International Falls Daily Journal - Would an ATV park in Borderland be viable? - Comments

It is not the Briggs

kay — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:50:18 -0500

It is not the Briggs property that is for sale.

I know one way to keep the

Anton1965 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:34:30 -0500

I know one way to keep the south from rising again, sorry, I mean the folks from the south that come thru here from going thru here!! Put up signs 50 miles south on HWY 71 and HWY 53 saying "Goodbye USA-Welcome to Canada" and dismantle the bridge. The road will just stop here. Of course Menards will suffer from the lack of customers from the "other" side of the river and we will have to be careful of those that continue west to the "Walleye" capital of the world-Baudette. If we build a big statue of a walleye like at Kabetogama and tell every one "thats typical of our walleye" and get the state to pull the slot limit I am sure those folks will stay here and try to catch a big one. They used to come here, just ask me. Some days we would count nearly 5000 dozen minnows to paying customers to catch the big ones. Of course we have no resorts left but the Briggs have their place up for sale, we could put one resort on that property and if we get the city to vote to allow us to cede from the union we won't have to pay extra city taxes for services we don't get and I am sure this is all we need to make a tidy profit.

Anton - It is the national

navyhornet — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:06:56 -0500

Anton - It is the national average - not the reserve chute incident that will set the rates - UNFORTUNATELY!

AND in regards to the caravans from down south - I would tend to agree with you - thats if we can get them to stop from crossing the border into Canada. Which I'm not holding out hope for - because we haven't figured out how to keep fishermen here in any comparable quantity.

And for the type of ATV Park that would attract southern interest - are those that are part of the Sport Quad community. Not trail riders - because we already have those to some extent.

Not against it - just a skeptic with history and rationale on my side.

Come on now navyhornet--only

Anton1965 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:05:00 -0500

Come on now navyhornet--only one person in twenty years needed his reserve chute. Besides all the caravans from down south will be paying for the costs to develope and pay for this park. Big money maker-big money maker for sure. I told the city they should not have gotten rid of the parking meters. There going to be needed soon.

Quick Answer for all those

navyhornet — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 23:53:45 -0500

Quick Answer for all those that might get their hopes up.

ATV Park is Not viable in this area.

Why?

Insurance Premiums. No one has that kind of money here, to be throwing around, just for some ATV riding.

Nuff said.

I belong to a sky-diving

Anton1965 — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 18:12:10 -0500

I belong to a sky-diving club in the denver area. We have a sister club in California. Every St. Patricks Day all the Catholics, well most of them, make a jump without a reserve chute. I thought this would be a good opportunity for a local hospital to harvest organs, but alas, only one person was in need of the reserve chute in the last twenty years. About all that was evident was a round circle showing evidence of much carnage about 50 feet in diameter. It was supposed to be a high altitude "clear and pull". I am not sure what this means but I came to the conclusion that it means three things. Be a catholic, as you have good luck most of the time. Be an Irishman with a four leaf clover, as this too is lucky. Sky- diving is not a dangerous sport as only one jumper in twenty years needed his reserve chute. An ATV park, I think, would be a good idea as we have lots of un-used land and any way we can bring outside money to our area is a good thing for somebody in the area. Besides, after "Boise" a paper pretend company is transferred to "Boise" another pretend paper company and 145 jobs are lost the remaining 700 workers including those on salary will represent an insignificant number of the 33,000 residents in this county and will represent no significant economic status in the area. We need all the infusion of monies we can get. Yes, I think an ATV park would be viable. Another good idea would be a 50 mile "fun" bike run from Ifalls to the Junction, then to littlefork, then across the littlefork cutoff to HWY 53 thence back to the falls. Its guaranteed to bring in 5000 riders and thats a lot of bucks. Lastly, I think a fish processing company, processing fish from Canada and a truck/train loading operation south of the Ranier overpass are good ideas to replace some of the lost or worried workers from the company. What do you think?

The Ash River trail has

kay — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:21:05 -0500

The Ash River trail has races and I think they may have one on rainy. If there are people to race I am sure the trail would have more. I am not sure about the oval at the trap range but someone will know the answer.

