Excitement is palpable at Spirit Mountain as the new water line nears completion. Employees have begun “commissioning”—or testing—the line, which draws water for snowmaking from the St. Louis River and pumps it to the top of the hill. At the Spirit Mountain board meeting of October 15, 2015, General Manager Jody Ream told the board, “It’s an awesome system. It’s amazing to see those pumps go, and just to see the water was pretty amazing. This hill saw the most water it’s ever seen in its pipes today—4,000 gallons. That’s very exciting.”
Spirit Mountain will see several advantages with the new system, one of which is financial—river water is free, and will eliminate the ski hill’s use of treated city water for snowmaking. The new system will also work faster. The old pumps and pipes could handle a maximum of 2,500 gallons of water, and the lines took an hour to charge. With the new system, it takes just under twenty minutes to charge the lines. “That’s a huge thing,” said Ream. The increased capacity will allow Spirit Mountain to operate as many as 15 additional snow guns (or other types of snowmaking equipment), covering more trails with snow earlier in the year and increasing the ski hill’s overall appeal to skiers.
Naturally, any money that Spirit Mountain saves on water is revenue that the city’s public utilities will lose. Considered in that light, the water line will actually cut into the city’s bottom line. But the thought on the part of city leaders is that it will free up water capacity for new development.
Raw water is better for snowmaking because it contains more particulates than treated water, which makes it easier to “nucleate,” or form snow crystals. One consequence of using river water, though, is that the snow “is not necessarily going to be that bright white,” said Ream. “It’s going to have a little tinge to it, but it’s going to be a beautiful thing, because there’s going to be more of it, and we simply hope Mother Nature will play her part and make it pretty for us.”
Much of the joy, of course, stems from the fact that the water line cost $6 million to build, and Spirit Mountain didn’t have to pay a dime. State bonds and grants from various agencies covered about $4 million of the project, and $2.1 million in city bonds, backed by the half-and-half tourism tax, covered the rest.
Another $1 million of half-and-half tax has been more or less promised to Spirit Mountain to construct a new network of cross-country ski trails at the bottom of the hill. A trail design firm has developed a proposed layout for the new Nordic Center, and engineers with Foster, Jacobs and Johnson (the same firm that oversaw the water project) have begun engineering work on the ski trails. Pipes will be laid from the new water line to give the new trails snowmaking capability.
All of the improvements, of course, add new infrastructure to the ski hill, which must be maintained. This is worrisome. Spirit Mountain, in recent years, has struggled to maintain the infrastructure it already has, and has become increasingly reliant on city funds to keep its doors open. Whether the new water line and Nordic Center will help or hinder their true underlying problem remains to be seen.
Assuming that everything goes well with the water line testing, a formal valve-turning ceremony will be held at Spirit Mountain sometime near the end of the month.

