Lake County unveils new rescue boat to boost North Shore response

A boater in trouble off Silver Bay, or an angler caught in rough water along Lake Superior’s North Shore, now has a rescue boat based in Lake County instead of waiting on help from farther away. Public safety officials gathered in Two Harbors to mark the arrival of a new search-and-rescue vessel that Sheriff Nathan Stadler said will strengthen response across the shoreline.

The boat is one of four custom-built rescue craft funded through roughly $3 million in Minnesota legislative dollars and shared by Lake County, Cook County and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Lake County’s vessel will be stationed in Silver Bay, giving local responders an enclosed-cabin boat that Stadler said can reach many parts of the North Shore faster than outside help coming from Bayfield, Wisconsin, or Duluth. He said the county’s previous boat had mechanical problems before it was retired.

The arrival fills a gap left when the U.S. Coast Guard closed Station North Superior in Grand Marais in the summer of 2022. That station had been staffed seasonally from May through October for decades. After it shut down, county and tribal officials said local agencies had to shoulder more of the water-rescue burden with longer distances to cover and fewer nearby assets on the lake. In 2022, Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliasen said, “We don't have the capacity, the staff, the training or the watercraft to patrol Lake Superior.”

Grand Portage Tribal Chairman Robert Deschampe said the shared effort is meant to help boaters and anyone else in trouble on the water, while also giving the region a stronger mutual-aid tool if a major wildfire affects Isle Royale National Park. Tribal officials said the larger Grand Portage vessel could also transport firefighters and support environmental education and search-and-rescue cooperation around the island.

The four boats are now distributed across Grand Portage, Cook County and Lake County, creating broader coverage on the North Shore and giving local responders a faster, more capable tool for rough-water emergencies. The Grand Portage Band has described the program as the nation’s first Indigenous-led coast guard, and earlier reporting said the funding also covered two years of training and operating expenses, plus equipment for the boats. In one report, the first boat was powered by twin 350-horsepower engines, underscoring how much capability the region has added to a stretch of shoreline that lost its permanent Coast Guard presence three years ago.