Growing up in the falls

night_owl — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:12:49 -0500

Growing up in the falls there use to be an oval snowmobile track at the old trap range and don't they still hold time trials on the ice in late winter all classes of snowmobiles?

Does I-Falls have any

paradox — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:59:51 -0500

Does I-Falls have any snowmobile races in the winter? It would be cool to have an ATV track (for the racing circuit, in addition to regular trails) that could double as a snowmobile race track in the winter. Up front infrastructure costs would be low. On going maintenance cost would be even lower. Liability insurance would be the tough piece, financially speaking.

Perhaps KEDA could help subsidize this expense for a few years to see if it takes off. It sounds more promising than focusing their efforts and money on changing a name of a silly winter festival. This could mean real money flowing in, year round.

There is a small town in southern Minnesota called Mazeppa...about 90 minutes from Minneapolis. Ask any snowmobiler, motocrosser, or ATV rider and they'll tell you they have heard of it.

After all, what does the Falls have to offer? Lots of open land, hotel rooms, and bars. I am not a market research analyst, but something tells me those attributes align nicely with your average motorsports rider/fan.

It seems like many people

theref — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:59:50 -0500

It seems like many people around the borderland still like to ride their ATV's so I think you'd be in the minority to call them more annoying than mosquitos. Apparently you must not spend much time up north because those little suckers are quite a pain in the place the sun doesn't shine. As for every lot having a mansion on Rainy Lake, HA. VNP will never let it happen. They've already booted everyone out of their cabins (or at least most people), do not allow personal watercraft, and are not as friendly with snowmobilers as they use to be. Next they will drop boats and pretty soon people will only be able to walk through or view from an airplane. We are trying to engage people in our area and I think an ATV park would speak to many and could also be used longer than the 3 months we call summer.

I have relatives that go to

kay — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:32:19 -0500

I have relatives that go to Becker county also. That county may have some good ideas and contacting them may help. Every sport has the possibilty of accidents. You can bike, water ski, boating etc and something could happen. It is not a reason to not get more information on such a project.

When you build an ATV Park

Thomas L. Johnson — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:35:12 -0500

When you build an ATV Park you always want to put it near a first-class hospital as it presents a rather unique opportunity to harvest young, healthy organs. Seriously [I say this so I won't shar paradox's fate], I do think that the failure of Clark's Park and the popularity of the very small park {Finstad's] on Sand Bay in Ranier demonstrates the need for a lakeside camping area. Without ATV's, slightly more irritating than mosquitoes. I know there are plans for that at the Americ-Inn but the River above the dam has issues. The real tragedy is that you have to get into a boat to do any camping in our National Park. I know that is its distinctive, but imagine what would happen to Yosemite if you had to drag a boat behind your RV just to be able to spend a night in the wild. On the other hand, I suspect someone would do it if it were profitable. There is still underutilized land at places like S. Jackfish. The day is rapidly coming when every lot on Rainy will have a million dollar McMansion sitting on it so this is an important topic.

We travel out of town to ATV

Ems Mom — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:19:39 -0500

We travel out of town to ATV parks, mostly in Becker County, which has great trails with many different terrains. It would be great to have one in Kooch County. Perhaps someone should talk to them about how they set it up. They use snowmobile trails and have many maps available.
Even though we camp on private property located near the trails, we spend a lot of money on other stuff. Ice Cracking Lodge was our business of choice this year for beverages and eating out, the service was great. The local muni sees some of our dollars, the grocery store, gas stations, Walmart is always hit for something that someone forgot, this year we had to buy a new tire at the local sports shop...the list goes on.

F.W. please put the report

gopher61 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:54:16 -0500

F.W. please put the report on clarks park where you would normally print the out-dated district court report.. thx!

Great. Thank you

kay — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:51:44 -0500

Great. Thank you

Would an ATV park in Borderland be viable?

Laurel Beager — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:39:01 -0500

Koochiching County has large amounts of public land in remote areas. Many of these areas include old logging roads and paths.