River corridor development

One group that is taking a keen interest in developments at Spirit Mountain is the Spirit Valley Land Company (SVLC), whose president, Brad Johnson, has been buying up land at the base of the mountain for nearly 20 years. The SVLC has been very cooperative with Spirit Mountain’s efforts—the new water line crosses SVLC property, via permanent easement, and the new Nordic Center trails will cross SVLC property as well.
The company is now poised to assemble its holdings into large, commercially viable parcels and begin their development. One of their main objectives is to extend Warwick Street (the short road that leads to Spirit’s lower chalet) from Grand Avenue down to the St. Louis River. Scott Neustel, an investor in the SVLC and owner of the Ski Hut retail store, told the Spirit Mountain board on September 17, 2015, “At the terminus of that road would be what many people have heard of as the paddle center. That will give access to the water. So what does that do? That provides opportunities for summer recreation other than the trails and the mountain biking and all that. People want to be by the water.”
Despite having some administrative and legal hurdles yet to cross, Neustel was hopeful that things would go smoothly. “We have the county as a partner, and I think things look pretty optimistic. We own most of the property that’s non-public between Grand Avenue and the river, and part of what we see is that the road can be funded through assessments, and we think it’ll get done. We’re optimistic.”
He handed out a map showing many of the SVLC’s dreams (Figure 1). “These are just some of the ideas that have come up, some of the possibilities of what can happen at the base of Spirit Mountain to create a village concept, to bring people in [and] support those that the Grand Avenue Chalet is going to bring in…We [want] businesses that complement what’s going on here in Duluth—that bring people in and keep them here, riding the trails and spending money.”
Residential and multi-family housing, commercial properties, and a hotel are all part of the vision. “I’m interested in bringing an outdoor retail store to the base of Spirit Mountain to complement what Spirit Mountain does here,” said Neustel. He also mentioned building “a brew pub, brewery, that type of thing” on the south side of Grand, adjacent to the Munger Trail—”something that would really enhance the tourism opportunities here.”
He also mentioned another way that the SVLC could help Spirit Mountain. “Right now there are 36 parking spots at the base of Spirit Mountain that are paved. And if there’s a cross-country ski event [at the new Nordic Center], it could have three or four hundred people, and there’s no place to park. So part of our plan is to develop parking for events as well, as part of our development.”
Board members wondered about the hotel, which Neustel’s map showed on city-owned land at the base of Spirit Mountain. Neustel repeated that the map was depicting ideas and possibilities, not a concrete plan. He said that the SVLC felt that, because they were allowing the city to use a portion of their land for the Nordic ski trails, they could reach a “development agreement” with the city that would make a hotel possible in that location. He also said that the SVLC themselves would not be building a hotel. Their business plan would be to structure everything so that a hotel was possible, then have a third party come in and build it.
Currently, this is only an idea; nothing concrete has happened. “We’re working on it,” said Neustel. “The city could sell that property or do whatever.” He said he was talking to the board tonight because he wanted to keep everybody apprised of what the SVLC was thinking. “What makes sense is the four corners of development [at the Grand/Warwick intersection], versus not doing anything.”
So plenty is going on behind the scenes, but actual, shovel-in-the-ground development will not be visible for a while yet. Neustel said that the SVLC is waiting until the Nordic Center and other city projects are completed before they make any final decisions regarding their property. “The Cross-City Trail is going to come to the base of Spirit Mountain, and mountain bike trails, all of that. That whole footprint will be laid down, and then we’ll look at, ‘Where is the development zone? How will it be developed?’ And we’d like to take the lead on that.”

Haunted Ship

An October fixture in Duluth is the Haunted Ship in Canal Park, now in its 26th year. Visitors wind their way through dark passageways and scenes of terror in the hold of the William A. Irvin ore boat. The theme of this year’s tour, “What Are You Afraid Of?”, is the same theme as last year, but with new scenes.
Jacob Nelson, a Superior High School freshman, is volunteering on the Haunted Ship for the first time this year. “I have been through it many times and I thought it would be a fun thing to act there,” he told The Reader in an exclusive interview. When he saw a call for volunteers posted on the Haunted Ship’s website (duluthhauntedship.com), he jumped at the chance. “I think it’s really fun to scare people.”
On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, Nelson arrives at the ship at about 4 p.m. to get costumed, made up, and positioned in that night’s scene. He typically works a seven-hour shift, with a fifteen-minute break in the middle. Sandwiches, hot dogs or pizza are provided for the actors. So far, Nelson has played “a clown, an engine worker, and a person in a torture room.” The clown is his favorite. When asked about other characters on the ship, he speaks highly of Wadsworth, the hideous butler who dishes up ladles of bloody slop in the dining room scene.
There are some incentives. After five days of work, actors get two free tickets to the ship. After twelve days, they get a $50 gift certificate to the Green Mill. In addition, “every once in a while [the supervisor] just hands out random gift cards,” said Nelson. So far, he has scored five-dollar gift cards for McDonald’s and Wendy’s.
All the actors wear whistles around their necks in case of trouble. Nelson said that he has not had to blow his whistle, but an actor in another scene did, when “a person going through the ship punched the actor in the stomach.” Security guards are stationed at many locations on the ship to respond to these and other problems.
On October 9, when utility crews dug through an unmarked electrical cable and cut the power to the Haunted Ship, the DECC and the Duluth 10 movie theater, the actors had to sit on top of the ship to get made up, using daylight. Unfortunately, power was never restored that day; all of the ghouls and monsters were sent home. The next day, October 10, saw record attendance—Nelson said that more than 3,200 people took the tour.
As one might expect of a situation that combines a mass of humanity with soul-chilling terror, there were some issues. “Five people peed their pants, one person pooped, and one person puked,” Nelson reported happily.
When asked if he had any final thoughts on the Haunted Ship for Reader readers, he said simply, “Go there this year.”