Welcome to In Business with Almanac North.

I'm Ken Ber.

We're at Duth Lawn and Sport here in the city of Duth and we're talking about winter tourism.

Obviously, this brand new Scadoo snowmobile is a large part of winter tourism, but it's just a part.

How much is tourism worth in our country, in our area?

Well, the Duth Chamber of Commerce says tourism in the economy of Duth represents $780 million a year.

up on the Iron Range.

They did a study by UMD a few years ago to find out in 2024 tourism on Minnesota's glorious Iron Range was 11% of the GDP gross domestic product in that area and employed 2900 people.

Now, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula around Ironwood, where downhill skiing is king in the winter, there it's a hund00 million a year according to the chamber and employs just over 3,000 people.

Senior Byways did a study a couple of years ago about tourism on the north shore of Lake Superior and found out for Lake County alone, it represented $41 million.

Now, those are some pretty big and important numbers, but how much of that is winter tourism?

How much of that is shoulder season?

And isn't the summer the big season?

Well, the answer is different depending upon where you are.

And that's what we're going to talk about.

How much of tourism is winter related?

Here we are in the great Northland and of course snow and winter all a part of skiing, cross-country skiing, snowmmoiling, ice fishing or just being outdoors in the winter and camp.

All these are contributors but it's just a part of what makes up tourism in the winter.

Well, you've got the gas to get here.

You've got hotels, you've got restaurants, and by the way, if you got one of these, more gas.

So, what is the percentage of the business that is tourism oriented that has to do with winter?

And we've got great list of guests this evening that are going to talk about that for us.

All this will be discussed this evening and we'll ask them some very interesting questions about what constitutes winter tourism and how important is it?

And you know I'm going to get some very good answers and hopefully you're going to enjoy the program this evening because at the very end we're going to come back to Scadoo.

Let's get on with the show.

Welcome to In Business with Almanac North.

I'm Ken Beller.

Tonight, we're turning our attention to winter tourism and how it shapes our regional economy during the coldest and snowiest months of the year.

We'll sit down with leaders from our area's tourism and holiday attractions and talk about what this season means for local business.

And because the season, we'll remember an historic and very unique Christmas tree business that once operated out of the Dwit Sites building in Doo Canal Park.

Speaking of Christmas trees, one of the tallest and brightest is nearby at Bayfront Festival Park.

We got to talk with Nathan Bentley, the mayor of Bentleyville, to learn more about the holiday attraction that draws hundreds of thousands to the Northland every year.

3 2 1 Nathan Bentley with Bentleyville Tour of Lights.

I'm the executive director and founder of Bentley Bell.

Uh Bentleyville began back in 2003 at my home in Esco, uh 22 23 years ago now.

Uh from there, we moved it out to outside of Clo, uh where I live on a dead end dirt road.

And for the first couple of years, the traffic was enormous on the road.

neighbors got a little upset with the uh road congestion of cars.

Uh so we switched to actually busing people in.

People parked in uh two different horse fields, our our Frosty Lot and our Rudolph lot.

And we would run 972 passenger school buses circling from our parking lots to the end of my driveway where people walked around and saw 500 plus snowflakes up in the trees and walked through our paved pathways throughout the uh the property stopping and getting hot chocolate and uh popcorn and cookies.

And after doing that for just 2 years with buses, uh we were transporting 72,000 people by bus.

And we thought it was getting a little carried away.

So we took the year off in 2008.

And during that time, uh, mayor of Duth at that time was Mayor Don Ness, and he invited me to his office to discuss bringing my light show here to, uh, Bayfront Park.

So, I met with him and looked out his fourth floor window at city hall.

And, um, took the chance and said we'd come down to Bayfront Park.

And, uh, we spent the next year planning and, uh, getting ready to make the big move into a 22 acre park.

And in December of 2009, the lights came on here at Bayfront Park.

And we've been here now the last 17 years.

Bentleyville is a uh a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Uh simply meaning that all of our donations and all the income that we bring into the organization go right back into the organization.

There is not dividends or anything that's paid out and donations made to Bentley are also taxdeductible.

Our infrastructure made up of our executive board of directors that meets monthly making the higher bigger decisions.

