Revived Silver Bay Garden Club attracts volunteers ahead of 70th anniversary

Silver Bay’s revived Garden Club has already pulled in about 40 volunteers, and its first goal is plain to see: bring color back to the Welcome to Silver Bay sign before summer crowds arrive.

The effort started at Salon Haven, where stylists Lacey Shoen and Kristi Thompson kept hearing the same thing from clients, that Silver Bay used to look more cared for and could again. That conversation turned into an organizing push to restart the Silver Bay Garden Club, a group that first formed in 1952, four years before the city was incorporated. After being inactive for nearly a decade, the club’s comeback has drawn teenagers and residents in their 80s, giving the project a cross-generational base that reaches well beyond a single block or neighborhood.

Shoen and Thompson have framed the revival as more than landscaping. They said the goal is to build social connection and civic pride, and to help people feel rooted in Silver Bay. That matters in a city that was originally built by Reserve Mining Company for workers at its taconite processing plant and now has about 1,850 residents. In a place with that kind of shared origin story, the condition of public spaces can carry extra weight.

The first project will focus on the Welcome to Silver Bay sign, which has gone without flowers for years. Volunteers plan to rebuild the bed, improve the soil and plant a mix of perennials, shrubs and ornamental grasses. Other spots are lined up next: the church sign on Outer Drive, the liquor store bed and the new Trailhead Center near Black Beach.

Planting is set to begin on Memorial Day, giving the club a firm deadline as Silver Bay heads into a milestone summer. The city will celebrate its 70th anniversary during Bay Days on July 10-12, 2026, and the garden work is expected to shape the first impression for residents and visitors before that weekend arrives.

The Trailhead Center gives the project added visibility. The city’s Multi-Modal Trailhead Center is being built with public meeting space, lavatories and showers, parking, picnic and playground amenities, and access for motorized and non-motorized trail users. Minnesota Legacy lists $1.97 million for the Silver Bay Multimodal Trailhead Project, while a WDIO report described it as a $5.3 million project. The landscaping around that site will help frame one of Silver Bay’s newest public-facing investments.

For a city marking 70 years, the Garden Club’s revival is not just about flowers. It is about what residents see first, what volunteers choose to maintain and how Silver Bay presents itself when summer arrives.