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Last Tuesday Cook County Commissioners voted to accept the recommendation of the Passion Pit Task Force and form a committee to explore whether the county should purchase what is locally called “Passion Pit” from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT).
Out of 21 applicants, the following were selected to serve on the committee: David Rohl, Parks & Trails Commission; Myron Bursheim, Historical Society; John Morrin, Grand Portage; Staci Drouillard, Chippewa City descendant; David Homyak, public; Margaret Hedstrom, public; Tim Witzmann, public; Maria Burnett, public and Tyson Smith, public. The City of Grand Marais has yet to select a representative and Stacey Hawkins agreed to represent the county. Land Services Director Tim Nelson will serve as an Ex-Officio on the committee.
Participants were picked to reflect the diverse views of the community, organizations, or government body they represent.
The committee will have one year to come up with its recommendations for the county board.
Located on state land that was once part of Chippewa City, a home for about 200 Ojibwe who lived near Grand Marais less than a century ago, the property has been the subject of some hot debate in recent years.
Called Passion Pit by locals for more than half a century, the area is a hotspot for hikers, picnic goers, beach strollers, photographers, and late-night partiers.
In recent years, the beach area has become even more popular and with that growth has come some problems.
Fire pits have been dug on private property, littering occurs, noise issues arise, and the woods are used as a bathroom by the beachgoers; these are some of the troubles neighbors have experienced, especially during the warm weather months.
The small spit of Lake Superior beach property resides below the Chippewa City Church (St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church), which was used from 1895 to 1916, with a final mass conducted in 1936 at Christmas. Today the church is on the National Register of Historical Places and owned by the Cook County Historical Society.
Through the years the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa have also donated funds to help with the upkeep of the building and many tribal members have a strong connection to the property which includes a Anishinaabe gravesite nearby.
Not too long-ago, local author Staci Drouillard published “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe,” which won numerous awards and spurred some renewed interest in the area.
The narrow road leading from Highway 61 down to the dirt parking area is owned by the county and the beach area is in the city limits of Grand Marais. Adding it all up, there is a lot of interest from a lot of parties in a small piece of real estate.
As far as the damage being done to the Passion Pit, next door neighbor Dave Homyak brought his concerns to commissioners more than one year ago, presenting them with a petition.
In his petition Homyak called for the county to: Post the hours from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and have law enforcement enforce those hours. He said 18 neighbors were negatively affected by what goes on after 10 p.m.
And he asked the county to: 1) install and maintain porta-potties, 2) install and maintain a trash receptacle in the parking area, 3) delineate the property line and 4) take care of the 35-foot-wide road in the summer by grading it and plowing it in the winter. Homyak said he had maintained the road over the last 23 years, but if it was genuinely county-owned, the county needed to maintain it.
While none of Homyak’s petition requests were acted on, his appearance before the commissioners led to a long discussion which resulted in the formation of the advisory committee.
Today the small Lake Superior parcel in question is owned by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) who has explored the possibility of selling it but has agreed to wait to see if the county will purchase it.
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