Voyageurs National Park will offer a new tour for visitors this summer.
The 49-passenger Voyageur tour boat will offer a “Life on the Lake Tour,” which aims to tell how various people managed to make a living on Rainy Lake.
The tour will stop at the Harry Oveson Fish Camp, a decades-old facility where commercial angler Harry Oveson lived in a rustic cabin during the summer, catching and processing fish that he chilled for shipment using ice he harvested from Rainy Lake and stored on-site.
The tour boat is accessible, however, the short quarter-mile walk around the fish camp is not.
Life on the Lake tours will be offered Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, June 19 through Aug. 31, starting at 11 a.m. at Rainy Lake Visitor Center.
The boat will return at 1 p.m. The cost is $25 for adults, $15 for children and $3 for toddlers ages 2 and under. There is a four-passenger minimum for the tours to depart.
VNP also will continue to offer the Grand Tour, cruising Rainy Lake in search of wildlife with a stop at Little American Island.
In the 1890s, a Rainy Lake gold rush spawned Rainy Lake City to serve miners and prospectors. Little American is perhaps the largest and most successful mine, and the quarter-mile accessible hiking trail explores the operation.
The Grand Tour is certain to encounter bald eagles, loons and other birds, plus there’s a good chance to spot white tail deer, black bear or less frequently, moose or wolves.
The tour will motor past a beaver lodge and note the importance of the beaver to the voyageurs.
Voyageurs transported beaver fur to the east and trade goods to the west, and Rainy Lake was one of the major waterway crossroads.
The Grand Tour departs the Rainy Lake Visitor Center at 2 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 16 through Aug. 31.
The cost is $30 for adults, $15 for children and $3 for toddlers ages 2 and under. There is a four-passenger minimum for the tour to depart.
The International Falls, Rainy Lake and Ranier Convention and Visitors Bureau helps Voyageurs National Park promote their boat tours.
If anyone has any questions, they can contact the CVB at 800-325-5766 or 218-283-9400.
Emails can be sent to cvb@rainylake.org or direct mail to 301 Second Ave., International Falls, MN 56649.
