On a northern Minnesota island, arts and inspiration find safe harbor
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In every corner of Minnesota, there are good stories waiting to be told of places that make our state great and people who in Walt Whitman’s words “contribute a verse” each day. That's the theme of our series “Wander & Wonder: Exploring Minnesota’s unexpected places.”
Playing bass for the renowned Minneapolis band Semisonic, John Munson’s seen bigger audiences. But here on this tiny island dedicated to art and thought, the dozen or so people in front of him on a recent summer day seemed about right.
As guests settled into creaky wooden chairs, Munson shared his personal story of recovery from a February stroke that limited his ability to play the bass. Then he picked up a guitar and along with jazz singer Prudence Johnson and pianist Dan Chouinard kicked off an impromptu concert around an old upright piano.
“Just being in this place with the intention of feeding your artistic endeavors is beautiful. I'm grateful for that,” he said of his first-time visit to Mallard Island. “It’s really inspiring to be among a like-minded group of people who feel comfortable to me.”
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Dozens of artists, students and other people make the trip each summer to Mallard Island, a rocky piece of land in Rainy Lake near the Canadian border that was once the home of legendary environmentalist Ernest Oberholtzer.
Oberholtzer built a small outpost of rustic buildings on the island a century ago and lived here for 50 years. His foundation maintains the property now as a place for students, artists and pretty much anyone else who can use some quiet contemplation and a creative spark.
“The muses love it here,” said Minnesota writer and storyteller Kevin Kling. They come from behind the bushes when they're here."
Kling’s been coming to Mallard Island since 2007 and says each time it’s like reconnecting with an old friend. "A lot of us are in very solo art forms,” he said. “To get together and knock around ideas in a place with all these books and all this nature, it just couldn't be better."
‘Something about the water, the rocks, the trees’
Small groups of 10 people can apply to spend a week on the island, immersed in nature and whatever artistic or environmental endeavor they choose. A summer program week typically costs $450 per person. The foundation also has a focus on Indigenous programming at least a couple of weeks each summer.
Oberholtzer’s presence remains strong on the island nearly 50 years after his death.
“The work that he did laid the groundwork for the creation of the Boundary Waters and the Quetico and Voyageurs National Park. So, as much as possible, the place has been preserved as it was when he lived here,” said Johnson, who’s also program director and a caretaker for the foundation that owns Mallard and three adjoining islands.
The buildings are old but well-maintained. There’s no running water for showers or flush toilets. Visitors pack in their food and bedding for the week. They typically take turns cooking an evening communal meal in the wannigan, a building that was once a floating kitchen for lumberjacks before being dry docked on the island around 1920.
A cabin called Cedar Bark, said to have once been a floating brothel, now juts out over the water as a space for guests to stay.
Oberholtzer was a voracious collector of books, amassing thousands of volumes from classics to obscure titles like “The Myth of the Wildman.” Nearly every building has bookshelves on walls and tucked into corners.
“I’ve found some amazing books here,” said Red Wing landscape painter Mark Granlund.
“And people do share stories like, ‘I was thinking about something, and I looked over at the shelf and there was a title on a book that was exactly what I was thinking about.’ And so you’ve got to grab it. You gotta read it,” he said.
“Something about the water, the rocks, the trees, it just starts getting you to slow down, open up a little bit,” said Granlund, who has spent time on Mallard Island for more than 20 years as an artist and a caretaker.
“And when you're around other people who are opening up, you just create this connection with them and with the place that people crave once they get back into their regular lives.”
It’s not all deep introspection and searching for the muses. People also “sit around and tell Ole and Lena stories and play cribbage late into the night,” said Granlund.
Opening the door wider to Minnesotans
Sometimes the time spent on the island is just to recharge. Johnson found she produced little during the weeks spent here on artist retreats. “I found that rather than a lot of output, it was all input. I was just taking in everything about this place,” she said.
“It’s a kind of an antidote in some ways to just be immersed in an environment such as this where the distractions are not as easily accessible,” said Chouinard.
Accessibility is also something Mallard Island’s stewards are working to improve. For decades this island has been a retreat mostly for people not from this part of northern Minnesota.
“The island had developed a reputation for being kind of closed off, insular,” said Johnson. “You know, ‘We're not welcome there anymore.’”
The Oberholtzer Foundation is trying to change that by hosting concerts in nearby International Falls and inviting local residents to take classes on the island for a couple of weeks each summer.
Gavia Yount grew up in International Falls but wasn’t even sure where Mallard Island was located. She recently spent three days catching the Mallard Island pontoon boat each morning to take classes on the island and meet the artists staying there.
“I really appreciate just how like, casual everything feels, and yet I still have gotten a lot out of it, just from having conversations,” said Yount, who’s now a senior at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn. “I think there's a lot of potential for more people to engage with this place.”
