The colorful moose sculpture at Last Chance Gallery in Lutsen was upended by the powerful June 19 storm. Gallery staff was delighted to return to work the next day to see that Good Samaritans had gotten the moose back on its feet.
A severe storm passed through Cook County late in the evening on Sunday, June 19, taking down trees, power lines and unfortunately causing a fatality on Duncan Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. In the Lutsen area, trees crashed down on several homes and in “downtown” Lutsen an art gallery. However, in the aftermath of the storm, the gallery was also the scene of an amazing random act of kindness.
Extreme wind took down several large pines, sending them crashing onto the roof of the Last Chance Gallery and the building from which sculptor Tom Christianson works. Marcia Hyatt, co-owner of Last Chance Gallery, said the gallery did not sustain significant damage, but the roof of the foundry building where Christianson does his metal casting was completely destroyed. Hyatt said they will rebuild the building, but for now Christianson will only be able to work on pieces if it is not raining.
Hyatt said it was difficult to see the collapsed foundry building, but noted, “It could have been much, much worse.”
And the calm after the storm brought some delight. Amongst the downed trees at Last Chance Gallery lay the whimsical moose sculpture created by Christianson last year, pushed over by the falling trees.
However, when Hyatt and gallery staffer Misha Martin returned the day after the storm, the trees had mostly been cleared. And standing proudly in its spot in the sculpture gallery was the moose. Sometime that evening, some Good Samaritans resurrected the moose, straightening the rebar that held it in place and even adding some guy wires to keep it up in the next storm.
Martin noted that the big metal moose weighs between 200 – 500 pounds. She said, “It must have taken several foundry angels as that big guy is really heavy. Thank you to them!”
Superior National at Lutsen was also hard hit, losing about 10 trees, one an iconic white pine near River 2. Golf Pro Heath Ekstrom said there was a lot of cleanup of branches and limbs before staff could mow and a few trees had to be cut away from cart paths, but fortunately no damage to the greens.
Arrowhead Electric linemen were busy through the storm, getting called out at 7:50 p.m. for an outage on Island Road, then Clearwater Road. The Clearwater Road caller reported a power line down on the ground, a transformer hit by a tree and a power pole snapped.
Arrowhead Operations Manager John Twiest said Arrowhead line crews were paged out at 8 p.m. Four electrical linemen and four communications line workers worked until 9:30 a.m. on June 20.
Twiest said the damage ranged from trees on lines right next door to the Lutsen office to up the Gunflint Trail. There were numerous trees on lines and three broken poles to be replaced. On South Clearwater Road trees fell and stripped the electrical equipment off the power pole.
Twiest thanked the public for staying away from the downed lines. “We don’t want anyone cutting trees off lines. Just call Arrowhead. We want everyone to be safe,” he said.
At press time, crews from the county and state highway departments, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Forest Service were still assessing area roads and clearing up downed trees.
Before the storm hit, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch for much of Minnesota until late evening. The high winds, thunder and lightning were caused by a cold front interacting with the higher heat earlier in the day.
Leave a Reply