Then we have an operations committee that meets uh monthly, usually the first four or five months of the year to decide what displays we're going to put on the grounds, what new things need to happen, repairs to certain things.

And then um moving into the fall, the population of Duth and the surrounding area, the volunteers come out and help us build Bentleyville with our core group of red coats, which is made up of about 35 of our key people that uh help all the volunteers uh build Bentleyville.

Then once we open up uh the community comes out again and needs 60 people here every single night to be fully operational along with our core group and to put on an event that hosts uh 300 350,000 people each year over the approximately uh 38 to 40 nights we're open each year coming to uh Bayfront Park and due to the magnitude of the size of the event um it was necessary to be a nonprofit organization in order to get funding from certain places that literally only will donate to nonprofits and for me it was always free at my home.

Wanting to keep the event free here and being a nonprofit uh allowed us to do various different funding measures to raise money to keep it free for everybody.

Um so you can come to Bentleyville with no money to bring a dollar or two put in our donation boxes to help us uh keep the lights on and keep things fresh and new here.

Um and that's our main reason for having it being a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Uh well, Bayfront Park with our arrangement with the city duth is one of the things is to allow us to use Bayfront at no charge.

Uh Bentleyville through uh research and uh statistics uh generates $24 million in economical impact for the city of Duth.

Filling hotel rooms, filling the restaurants, filling other attractions in the area, as well as people shopping, getting gasoline, all those sorts of things.

So, it's a $24 million economical impact over the 38 to 40 nights that we're open each year.

Every penny that is taken into Bentleyville goes right back into Bentleyville.

Uh, over $250,000 of our budget is just buying new displays and rope lighting every year.

There's so many expenditures that go on behind the scenes that people don't realize from insuranceances and rental of equipments and paint and 2x4s and screws and zip ties and cookies.

Uh, Santa Claus gives out every year 30,000 winter hats at Bellyville at a cost of over $2 a piece, plus a bag of cookies.

The simple quick math is over $60,000 just giving out to children winter hats and cookies from there.

Another nearly $100,000 in cookies, uh, chocolate, popcorn, oil, marshmallows, and all the different things that we give out here for free.

Um, so every penny that's taken in goes right back into the event.

We try to purchase as much locally right here as in Duth area.

Uh services as well as goods and that we need to purchase.

Uh we generally try to put things out for bid on larger purchases to ensure that we're getting our our value for our money.

Um so we do what we can here right here in Duth.

Byville sees guests right around the range of 300,000 people uh each year.

So people are coming to Duth not just to see the lights but they're visiting other attractions in Duth whether it's Spirit Mountain or Glensheen the Aquarium coming to Duth to uh have conventions at the deck and then making Bentleyville their evening entertainment.

So uh we really tried to be a partner with all the different attractions in the area so that we're embracing the whole tourism here right here in Duth and making hopefully a good impact on the community.

This is in business with Almanac North.

Thank you for watching.

Joining us now to talk about the impact of winter tourism on our local economy is Lori Huber from Lights in the Pines in Grand Rapids and Jennifer Hansen is marketing director for Spear Mountain right here in Duth.

I'd also like to say we had a guest signed up from Visit Duth, our city's designated marketing organization, but they were forced to cancel due to illness and we'll try to reschedule their visit at a later date.

Welcome and thank you for joining us.

We'll start with you, Lori, in Grand Rapids, and uh we just had Nathan Bentley's uh tour of lights in Canal Park.

What is Lights in the Pine?

Lights in the Pines is the largest drive-thru um light extravaganza in northern Minnesota.

Um it was created to um generate revenue to improve the fairgrounds so that we would um be able to continue to have the fairgrounds.

Um, we use volunteers to um run our our lights in the pines and we give back to the volunteer groups that help us on the nights that we're open.

Now, this is a little different than Bentleyville.

This is a drive-thru event, right?

Correct.

It is a drive-thru.

So, um, we have nursing homes and group homes that bring their buses through.

Um, we charge $10 for a car or a truck.

We don't charge by the person.

um small buses and like 12 passenger vans, we charge $25.

Um and then at after you drive through the acreage of the fairgrounds with all the lights, you culminate at the um North Pole Junction, which is a kind of like a fantasy land that's created by a very artistic um in-house artist, Peggy um Peggy Hagen Jones, who who does that?

