How It Began: The Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area.

Silent sports, human-powered, outdoor recreation in the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area (CCSRA) isn’t an overnight success story. There were nearly four decades of vision and advocacy, plus community grassroots leadership, determination, and grit upfront, to make the current success, possible…

Many know that Cuyler Adams and his St. Bernard, Una (which gave the area its name: Cuy-Una), first discovered pockets of magnetic ore in Crow Wing County around 1903, which affected the future of the Cuyuna Range. Simply put, without mining we would not have our gem on the Cuyuna—the CCSRA.

I wrote several “Mama Cuyuna” stories many years ago, which talked about the beginnings of the CCSRA. I have been involved with the transformation of the CCSRA for more than 60 years, beginning as a teenager watching the massive ore trucks spiraling up the roads surrounding the two-mile-wide, deep, circular pit of the Portsmouth mine. Fast-forward a few decades, and I eventually was able to appreciate seeing our communities, residents, and so many others working together to give nature a chance to heal.

When the mining companies moved on from the Cuyuna Range and pulled out their pumps, the mine pits naturally began filling with clean water, their murkiness becoming crystal clarity revealing underwater trees reaching to the surface. As the water rose, the banks of the lakes sloughed into the water, leaving a steep, 45-degree, manmade natural shoreline.

The roots of trees and bushes along the shorelines also dug deep to further the natural restoration. The land isn’t solid, so their roots stabilized the fragile overburden of soil and rocks overlying the deposits of iron ore left behind.

Over those decades, the hopes held by residents that mining would return with abundant jobs had slowly been extinguished. The abandoned mine pits and adjacent areas had become dumping grounds for old cars, construction trash, tons of debris, and even animal carcasses. Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds of the area making a comeback, countless numbers of folks from all walks of life held onto hope and began a master vision.

CREDI, IRRRB, CWC, and the DNR
With an interest in community involvement, I became Executive Director of CREDI (Cuyuna Range Economic Development Incorporation) in 1983, a year before the last shipment of ore departed the Cuyuna Range from the Virginia Mine in the North Mahnomen Unit. A year later, an advisory group was formed—the Cuyuna Country Mineland Reclamation Committee—with representatives from the Iron Range Resource and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB), Crow Wing County (CWC), Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and later, myself as CREDI director. We would meet to prioritize a list of projects in the vacated open-pit mine area that could be accomplished with IRRRB’s iron ore tax funds that had been allocated for reclamation of mine lands.

As we met, small projects were often brought up and discussed, such as a boat ramp or fixing up a road. After a couple of months, I began encouraging the group to expand beyond small projects and pitched the idea of making the area into a regional or state park. After about six months of further discussions, the committee committed to the new vision for a 5,000-acre park that would allow the new mine-pit lakes to become areas for camping, fishing, and boating.

Anticipating that the former mine property would be developed into a state recreation area, local leaders, organized by CREDI, sponsored ongoing efforts to remove the modern garbage that had been dumped by both visitors and residents within the proposed new park boundaries. In the first, four-hour clean-up effort alone, countless volunteers from area communities and townships filled 30 dump trucks.

Another hard-working proponent for the area was Terry McGaughey, fondly remembered as “Mr. Paul Bunyan Trail.” He dedicated his life to the creation of the 115-mile-long Paul Bunyan State Trail (made on the former railroad bed), as well as to helping make Cuyuna and CCSRA happen. As a talented photographer, McGaughey’s photos of the pure, clear water of the mine lakes and freshly grown trees helped people experience the transformation as the future park was getting cleaned up.

Early park management
Meanwhile, Lance Hamilton, Crow Wing County Land Commissioner, worked relentlessly to encourage the hundreds of owners of the railroads, mining companies, as well as private individuals, to transfer the ownership of their land to the State of Minnesota on behalf of the future Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area.

By 1988, the Mineland Joint Powers Board (JPB) was tasked with managing the mining land until it formally became a state recreation area. The JPB was made up of those on the original reclamation committee, city/county/state representatives, and area stakeholders. The JPB proposed to the DNR that they help manage the area as a park under their authority.

Before agreeing, Steve Thorn, then-director of DNR’s Parks and Trails proclaimed: “Over my dead body,” due to the DNR’s initial reluctance—imagining it as just a state recreation area built around large holes in the ground. They couldn’t yet envision the potential of what the park was becoming as the mine pits filled with water and became deep, crystal-clear lakes, and seedlings on barren mine tailings grew into ground-stabilizing trees. Despite their earlier reluctance, the DNR took it over with 5,000 acres. Their final stipulation in agreeing to the proposal was that the park needed to be accepted and funded by the state.

However, people began coming up with all kinds of ideas for using the area and it ended up in court twice over real estate issues. The fragile, overburden land was being ripped up and destroyed. People began creating their own destinations within the land—excavating and doing whatever they wanted. The future park needed state protection.

Winning over the legislators
Crosby native, Representative Kris Hasskamp, served in the Minnesota State Legislature from 1989–2001. Since it was within her district, she was approached with the possibility of the CCSRA becoming a state park. She preferred to have a Crow Wing County park, but there was no county funding available for one. While Rep. Hasskamp initially wouldn’t author the legislation for a state park, Grove, McGaughey, and Hamilton got the bill ready with five other representatives who wanted to author the bill. Rep. Hasskamp later authored the final bill.

