $37,000 in completed services and late fees. "It's a small community,” McMillan said. “Everybody knew that things weren't quite right over there.” Former employees alleged they were unpaid as well. On Oct. 23, 2023, Arda Koc and Mert Aytan filed a conciliation court complaint for $6,460 in Sixth District Court against the Lutsen resort for withholding their final paychecks and housing deposits. Koc and Aytan requested to dismiss their case May 28 after making a settlement when Vanegas paid each $1,000 via the Venmo app.

In addition, several contractors filed mechanic's liens:

On Jan. 29, 2024, Double Jack Design Workshop PLLC filed a mechanic’s lien of $84,664 with Cook County against North Shore Resort Co. for architectural services for the overall master planning of the Lutsen Resort. Work completed from May 11 through December 2023 for the project included the west wing addition, lodge and ballroom renovation, Nordic spa, parking lot, site work, chalet hotel, gatehouse and the bridge. On Feb. 13, 2024, a mechanic’s lien of $270,965 was filed by Highmark Builders Inc. for work on the third floor performed between August 2022 and December 2023. On March 12, 2024, a mechanic’s lien of $8,918 was filed by McKeever Well Drilling, Inc. for water well drilling, repair and testing work performed between May 2023 and January 2024. Resort can't make payroll

"There's an overall lack of revenue,” McCorquodale recalled. “(Bryce) blamed winter for it, but it was more so his decision-making process."

When the resort’s management staff were notified that it would run out of payroll in six weeks, McCorquodale said he began seeking employment elsewhere.

“I asked when we were going to tell the front-line employees. Edward said to hold off on that and to trust him,” McCorquodale said.

A series of emails provided to the News Tribune offers insight into the level of awareness that the resort’s management, accounting department, owner and staff had regarding the strenuous financial circumstances in the days leading up to the fire.

On Feb. 1, 2024, Vanegas emailed Campbell to notify him the resort couldn't fund payroll for the period ending Feb. 4.

“We need to let our company’s managers and line staff know what’s about to happen and how we can assist them with new employment, continued housing in the interim and transportation to the airport and bus stations they might need,” Vanegas wrote to Campbell. “We must suspend guest arrivals and suspend accepting reservations.”

Vanegas warned Campbell that failure to disclose the payroll situation to staff and any work past Sunday could result in a Minnesota labor law violation. Vanegas encouraged Campbell to consider the National Bank of Commerce’s offer of $500,000 in funding, subtracting the mechanic's liens, for a net of $150,000 to cover one and a half payroll periods.

On Feb. 1, Lutsen Resort Accounting Director Donna McCurdy-Wolke said in an email to Vanegas that she expected a negative balance in the coming days due to automatic fees.

Vanegas responded that weekend food and beverage sales might cover both of their paychecks and indicated that Campbell was aware there was no bank balance.

In a Feb. 2 email, Vanegas instructed McCorquodale not to “continue to advance a resort closing/lose all of our jobs/ missed payroll agenda” to staff or managers as it would be “premature.”

That day, Campbell emailed the accounting department, encouraging them to “ride out this abnormal season and focus on a busy upcoming summer.” In that email, Campbell said there would be no final winter marketing push to fill March bookings. The resort would instead switch to “waterfall marketing” — tourism promotions aimed at attracting guests to the local waterfalls — to fill rooms for April and May.

In a Monday, Feb. 5, email, Vanegas notified the accounting department that he had suspended Sysco orders for the week. McCurdy-Wolke responded that Campbell would meet with bankers in two days and expected there would be enough funds to cover payroll that Friday.

“We are providing a tour for three senior executives from NBC Bank on Wednesday afternoon and they have expressed a need to audit Accounts Payable for Lutsen Lodge,” Vanegas wrote in an email to the accounting department.

McCurdy-Wolke responded that an account review would reveal, “We haven’t paid bills in months.”

Vanegas suggested suspending direct deposits and allowing paychecks to be written to buy time for accounts to come through.

McCorquodale said he asked Campbell in person about his plan to take out a bank loan to secure payroll. McCorquodale said Campbell assured him he would be paid. McCorquodale later notified Vanegas he received a job offer elsewhere.

“That evening, it all just went up,” McCorquodale said.

The fire that ended it all

After the initial 911 call the morning of the fire Tuesday, Feb. 6, McCorquodale said the resort’s night auditor, Tyler Cobb, called him at 12:36 a.m. During a previous interview with the News Tribune, Vanegas identified the reporting party as Tyler Standley.

“(Tyler) said that there was smoke coming up from the floorboards around the electrical outlet," McCorquodale said. "So he had gone downstairs and he had gone to the laundry room. The basement's actually split into two parts and the laundry room. There was no fire there or no smoke."

McCorquodale claimed to be the second person on the scene, arriving after the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. He saw smoke coming from the lodge’s lobby area, starting directly above the water heater. The fire spread laterally through the staircase, McCorquodale said.

Since the fire, McCorquodale spoke several times to agents from Ember Investigations, a Brule-based certified fire investigator specializing in fire causation. He said they seem to be particularly interested in the lodge’s water heater.

Vanegas declined to comment due to the ongoing insurance investigation.

The state fire marshal has not yet released a conclusion of its investigation.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 9 a.m., Friday, Aug. 2 to add that Edward Vanegas was the general manager of the Lutsen Resort. The story was originally published at 9:09 a.m., Wednesday, July 31. The News Tribune regrets the error.

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