Paul Bunyan Communications Brings Fiber Broadband to 350-Plus Rural St. Louis County Homes

Paul Bunyan Communications has completed its all-fiber GigaZone network across Great Scott Township and an unorganized township immediately to its north, connecting more than 350 homes and businesses in one of St. Louis County's more remote lake-country corridors. The buildout covers properties surrounding Dark Lake, Clear Lake, Lake Fourteen, and Lake Leander, and residents who signed up ahead of construction are now being contacted to schedule installations.

The $617,000 in public funding that helped make the project viable came from two sources: a $400,000 St. Louis County Broadband Grant and a $217,000 grant from Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation. Paul Bunyan, a member-owned cooperative headquartered in Bemidji, contributed its own capital alongside those grants to push fiber to a stretch of rural St. Louis County where reliable high-speed internet has historically been difficult to justify on economics alone.

"This project represents more than new infrastructure; it's about delivering internet and Wi-Fi for the way people live and work today," said Chad Bullock, CEO and general manager of Paul Bunyan Communications.

Marketing supervisor Brian Bissonette pointed to the range of uses the network will support. "With an all-fiber network, customers experience consistent, reliable performance across everything they do, whether that's remote work and learning, telehealth visits, running a business, or streaming entertainment," he said.

The network advertises symmetrical upload and download speeds up to 10 Gig. Homes and businesses in the expansion zone that have not yet enrolled can still sign up; Paul Bunyan says the cooperative will return to serve additional locations with no construction fee when feasible. Membership carries no separate fee and is included automatically when subscribing to either local phone service or GigaZone Internet service. Residents can verify whether a specific address falls within the coverage area at paulbunyan.net.

The Great Scott completion is one of several fiber expansions moving simultaneously across St. Louis County. Paul Bunyan has also finished wiring Balkan Township, a separate project that reached more than 550 homes and businesses at a total estimated cost of $7.5 million, funded largely through Minnesota's Low-Population Density Program. Farther north, four additional townships, including North Star, Alt, Pequon, and Township 54-13, are awaiting Mediacom fiber construction funded through Minnesota broadband grants, with county leaders saying they hope to break ground this spring. Rod Saline, a supervisor for North Star Township, said approximately 548 residents in those communities will have the opportunity to connect once construction is complete, citing improved fire protection and EMS communications as one concrete benefit beyond residential broadband access.