I ran into a friend at the Grand Marais Post Office who had just returned from a vacation in Florida. She was disgusted that during her trip, Florida had unseasonably cold temperatures—while Minnesota was having unseasonably warm temperatures. It was actually warmer here in Grand Marais than on the Florida beaches for most of her stay. Frustrating for all of us!
I’ve been conversing with relatives in the Pacific Northwest, who are not used to more than a few inches of snow, who are now digging out from under several feet of snow. They sure don’t want it. I join them in wishing they could send it all to us.
I am glad I live in Minnesota’s Arrowhead where there is at least a little bit of snow. I feel really bad for the rest of the state, which is facing an even greater snow drought than we are here in Cook County. At least on our trails and back roads there is enough snow for cross country skiing, snowshoeing and if you get far enough away from Lake Superior, snowmobiling.
But we need a lot more. I’m extremely jealous of the folks across the lake who are getting all that wonderful lake effect snow. I wish the wicked winds blowing as I write this Unorganized Territory would change direction and blow a few inches of snow our way.
Perhaps more of us in Cook County need to be like my friend Rose in Tofte—we need to be doing a snow dance! C’mon Mother Nature, bring it on!
I wonder if it’s our family’s snow curse that is causing this drought. The year we bought a snowmobile was one of the mildest winters on record. This year my husband Chuck and I got snowshoes for Christmas. And we have not used them yet. In years past, we could tromp around our property line in our deteriorating wood and leather snowshoes. Now that we have fancy, shiny-blue, high-tech aluminum snowshoes, there is barely enough snow to cover our septic drain field.
Yes, we could travel up the Gunflint Trail to snowshoe and eventually we will if we don’t get some snow closer to the lake. But I’m still hoping that a normal amount of snowfall will arrive—soon!
If it doesn’t, I have an idea. Nearly every conversation that I have regarding local politics at some point includes the declaration, “Let’s use the 1% money.” I say, let’s use the 1% money to make snow.
People are referring to the 1 Percent Recreation and Infrastructure Tax now being collected on our purchases to be used for things like the library expansion, a new community center, improvements to Superior National golf course, broadband Internet and more.
However, everyone has an idea about what the money should be used for. Never mind that the $20 million predicted to be collected from the tax was never enough to do all of the originally proposed projects. Citizens who don’t agree with one project or another keep coming up with new ideas. Some are really good ideas. Some are silly. But everyone has an opinion about how the 1 Percent Recreation and Infrastructure Tax should be used.
So, here’s my suggestion. Let’s use it to build some mobile snowmaking cannons.
We could take the portable snowmaking cannons wherever they were needed. The Sawtooth Invite that was cancelled in January? We could have made snow for the Pincushion trails with our portable snowmaker.
Not enough snow for sculptures in Harbor Park for the upcoming Winter Tracks Festival? We could roll up with our snow cannon on wheels and create mounds of snow in downtown Grand Marais.
There always seems to be sparse areas on the snowmobile trail leading into Grand Marais. With a transportable snow cannon, that wouldn’t be a problem. We could hook the snowmaker up to the Pisten Bully groomer and spread some snow around.
If we could figure out how to do this, if we could overcome the challenges of a moveable water source and too-warm temperatures and the myriad other things that make the idea not feasible, we could build a portable snow cannon factory. We could construct a big building in the nearly vacant Cedar Grove Business Park and make transportable snow cannons for other areas suffering from snow drought.
It would create jobs. We would need workers in the snow cannon factory and it would protect the jobs dependent on snow. It’s a win-win concept.
Maybe we could even figure out a way to use solar or wind-power to make it all work.
Now I know all the mechanical, scientific-minded readers out there are shaking their heads at my impractical suggestion. I know it’s probably not possible to create mobile snow cannons. There are all kinds of technical issues to overcome and I’m sure it would violate some environmental regulation.
I know I’m suffering from some sort of snow drought cabin fever. The only cure, unfortunately, is a few feet of snow. The weather is like the government, always in the wrong.
Jerome K. Jerome
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