Batten down the hatches for Lake Superior Storm Festival

Cook County is blessed with a number of talented photographers, like Kathleen Gray Anderson, who braved the Gales of November to catch this powerful wave on the east bay of Grand Marais. Storms such as this are being celebrated in the Lake Superior Storm Festival on November 7 – 10, 2013.

When the Cook County Visitors Bureau announced its new event, the Lake Superior Storm Festival, it declared that no waves were guaranteed. There will, however, be lots of ways to celebrate the North Shore storm season November 7-10, 2013.

The festival, which will offer events in Grand Marais and Lutsen, coincides with the 100th anniversary of the legendary Lake Superior “White Hurricane.” That ferocious 1913 storm clocked 90 mph winds, sank 19 ships and claimed hundreds of lives. It was the gales of November that sank the mighty Edmund Fitzgerald on November 10, 1975.

So there may be a powerful storm to watch. But if not, there are numerous ways to celebrate what the visitors bureau dubs “the Big Lake’s wild side.”

You can take part in the Wave Dash at Lutsen Resort, a sprintstyle polar plunge; the Superior Songwriters Shindig at Cascade Resort; a lighthouse building contest at East Bay Suites and a fall fashion show at Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply. You can sit in on free talks by storm photographer Paul Sundberg or hear a talk on that legendary 1913 storm by Jim Shinners.

Local eateries will offer special edition fudge, drinks and enticing desserts like the Boreal Cyclone Pie at The Pie Place. The cyclone pie includes a base of pretzel crust, chocolate ganache, and peanut butter mousse, topped with caramel sauce, peanuts (representing boulders) and pretzel sticks (trees) in whipped cream (snow).

There is more, as North Shore businesses brainstorm how to celebrate the Big Lake.

“Fall gales show the incredible power of Lake Superior,” said Linda Kratt, executive director at the Cook County Visitors Bureau, which is producing the event.

“It takes a special kind of person to appreciate that. The Lake Superior Storm Festival is for those people,” said Kratt.

More information about the Lake Superior Storm Festival can be found at VisitCookCounty.com/StormFest.