Visitors to the North House Folk School campus were treated to an amazing array of boats during the 2014 Wooden Boat Show on June 20-22. People marvel at all the detail that goes into the boats.
Once again the weather wasn’t wonderful for the North House Folk School’s Wooden Boat Show. However, boaters are used to being wet and they braved the chilly weather to admire the beautiful boats on campus and to take in the many crafters demonstrating throughout the weekend. By all accounts, the 17th annual event was a great success.
The rain forced some of the folks in the “Community of Crafters” into the North House Folk School’s red building on Friday. Safe under the roof there, visitors enjoyed watching as Allen Holzheuter demonstrated spinning; Jock Holmen shared his skills in beam carving; Mike McCall demonstrated flintknapping, Jon Strom carved wooden pieces; Brent Gurtek talked about traditional gunsmithing and more.
Bread was made and baked in the North House brick oven and everyone made the best of the rainy day, eventually dancing the night away at the Community Contra Dance with Over the Waterfall.
Traditional artisans were demonstrating their craft on campus. Left: The blacksmith shop heard lots of hammering. Above: Brent Gurtek, the instructor of a traditional gunsmithing course at North House answers questions about the guns he has crafted.
Saturday was busier and the rain abated, but fog shrouded the view of the Grand Marais lighthouse. But it did not dampen the enthusiasm of the bidders in the silent and live auctions.
And once again, amazingly it did not rain on the Good Harbor Hill Players’ Solstice Pageant. It was quite cold as Gamepalaj performed and butterflies and fish danced in this year’s show, which offered a glimpse of not the phenology, but the funology of the Northland.
The campus was packed on Sunday for the Steam- Bent Brunch and North House Folk School annual meeting. Everyone enjoyed a North House “Year in Review” and the presentation by keynote speaker Dan Blessing, who shared his story and amazing photographs in Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean: 7 Months in a Birch Bark Canoe.
A perfect presentation to end the weekend of wooden boats.
Mark your calendar for next year’s Wooden Boat Show, June 19-21, 2015.
The 2014 Wooden Boat Show includes the fantastical Summer Solstice Pageant on Saturday evening, June 21. This year’s production was Funology, a play on the study of nature (phenology), which featured a delightful assortment of animals. Above: The audience was delighted by the appearance of a herd of caribou.
Teaching funology was this very funny character—does she look like an instructor you know?
Schools of fish were also featured, swimming and dancing with the help of human counterparts like Jennifer Schultz.
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