Hasskamp scheduled a summer legislative session up in the Cuyuna region. When we heard about the session, we decided to introduce the Minnesota legislators to Cuyuna, so they could see for themselves the potential of our beautiful paradise. Their previous mindset had been: “We’ve already made mine pits into parks and we don’t like them.”

When the legislators were here for the summer session, we offered to take them on pontoon rides on Pennington Mine Lake. Lance Hamilton and Terry Skone of Deerwood Bank brought pontoon boats and one of us, as a local “tour guide” went along on each pontoon ride.

Each tour cruised Pennington for about three hours, with four to six legislators on each pontoon. When I took my group on one pontoon ride, we leisurely rode to the end of Pennington, passing a group of young boys who were playing on the rope swing over the water. As we approached the boys on our return trip, they lined up, turned around, dropped their pants, and mooned us! The boys pulled up their pants and turned around, laughing and waving, to see the dignitaries and tour guides who were also consumed with laughter and waving back!

Another time, we borrowed a double-decked pontoon and had a rather large group of legislators on board to cruise the 300–500-foot-deep, crystal-clear water. To get a better view, most people went up to the top deck. Suddenly I felt the pontoon begin to sway and we realized that if this continued, the pontoon would eventually capsize. There was a dash from above for the exit ladder as the swaying continued. Slowly everyone got down and the pontoon steadied.

I was afraid we would drown our guests, and if they survived, they’d vote against our state recreation area! All were safe, we continued the ride, and they voted for our project. In fact, every legislator who ever took our pontoon ride voted for our dream state recreation area. They also helped us get others to do the same.

Willard Munger from Duluth was the primary legislator and chairman of the environmental committee. He was a powerful congressman who had been in office for three decades. After his pontoon ride, the guides took him to the top of the overlook, now named Miner’s Mountain. He walked to the edge overlooking the lake, stretched out his hands, and said, “We need to get this area into a state recreation area as quickly as possible so no other development occurs.” If Munger wanted it to happen, it happened.

In 1991, DNR Commissioner Ron Sando mailed a “Cuyuna Park Suitability Analysis” to the officials at the DNR. He’d ordered the analysis prior to the area’s designation as MN’s first State Recreation Area, although the designation was still being developed. The analysis presented a timeline of the work done by all the Cuyuna Range communities as they worked together to restore the former mining area to its natural beauty.
Two years later, the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area was introduced as a bill into Minnesota Legislature by Representative Kris Hasskamp and Senator Don Samuelson. The stated purpose of the Recreation Area is “to prevent commercial and/or residential development, retain undeveloped shoreline, preserve the unique recreational opportunities that this area provides, and provide an area where passive, non-motorized recreation activities would be promoted and encouraged.”

Senator Samuelson noted: “The lakes and pathways are a favorite for anglers, canoeists, hikers, and other recreation users . . . we need this legislation to develop this area and ensure it will continue to provide a multitude of recreational opportunities to the public.” Representative Hasskamp added “ . . . We’re preserving this unique area and giving local people access to it and control over it . . . but to protect and preserve it from abuse.”

CCSRA: Minnesota’s first “State Recreation Area” signed into law
In 1993, through a collaboration of federal, state, and local entities, and authorized by the Minnesota State Legislature’s vote, the CCSRA bill was approved and signed into law by Governor Arne Carlson. The Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area became the first “Recreation Area” within the MN DNR. A Citizens’ Advisory Council was required to work with the DNR in developing a management plan. The first management plan was completed in 1995 under the direction of the CCSRA Advisory Board and with Hamilton being instrumental in the plan’s focus on silent sports to maintain the park’s uniqueness.

The stated goal of the area in the management plan was to preserve the CCSRA’s scenic beauty and allow recreational opportunities, including access (where possible) for persons with disabilities to participate in:
Scuba diving
Horseback riding
Fishing and boating
Snowmobile riding
Camping
Canoeing
Mining history interpretation
Cross-country skiing
Picnicking and hiking
Hunting and trapping
Mountain bicycling

The CCSRA has meant so much to the Cuyuna Range community. It has provided hope for a sustained and stable future after struggling to survive. It meant changing, “What can we do?” to “Of course we can do it, let’s find a way.” As you cycle or walk around, new businesses are opening up, accommodations and restaurants provide services for not only our visitors using the CCSRA, but for other visitors and residents. There’s a new optimism.
The CCSRA only has about 2,000 acres of land under 100% DNR control—of that 2,000 acres, 1,365 of the acres are water. This means the DNR still needs to gain about 50% more of the land within the CCSRA boundary to be complete.
We must continue our vigilance in keeping the CCSRA what it was created to be. If we do that, the whole community thrives and everybody wins.

Barb Grove is a Crosby resident who is actively involved in her community. She was the Executive Director of Cuyuna Range Economic Development Incorporation (CREDI) from 1983–1994 and was instrumental in helping to bring the CCSRA to its current state. She is also part of the Croft Mine Historical Community Committee, which is currently spearheading the restoration of the Croft Mine Historical Park.