Exploring International Falls and Voyageurs National Park on a Summer 2022 Road Trip

INTERNATIONAL FALLS, MN (trfnews.i234.me) A look at International Falls, Minnesota and Voyageurs National Park as we make our way east along Minnesota’s Canadian border.
next stop on our tour is along the deep woods of northern minnesota at international falls it’s home to a massive paper mill the town’s main industry and employer international falls is also known for a bit of a weather distinction we also are known as being the icebox of the nation something to be proud of you know we our record low temp is 55 below zero with no wind chill so we take pride in that um every january we have icebox days where even if it’s 32 below outside we’re doing turkey frozen turkey bowling and so we do smoosh races and a frozen toilet seat toss international falls is also the home of football legend bronco nagurski with the surrounding forest providing the raw materials for an industry that started here back in 1911. it wasn’t entirely unpopulated but it was not like a permanent settlement in this area until baker started coming up and soon after baker there was a man named ew bacchus he was a lumber baron and he made his way up north decided he wanted to create an empire right on rainy river and he purchased his first little bit of land from alexander baker and just as time goes on he created a paper mill and here we are now all right but now during the summer months the big attraction for tourists is 11 miles east of international falls rainy lake and voyageurs national park we are the gateway to voyageur’s national park which you can mostly see by water but we do have a visitor center that you’re able to go out and see exhibits um they have park rangers you can talk to a few easy hiking trails right at the visitors center and then a boat launch and they do boat tours as well in the summer where they’ll take you around the lake and show you some historical sites out there such as there’s a gold mine out there and a mermaid statue and then they bring you up to kettle falls hotel if you choose that that tour there’s nearly a quarter of a million acres to explore but you’re going to need some type of watercraft to do it if you do want to go camping you need to bring a boat because all of our campsites are only accessible by watercraft which is a fairly unique thing about voyagers national park and a lot of people love going camping here generally you’ll get your own campsite that may be on an island all to itself or on a stretch of shoreline on some of these bigger lakes you won’t be able to see anyone else for you know a mile so i take it we’re talking primitive camping there’s our primitive no well i wouldn’t say there’s no showers there but there are bear boxes leveled uh tent sites tent pads um fire rings from voyageurs national park i’m neil carlson reporting for eye news dot tv