Image: Boreal Community Media

By Laura Durenberger-Grunow - Boreal Community Media - December 16, 2024

In November, Boreal Community Media hosted a virtual non-profit highlight series in place of our in-person Dessert to the Max event. Each day of the month, a different local organization was shared: the work they do, upcoming events, a fun fact, and how the community can support them (you can see a list of all the organizations here) during the annual Minnesota Giving month. 

Today, we're sharing a little bit about our own organization, which began over 25 years ago as a cooperative internet service provider. Throughout the years, Boreal has changed and evolved into what it is today, but our mission, Keeping Communities Connected, remains the same. 

The beginning 

Boreal Community Media began as an organization in the mid-1990s and has evolved through different iterations to what it is known as today. Initially called Boreal Access, an all-volunteer-run organization operated as a cooperatively owned, non-profit, local internet service provider. The year was 1994, and there was no local dial-up service in Grand Marais. Anyone who needed to connect to the internet incurred long-distance charges. Between 1995 and 1996, local partners began discussing, presenting, and "selling" the idea of bringing the internet to the community, especially to benefit businesses and organizations. The cooperative, member-owned internet service provider model Boreal Access created in the mid-1990s would eventually serve as an example for other rural communities that had not yet received service from larger phone and cable companies. 

Thanks to a county revolving loan and funding from IRRRB, a $40,000 computer was built for the Boreal Access internet service in Grand Marais. The cost for becoming a member was $100, plus a multiple-month agreement. A membership included access to the internet (hence the "access" part of Boreal Access) and a digital "community commons," which provided a place for sharing information about upcoming events and issues affecting Cook County and Grand Portage. 

Making internet accessible

In 2007, Boreal Access served over 2,500 households throughout Cook County and Grand Portage and operated as a member-owned cooperative 501(c)12. At that time, a membership fee was $25. It included up to 300 hours of dial-up internet access, an email account, a Boreal website that contained community information on events and news, access to a community email list, and the option to pay bills online. 

Boreal Access helped local residents and businesses connect in a multitude of ways. Resorts and hotels could now take reservations online, community members could attend classes, workshops, and other events remotely, and Cook County healthcare organizations were able to connect to and participate in regional networks and offer some telehealth services. Additionally, businesses that relied on seasonal tourism could now expand their e-commerce sales into the "off" months. Boreal expanded to five full-time staff members to help businesses create and host websites, e-commerce platforms, blogs, and e-newsletters and provide tech support. These services, in turn, helped organizations connect with their visitors, customers, and fellow business owners. In 2013, Governor Mark Dayton named Grand Marais resident and rural broadband expert Danna MacKenzie, executive director of the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development. She developed many of her skills in the early Boreal Access professional environment.

Becoming Boreal Community Media

In the mid-2010s, broadband began rolling out throughout the area, and it became apparent that Boreal would need to operate under a new format. It changed from a 501(c)12 (cooperative) to a 501(c)3 and adopted the name Boreal Community Media as it moved away from being an internet service provider. A year or so later, an executive director was hired. The Boreal Community Media website included many of the components the local community is familiar with today, including the ship spotter, Aurora map, classifieds, events calendar, and local news (then contributed by entities such as the Cook County News Herald and WTIP). Around 2018, Boreal ended website creation and hosting services but still provided email service, tech support, and a community email list. We also partnered with organizations such as Cook County Higher Education to offer a week-long, free youth-tech camp. 

Today, our small but mighty team comprises two part-time employees, talented freelance writers, and event photographers. We continue to offer free tech-support events in the summer. Our mission, Keeping Communities Connected, reflects Boreal Access's initial goal of bringing the internet to Cook County and Grand Portage over 25 years ago, but also how we aim to keep that connection going through local stories, news, and updates, as well as our free classifieds and events calendar.