That must be a a fun way to ride and end that trip.

I'm wondering uh Lori, does Santa Claus show up?

You don't have to answer that.

Go ahead.

Yes, Santa Claus is there every night that we're there.

So, we mentioned that a representative from Visit Duth was unable to join us and we hope they're feeling better.

I need to mention that some of the statistics on tourism this year from Explore Minnesota are troubling depending upon where your business is located.

Numbers related to this past week from all the past year show that in Minnesota tourism is a $14.7 billion industry.

Now that's an increase of $600,000 over the previous year.

Henipin County, which was up $500,000, captures 37% of the tourism revenue in all of Minnesota.

Counties in our region were reported in this study as flat or up just slightly.

St.

Louis County took home 4.4% 4% of the state's tourism business.

By the way, Carlton County was the big winner up here with a 4% increase in their tourism economy.

More recent data comes from a study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in partnership with Hospitality Minnesota.

Through August of this year, compared to 2023, the Hospitality Business Survey showed a decline in customer traffic, revenue, and most noticeably in profits.

Businesses complained about higher wages and prices.

60% of respondents in the tourism industry cited tariffs as the leading cause of higher prices.

Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, the feeling going forward was that the outlook is uncertain or leaning towards negative.

The positive on that is though that that feeling was stronger among metro respondents than from northern or rural ones.

And that's because we get snow and that is the winter's economic impact for us.

And of course, one of the industries that enjoys that most of anybody is power sports.

So, we spoke with Pete Gassard of Duth Lawn and Sport to hear how the winter season impacts his business.

Hi, my name is Pete Gassert.

I'm one of the owners of Duth Lawn and Sport.

Um, we uh specialize in winter tourism and snowmmoiling.

Um, we have a about 25% of our year- round business is winter business is related to snowmmoiling in both people coming in the area to trail ride for recreation and a big part of it is ice fishing.

People using snowmobiles for ice fishing uh throughout the state and into Canada.

I'll turn now to Jennifer Hansen.

She is the marketing director at Spear Mountain here in Duth.

As we just heard from Pete, winter business is extremely important to his business, but it's just a part of his business.

For Spirit Mountain, a downhill ski area, I got to believe that winter is really at the top of your list.

You know, winter is everything to us.

Fresh lake effect lake effect snow is how we survive all winter long as you look ahead.

Um, how important is that snow to the success of the season?

It's very important.

We have snow making capabilities, but when you have lake effect snow, it just makes everything so much easier.

And we're expecting a lot of it this year with a leninia winter, which means that the weather will be colder.

So, the snow that is here will stick around and it's going to be wetter.

So, we're going to get a lot more of that snow.

As you look ahead towards the season, u what kind of a forecast do you see for Spear Mountain this year?

We see snow.

We see fresh, wonderful white snow coming and everybody skiing in the woods.

What is the economic impact of Spirit Mountain for other businesses in and around uh the hill itself and duth in the general area?

Yeah, we um have about a $28 million economic impact from our operations because people love coming to Spirit, but they love spending time in Duth after skiing.

They love staying in the hotels, eating out, shopping, and there's so much to do in Duth.

Do you think the areas right around Spirit Mountain tend to benefit more than say some of the outlying areas or do you ever track that to say like the Lincoln Park Craft District or something like that?

The Lincoln Park craft district is huge and seeing a lot of that economic development moving out west with West Duth seeing new businesses.

Lincoln Park growing like crazy.

It helps us because we get to say, "Hey, come skiing and come visit all these great breweries.

Come shopping.

Come stay in our wonderful hotels."

And that spreads across the region and the city of Duth.

It really does.

And sometimes people ski for a day and they'll head up the shore.

They'll head and explore all around the region.

Uh one quick question and that is um what do you have uh lined up that's uh new, bigger, and better and going to bring more people to Spirit Mountain this winter.

We just did a great uh capital improvement project to put in a new lift.

We we called the Highline lift.

It's a four-seater to bring people up the mountain faster.

So, less waiting in lines, a quick ride up to the top, and then you're floating on down.

Getting back to the first set of numbers from Explore Minnesota, it's a national fact that Canadians are not coming to Minnesota or any place else along the border.

