Naniboujou Club Lodge
A North Shore lodge where Art Deco meets Cree-inspired design, born from Jazz Age ambition and surviving the Great Depression.
Tucked away on Lake Superior’s North Shore, about 15 miles east of Grand Marais, the Naniboujou Club Lodge began as a private club in the late 1920s. Named for a Cree spirit, its design fuses Native American motifs with Art Deco style. The club’s ambitious plans—including a golf course and marina—collapsed during the Great Depression, leaving only the clubhouse standing. That building, still in its original form, is now a historic hotel and restaurant. Its common room features a massive stone fireplace and vivid wall paintings, while the property sits near Judge C. R. Magney State Park and the Brule River.
Quick Facts
- Location
- East Cook, Minnesota
- Nearest city
- Grand Marais, Minnesota
- Built
- 1928
- Architect
- Holstead & Sullivan, Duluth
- Added
- October 21, 1982
Facts from the source article.
History
In 1927, wealthy Duluth businessmen announced plans for a resort on 3,330 acres along the newly opened North Shore Highway. They named it after a Cree spirit of the woods and pitched memberships rooted in Indian legend. Ground broke in 1928, and the club opened in 1929. Membership was limited, with free memberships given to public figures like Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, and Ring Lardner to attract others. Plans included a golf course, swimming pool, tennis courts, a marina, a 150-room clubhouse, and an inland hunting lodge, but only a smaller clubhouse was built. Financial difficulties during the Great Depression led to foreclosure in 1935. The facility sold in 1939. Much of the land became part of Judge C. R. Magney State Park, but the lakeshore property with the lodge remained in private hands. Later owners operated it as part of a hotel chain and then as a family resort.
Architecture and décor
The lodge was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for retaining 'its original design in a good state of preservation.' Design elements include polygonal towers, cedar shakes, a gambrel roof pierced by dormers, and French doors topped by sashes with pointed crowns. The Cree theme dominates the common room, which has a 200-short-ton native rock fireplace about 12 feet high. Inset above the hearth is a native welcome symbol in the shape of a sunburst, made of the same water-rounded stone. Artist Antoine Gouffe—of French descent and Paris-trained—painted the walls and ceiling with native-inspired designs, called a 'psychedelic marriage of Art Deco and traditional Cree Indian patterns.'
The lodge today
Now known as Naniboujou Lodge and Restaurant, the property is a privately owned hotel and restaurant. The sleeping wings contain the hotel rooms, and the former common area—still bearing its original decoration—is now the dining hall. Later changes have continued the Cree theme. Facilities include a restaurant in the former Great Hall club commons and a solarium. Lake Superior and the Brule River adjoin the 9-acre plot. Across the highway are the exotic rock formations and natural beauties of Judge C. R. Magney State Park, created from the former club's lands, including the Devil's Kettle. Nearby state parks and the Superior National Forest offer canoeing, hiking, camping, and fishing in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region.
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