Hoist Bay

Hoist Bay is a lakeside historic site where a logging camp and a later family resort share the same shore. It is a worthwhile pause on a Voyageurs water trip if you like seeing how people lived and worked on these lakes; the draw is the dock, old buildings and logging remains rather than a long trail. Plan your route as a water-based stop: most park destinations are reached by boat, kayak, canoe, houseboat or guided tour, and Hoist Bay has a dock.

The day-use site has a dock, picnic tables and a privy. Visitors can explore the boathouse, cabins, ice house and root cellar, then look for the old railroad grade and the pilings left from the logging operation. No set walking route or visit duration is documented, so leave time to wander among the structures. No food service or drinking water is identified in the site information; bring what you'll need for your stop.

Virginia and Rainy Lake Lumber Company established Camp 75 in 1913. Amphibious logging boats called gators moved log booms across the lakes; at Hoist Bay, a hoist lifted the logs from the water onto empty rail cars bound for Virginia. About 13.5 million board feet passed through the bay before the camp closed in 1929, after much of the area's white and red pine had been cut.

Ted and Fern Monson bought the property in 1939 and built four cabins between 1939 and 1945. Each had four bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room. The resort grew to 14 buildings and welcomed summer visitors for 35 years, except for a three-year closure during World War II. The Monsons sold it in 1973; the National Park Service acquired it in 1978.

From the water, the dock, the buildings tucked among the trees and the old timber pilings make a useful single frame. Once ashore, the scattered cabins and structures reward a closer look: this is where a working logging camp became a summer retreat.