Um, Canada at uh the crossing point at Grand Portage uh in April was down 38%.

And year to date, the crossings at the border uh north of us uh are down 25%.

Um, does that affect uh Spirit Mountain at all?

You know, when the borders closed a few years ago, we had to look at other options and they're about three and a half hours away.

So, what other metros are three and a half hours away?

We see a lot of people coming up from Oaklair.

That's a huge market for us to tap into, as well as Lacrosse.

And we see a growing population coming all the way from Fargo.

So, our radius for visitors is really spreading to a 5h hour drivable radius for frequent visitors.

We're talking to Jennifer Hansen.

She's the uh marketing director for Spirit Mountain and this is in business with Almanac North.

Back to uh Lori Huber and uh Lights in the Pines.

How long has that thing been around in Two Harbors?

Um excuse me, in Grand Rapids.

We are in our third year.

Um and our first year um was a a non snow year.

So, um the weather does not affect our business like it does the ski business.

Um, don't get me wrong, it wasn't fun to run out every night through the mud, but um, we survived and we did very, very well.

Um, as you asked or as I asked Jennifer, what new things have you added?

Nathan Bentley was saying that they uh, spend a quarter million dollars a year with new light displays.

I assume we have to do the similar amount on on a different scale.

Yes, our light displays are um provided or are sponsored by businesses and families um throughout Itasa County and the surrounding areas.

Um and that's how we grow our light displays.

So um people they come through, they drive through and they say, "Hey, how do I get to be a part of this?"

And we we show them how they can be a part of it.

So and volunteers are what make it all work.

Yes, volunteers 100%.

Nobody gets paid to work at Lights in the Pines.

We're so lucky to have both of you here with us uh on Almanac North.

But I want to talk a little bit about just the snow and the business of winter and how that contributes to your business.

And Jennifer, how closely do you watch the weather forecast between now and opening day?

Oh, I check it hourly.

I am always on it.

In order to make snow, which is important for our snowpack, the humidity needs to be right.

The temperatures need to be right.

our incredible team that focuses on snow making, they are checking it more than people are checking Facebook nowadays.

And the snowmobile races that uh used to start the season are now moved.

Yeah, we have those at the end of the season.

Just keeping that snow fresh for the skiers and snows can churn it all up and have a great spring party every year.

That really does attract a lot of people.

And that's a kind of a different crowd than the downhill skiing crowd.

Yeah, it is.

Um, but it's really fun to bring different people in and show them all the great amenities that Spirit has to offer and that DUTH has to offer.

Lori, how closely this time of year do you watch the weather forecast to make sure that you don't have another year like you started out with three years ago?

We hope for snow because it's a great backdrop for the very brilliant LED lights.

Um, but you know what?

We'll struggle through if we have to.

Um, we're hoping that mother nature's going to cooperate and help us make a very beautiful, bright, and shiny holiday season.

Spear Mountain has the ability, of course, to make snow, so they've got uh that going for them.

And um, Jennifer, one last question.

When do you expect to start the snow cannons on the hill?

The snow cannons are running and so we are building a nice base and we're hoping to be open soon.

Hoping to be open soon for Thanksgiving, you think?

Uh, not for Thanksgiving, but shortly after.

Well, very good.

Uh thank you uh Jennifer Hansen, the executive uh uh marketing director for Spirit Mountain.

Thank you very much for being with us this evening.

And uh Lori Huber, thank you for driving in from Grand Rapids and Lights in the Pines.

We wish you both the best of seasons and you do contribute to the local economies of your communities because when people come, they spend money, they stay, they enjoy other things.

It's not just a oneanddone experience either on the hill or in your drive-through event.

And that I want to say is on Saturday and Sunday.

Correct.

That is on Friday and Saturday nights.

We open the night before Thanksgiving.

Um because we're trying to catch people that are in visiting their relatives.

So, well, let's let's take a short trip back in time.

For years, a very well-known Christmas tree business, Halverson Trees, operated out of the Dit Sites building in Canal Park.

Let's go for a walk through that history.

This is in business with Almanac North.

Otanbomb, the Christmas tree carol, is of German descent and its true translation is not Christmas tree but fur tree.

Though there are some connections and there's also a historic Christmas tree connection on a business note here in downtown Duth right behind me at the Canal Park building by Dwit sites.

