By Jennifer Janasie - Boreal Community Media - April 21, 2026

The Gunflint Trail Historical Society and Chik-Wauk Museum were recently awarded $30,000 from the Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation (IRRR), among numerous other grant awards and donations, to develop an Anishinaabe exhibit. The display is slated to be installed later this month, and Chik-Wauk staff members are excited to share a sneak preview of what visitors can expect. 

“The Gunflint Trail Historical Society has been working very hard in creating this new exhibit,” says Campus Director Bonnie Schudy. 

“The exhibit will give a really good foundation for life on the Gunflint Trail (and life in the region),” says Executive Director Mark Hennessy. 

The display will be officially celebrated with a Grand Opening ceremony on June 27, but the Museum’s newest offering will technically be unveiled during Memorial Day weekend on May 23. The Chik-Wauk Nature Center also opens for the season that same day (though hiking trails are open all year).

The Anishinaabe exhibit – a fairly large room that will be one of the first things people see when they enter the Museum – will contain an appealing amount of interactive parts, according to Hennessy. “We want to be welcoming to families, kids, the overall public; the rest of the Museum will fill in (the region’s story) after that first room,” he says.

The exhibit will offer different components, primarily from the Anishinaabe perspective, according to Hennessy. “It will talk about the fur trade and the Anishinaabe role; artifacts will transport people back in time to discover how people have lived in the area for hundreds and hundreds of years. The exhibit will talk about the Turtle Island creation story, and include a really cool display of a large turtle,” he says. “Our exhibit will show how important clan animals are to Anishinaabe culture, and family stories will be a section where we will have captured videos about some current families talking about their lives on the Gunflint Trail,” he adds.

“This has been an Anishinaabe-led exhibit; we had the direction from primarily two people -- Sam Zimmerman (Anishinaabe painter, author, and educator, and Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe direct descendant) and Staci Drouillard (Anishinaabe author and Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe direct descendant) -- who have been absolutely phenomenal in guiding us in doing the right thing. They have been with us for three years, and have been so incredibly helpful to us throughout the process, spending a tremendous amount of time and energy in telling the Anishinaabe story,” says Hennessy.

The Anishinaabe & the Gunflint Trail

An Anishinaabe community existed up the Gunflint Trail long before the arrival of Europeans, and with the new exhibit, the Museum hopes to paint a more complete picture of the area’s history and current use – from its prehistoric beginnings through the emergence of the rural community that exists today. “People have been living in the area for 10,000 years; in fact, they moved in soon after the glaciers melted. The first people came from the west, probably using the Bering Land Bridge (Paleo-Indigenous populations). Ojibwe people came to the area in the 1600s, moving into the area from the east, actually; prior to that, it was the Dakota people (who later moved westward to the plains),” says Hennessy. “I always ask people who are visiting the museum,  ‘When do you think people first began living in the area?” he adds.

“A critical part of the new exhibit is that we want to honor those (Ojibwe people) who still live and contribute to the area, like with current artists’ contributions,” emphasizes Hennessy.

The exhibit will also touch on the usage of medicinal plants, on wild ricing, hunting, and fishing. Historically, Anishinaabe people moved camps depending on the season and food sources, according to Hennessy. The new Chik-Wauk display will be a “really good, deeper level education about the Anishinaabe, but we will continue to add to it with videos, stories, and artifacts,” he explains.

Grants and Other Funding

Besides IRRR, the Society has had numerous other grantors and private donors demonstrate their enthusiasm by helping to fund the project that will tell the story, according to Schudy. Director Hennessy spearheads grants and funding efforts for the Society. 

“Building nice, good exhibits is not cheap. This process has gone on for five years, from first thinking about it to getting to the finish line, and it has taken a lot of time and energy from a lot of people,” Hennessy says. Total costs for the new exhibit will be about a quarter of a million dollars, and efforts of the Chik-Wauk team and its partners should prove to be well-worth that money.

The Society wishes to recognize the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation for its award of three separate grants for the project, the focus of which ranged from research through the design phase, to the building of the exhibit, according to Hennessy. The Foundation, created by a graduate of Cook County High School, is “really a great organization,” says Hennessy. Beyond that, additional contributing entities that the Society greatly appreciates include the Cook County Community Fund (strengthens and builds a more resilient region); the Blandin Foundation (another Northern Minnesota organization supportive of rural communities staying vibrant); Arrowhead Arts Council (a contributor whose award provided funds for some of the exhibit art); and a lot of support from individuals (many from Cook County) that has further broadened the base of community patronage for the Society and Museum. “It was super important to get local (and regional) foundation support…and the broad community support has been wonderful,” Hennessy says.

Speaking of community, “IRRR is about community reinvestment, and the specific grant’s focus is on culture and tourism – a really good economic driver, especially in Cook County; so reinvesting in Chik-Wauk is a good investment,” says Hennessy.

“We also get great support from the Gunflint Trail Association (a sub-group of Visit Cook County); that Association has been a critical partner for us in many ways,” says Hennessy. The organization uses lodging tax to reinvest in tourism, and as a result, helps to support the Chik-Wauk Museum.

 Stop in the Nature Center during your visit to Chik-Wauk to experience a variety of nature-focused programs. Photo courtesy of Chik-Wauk Museum

“We are a tourist-based non-profit, so being able to update and refresh exhibits and educational opportunities is really important. The campus attracts about 9,000 visitors a year, which is humbling given the location (60 miles from Grand Marais). The drive is also worth it, with frequent wildlife sightings. Come early in June to see lots of wildlife!” says Hennessy.

The Society operates Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center on a 50-acre campus consisting of five exhibit buildings and over five miles of hiking trails on Saganaga Lake. Chik-Wauk previously added interpretive signage to trails to include an Anishinaabe perspective of the campus’s natural surroundings. “We are much more than a museum. We focus on cultural and natural history, and a lot of our focus is on both realms – meaning a focus on both people's history and on the natural area,” Hennessy shares. “We even have a loon’s nest platform with a video camera on it. Last year, two baby loons were born and left on momma or pappa’s back. We have had a nesting pair on that platform for a number of years now,” says Hennessy.