MP’s 100 years of lakeshore relations include renewable energy, recreation opportunities,
bryozoan colonies – and identical twins

Our Company celebrates its centennial in 2006 -- and Minnesota Power’s relationship with hydro lands and their neighboring communities dates back that long. In fact, MP’s history springs from hydro roots. In 1870, financier Jay Cooke anticipated the need to build hydroelectric facilities and bought land by the St. Louis River in Duluth. MP’s predecessor company began hydro facility construction there for what’s now known as our Thomson Station, located within Jay Cooke State Park, in 1905. Today, MP is the largest supplier of hydroelectricity in Minnesota, producing about 115 megawatts.
 
MP has 11 hydro generating stations and 16 reservoirs in northern Minnesota along major river networks: St. Louis, Whiteface, Cloquet, Kawishiwi, Crow Wing, Gull and Mississippi. Through this river network, water flows into reservoirs, where it’s held in the summer and released in winter to keep water flows high enough for electricity production. Each MP hydro facility needs its own license, regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. And because we use water – a public resource – we are obligated through the license to give back to the community to mitigate for our water use. To do so, we provide an array of recreational and informational/educational opportunities related to our reservoir lakes, the rivers that feed them, and surrounding MP-owned land.
 
The chronology of human use of rivers and lands dates back 10,000 years. Evidence of Paleo-Indian life exists after glaciers receded, leaving in their wake the land as we know it today. By the 1800’s, a lively fur trade existed, with French and Canadian Voyageurs plying their wares in the region. The logging era followed, when rivers were used to float huge logs downstream for transport to their buyers. The late 1800’s ushered in the industrial age and the first demand for electricity in the region. Construction of the Little Falls dam on the Mississippi began in 1890. By the 1920’s, Minnesota Power & Light began acquiring and integrating six electric utilities, as well as several municipal and privately-owned plants, to meet the growing demands of businesses and residents in what’s now our service territory. It was also necessary to produce power that wasn’t dependent on water as its source.
 
More dams were built, with the help of railroads to deliver construction materials, as well as horses and equipment carts. Fond du Lac dam construction began in 1923. By 1926, a community of MP employees lived on-site by Thomson Hydro and raised families there. In the 1930’s, the modest, though popular, Beyer’s Beach Resort occupied the site where MP’s Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center exists today by Boulder Lake. The resort was operated by Emil Beyer, who had an identical twin brother, Ernest. The two often conspired to cause their guests a good deal of confusion. Anglers would visit Ernest’s resort on Rice Lake Reservoir just north of Duluth, and finding no boats to rent, would be told by Ernie to “Go see the guy I know at Boulder Lake; he’ll rent you a boat.” Guests would then pile back into their cars, drive to Beyer’s Resort and see the very same man (at least from outward appearances): Emil.
 

Minnesota Power has a long history in the region for providing information/educational and recreational opportunities for the public, including hiking, snowmobile and award-winning cross-country ski trails, as well as programs about protecting wildlife and enhancing their habitat, sustainable forest management and the great outdoors. MP employees have also worked with the Department of Natural Resources and University of Minnesota-Duluth Kayak Center to develop a kayak route on the St. Louis River near Thomson Hydro that provides plenty of thrills, but keeps whitewater enthusiasts from coming too close to the dam. The river courses are also posted with safety signs to advise kayakers on the type of rapids they’ll encounter. Races held each summer are drawing growing crowds. We’ve also built public “take out” sites where boaters can safely exit river systems, boat launching areas, canoe portages, picnic areas and on-shore fishing platforms to fulfill hydro license and public responsibilities.
 
Thanks in part to some funding from the Natural Science Foundation, Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center is now benefiting from a full-time education director. The Boulder Lake Management Area, located on the shores of our Boulder Lake Reservoir about 18 miles north of Duluth, comprises 8,250 acres of land and water and is cooperatively managed by MP and our partners: the St. Louis County Land Department, Natural Resources Research Institute and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
  
Another lakeshore relation is MP’s ShoreLand Traditions program, through which the public may lease lots on select shoreline areas. The lots are issued periodically on our reservoir lakes in the region. Leaseholders benefit from MP’s management of the lots, since our staff provide guidance and assistance with their real estate transactions and complying with permitting and regulatory processes. Interest in ShoreLand Traditions has boomed because of the baby boom generation. At least 50 percent of leaseholders have year-round homes on our reservoir lakes and this interest is growing. MP works with public safety officials to alert people about safety issues by rivers and lakes (snowmobiling safety, ice conditions, water levels, etc.).
  
MP environmental staff are also helpful to leaseholders. When a woman asked MP to identify a large, mysterious, jelly-like blob on her dock, Environmental Compliance Specialist Senior Lowell Neudahl had the answer: a harmless bryozoan colony. Also known as “moss animals,” these tiny organisms are microscopically connected and only thrive in clean water.
 
MP strives to balance numerous stakeholder interests: regulatory compliance; protection of the environment, as well as cultural and historic resources on hydro-area lands; recreation opportunities and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act pertaining to access to our public facilities; and much more. However, the value of clean, renewable hydro generation has remained constant for 100 years. MP’s planned expansion of the Fond du Lac generating station is an important component of our Integrated Resource Plan.