Gunflint Stories

Hi Everyone,

If you have stayed with us recently you know that we have a new Gunflint Story every day at the front desk. The stories usually relate to the history or something interesting that has happened here. I thought I would share one of them with you today. I hope you enjoy the story.

Through the Ice!

One of the most terrifying winter events is to go through the ice. On a cold winter day Justine decided to take a snowmobile ride down to North Lake. She drove across the lake to see if Butchie would come along. Butchie had a cold and decided to stay home. Justine went down the lake alone. She went into Little Gunflint, over the portage and down to the rapids between Little North and North Lake. But the ice wasn’t safe along the edge of the rapids where she tried to cross. Both she and her machine went through into the frigid water. Everything was soaking wet. It was well below zero. Justine did not have any dry matches with her.

Luckily the snowmobile was an early model. The seat was connected to the motor by a large pin. Justine took the pin out separating the machine into two parts. She hauled each part out of the water and onto solid ground. Then she put the two parts back together. Now was the moment of truth. Would the machine start up again? It did and Justine took off for home as fast as possible. She almost made it out of Little Gunflint and into the main lake when the snowmobile stopped running. Justine’s figured the water had finally gotten into the carburetor. There was nothing to do but start walking. As wet and cold as she was, Justine had no chance to walk all the way home but she kept on moving.

Meanwhile, Butchie was at home and starting to worry. What if Justine had gotten into trouble? Who would help her? Finally, she couldn’t stand it any more. Butchie put on her outer clothes, started up her snowmobile and took off after Justine. When Justine first heard the faint motor sounds, she thought she was imagining things but after a couple moments Justine could see a small dot on the lake slowly moving towards her and getting bigger. The only person it could be was Butchie.

Butchie quickly saw the mess Justine was in. First priority was starting a blazing fire. Justine took off all her wet clothes to warm up by the fire. The wet clothes were also arranged around the fire to dry a bit. Butchie shared a layer of her warm, dry clothes. After Justine had dried off and warmed up some, they gathered up the still damp clothes and headed for home.

Justine later said that only after going through the ice, do you truly learn to respect it. We might add that sometimes Justine was a slow learner as this was her second experience going through the ice.

Well I hope you enjoyed the true story. Have a good weekend.

Lee