Roy Hverson left a regular job to become a woodsman in 1929.

In January of 1944 he bought 330,000 acres of land populated by large stands of black spruce.

There were many parts of this story, but the logging this vast remote area had always proved difficult, which is why the tall timber still stood.

So, in making money, the idea was not to try to get out the entire tree.

But what if you only wanted the very perfectly shaped tip top of the tree, which was easier to transport.

And maybe it would make the perfect tabletop Christmas tree for the holidays, much smaller than the whole tree.

That's what Herson's idea was.

and downtown in Canal Park in this building behind me.

That's where his business took off.

The showroom is right up front on Canal Street.

Let's go in and take a look.

This three-story brick building was added to the nearby Dwit Sites furniture factory in 1954.

The walkway over the alley now connects the two parts of the building, which required a ramp because, well, the floors didn't quite line up.

The treetops were harvested in late autumn and trucked here to the Halverson processing plant at Canal Park.

This was back when the area was more industrial than touristy.

After being treated with a fire retardant silver paint, the trees were flocked with artificial snow.

Using cellulus fiber, rayon lint, glue, and watercolors, the workers made the trees look like they were covered with white snow.

But why stop at white?

This was the 1950s after all.

And the fashion sense of the day was described as mid-century modern or to put it another way, tacky.

That's why your Hverson Miniature Christmas tree could come to you in any color, silver, gold, and even hot pink.

Much of the space in the building was cold storage where the trees would sit until they were boxed and shipped coast to coast and to several foreign countries.

They became a standard U tide tradition in many households.

and Halverson sold over 1 and a half million miniature Christmas trees every year.

The last Christmas for Halverson's mini trees was 1975.

Because by then Roy and his family had moved on to a new business opportunity that started quite by accident in 1959.

Because Roy was now growing and harvesting more trees, he purchased large forest conquering machines from a Canadian manufacturer.

That company was branching out and making smaller machines that they thought could be used in the forest industry.

By mistake though, they shipped one of these smaller machines to Roy.

He kept it in the corner of the warehouse.

But then one day, his son Tom, cleaned it up, and took it out for a winter drive across the Duth Country Club and had so much fun he convinced his dad that these motorized sleds were better suited for recreation than forestry work like timber cruising.

Halverson distributed Skidoo snowmobiles all over the Midwest.

Roy Halverson left us in 1949 at the age of 91.

He left behind a Christmas tree business memory for us to share with you on In Business with Almanac North.

This is in business with Almanac North.

Well, before we wrap up tonight's in business, let's take a quick look at some of the top business stories making headlines across the region this week.

In Hermantown, plans for a major data center have been put on hold.

Mortonson Development has paused its permit requests after a petition and a lawsuit called for more in-depth environmental review.

The company says it wants more time for public discussion and is working to schedule an open house to address community concerns.

The project, which could eventually reach 1.8 8 million square feet would be the largest ever proposed for a development in Hermantown.

At Duth International Airport, the airport authority has received just over $20 million in new federal funding to build a replacement air traffic control tower.

The current tower is one of the oldest in operation anywhere in the country.

Lawmakers say the new facility will improve safety, support growing air service, and could break ground as soon as next year, supporting hundreds of construction jobs when it does.

In Duth, the city's 1,200 fund is celebrating 40 years of supporting local entrepreneurs.

Since 1984, the fund has provided more than $12 million in lowterest loans to nearly 100 different businesses, helping create and retain about 1,900 jobs.

The program continues to play a key role in financing startups and small businesses that often struggle to access traditional lending.

And in two harbors up the shore, a 75 unit housing project could soon help ease the region's housing shortage.

Vision Incorporated has committed $15 million to build the Northshore Flats with support from state and local partners, the city, school, and county.

They'll now consider tax abatements from those government agencies that developers say are critical to keeping rents affordable.

Leaders call the project a major step in helping workers, seniors, and families find affordable housing in the fast growing community.

I'm Ken Bueller.

Thank you for watching this week's In Business with Almanac North.

If you missed any parts of tonight's show, you can always watch it on pbsnorth.org or listen on Monday at 5:30 on the North 1033.

Thanks again for watching and until next time, let's take care of each other.