ANGLE INLET, Minn. — A moonshot on a frozen lake has delivered for a handful of resort owners cut off for nearly a year from their customers.
Ten resorts on Minnesota’s Northwest Angle provided the seed money for a 22-mile ice road across Lake of the Woods.
On Friday night, after delivering hundreds of customers, the ice road will close to new arrivals, having exceeded its builders’ expectations.
“It kind of shows what people with common interests - goals - can accomplish together,” Paul Colson, who owns Jake’s Northwest Angle Resort, said.
Colson was one of 10 resort owners who each put up $1,000 to begin work on the road.
The owners suffered deep financial losses after Canada closed its border due to COVID-19, cutting off the only highway access to the Northwest Angle.
The Ice Road was open just shy of two months. During that time, nearly 1,000 passes were sold, most for $145. The money paid for roughly $130,000 in plowing and other maintenance costs.
If money is left after final bills are paid, Colson said the remainder will be donated to local charities.
Brett Alsleben’s company, Points North Services, was hired to maintain the road.
“It does feel very good to know that we pulled it off,” he said. “I think it'll be talked about for a long time.”
While the road provided a light in a dark year, Colson said it delivered less than half his normal winter business.
Still, he’ll take it.
“It was fun to see lights on in the cabins at night,” he said. “You do miss the human contact with people.”
Now, Colson and the other resort owners will wait and hope Canada reverses course, allowing passage from Minnesota back into Minnesota’s Northwest Angle.
Otherwise, Colson said, “We’ll be right back where we were.”