This used to be a pretty busy place.

It's abnormally quiet today, yesterday, and probably for some days to come.

At one point, this crossing north of Grand Portage into Canada from Minnesota was one of the busiest crossings in all of those border crossings across the state of Minnesota.

But not so much anymore.

In fact, the US Department of Transportation's Transportation Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2025, border crossings here were down 36%.

So far this year, on January through May, figures the latest available for 2026 down 25%.

What does that mean?

The Canadians aren't coming.

What does that mean for businesses from here down the Northshore all the way to Duth?

A lack of Canadian business, a prime part of the tourist season, and it's just not there.

It wasn't there last year and it wasn't here now.

And what is the cause of that?

That's what we'll find out on in business.

A recent study done by the 9th Federal Reserve out of Minneapolis found that in July survey showed that 40% of businesses said that primarily their profits were down and their revenue was down.

And one of the three reasons listed, the lack of Canadians crossing the border.

That's our topic tonight on In Business from the Border.

Welcome to In Business.

I'm Ken Ber.

This week, we're heading up the Northshore to look at tourism and the business community.

We're starting less than a mile from the Canadian border at a store that many travelers make their first or last stop in Minnesota.

Let's take a visit.

We just pulled into the parking lot at Ryden's Border Store.

The border to Canada is a half mile in that direction.

Glory Boomer, Sam by uh choice is uh our guest.

She is a third generation owner of Ryden's border crossing store and we're on in business.

We're talking about the effect of Canadian tourism, wildfires, and what business has been like on the Northshore this summer.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

Show us inside.

Come on in.

Ryden's carries just about everything.

We do.

So, everybody wants what they can have.

So, we sell a lot of American candy to Canadians and then we sell Canadian candy.

Um, like Heartbeat Hot Sauce is made in Thunder Bay.

We have the local made syrup, the jam.

And what else is uh popular with uh people stopping at the border on one way or the other?

Well, of course, um t-shirts, sweatshirts, always a good seller.

We have a good fun little toy selection.

All the good little chachkis of course you know the name dropped shot glasses and cups and stuff.

And obviously clothes are a large part of our business for they also most of the the stuff says Canada.

So mostly like the fishermen and the tourist lakes pier circle tour people.

They need to get something at each stop along the way.

Correct.

That's what I hope.

You were telling me that back in the day when uh Canada still had blue laws on Sunday that this place was hopping.

There's a bar out in front.

Yeah.

Actually used to be a third bar here.

This was all we had two pool tables, all tables and chairs.

And this place would rock on Sundays because Canadians would come across.

This was at the old border.

And you know, the highway moved in 1963, but at the old border.

And then here too, we also had on sale for the Canadians.

Some of the things that you do here though are impacted by Canadian tourists.

And what we know is for the last couple of years, border crossings going south into the United States or into northern Minnesota in this particular case at the Grand Portage crossing, those numbers have been down anywhere from 25 to 26. and even uh in the first year some 36%.

How has that affected your business?

So for sure since co it's been a tough go.

Um well during CO obviously the border was closed so we only had people that were going to the state park so business was as well as everybody else's decimated really and then so then people learned new habits.

Maybe they shop other places and the Canadian dollar is quite low too.

That's a big part of it.

And then the tariff thing came.

And to be honest, like a lot of these parcels, I don't think the tariff is really affecting.

We've never heard anybody complain, but it's the fear of the unknown.

They hear tariffs and they think, "Oh, I can't order that.

It's going to cost too much."

Explain how that works.

Now, you're a parcel delivery place for people who live in Canada.

How does that um so Canadians order things, shop online, get them shipped here because it's quicker and faster.

They clear duty customs themselves.

doesn't have if because if they get it shipped to Canada, it has to clear customs in Toronto or Winnipeg.

So that's a time delay.

And then so we have this room, we have another back room, we have two garages, we have two forklifts.

So we take everything.

So FedEx comes here all the time.

Every day.

FedEx, UPS mail, freight every day of the week.

And um and you charge a fee for that.

We do.

We charge a little holding fee.

And yeah, it's worth it for them and it's worth it for us.

Tell me what you've done to address this situation.

Be it whether the lack of tourists, um the tariffs, what have you done to your business to help it survive?

Well, we just keep plugging along to be honest because there's always does seem to be some traffic and then word of mouth, too.

So when the you know like the bad news came out then some people went to the cities or whatever came home everything was fine and then that spreads and so then more people start to come and that's kind of what we hope for.

Lori Boomer is the owner of Ryden's border crossing store here a half a mile from Canada and we're talking about the different situations that are affecting business along the northshore on in business.

Uh they call her Sam.

So Sam tell me a little bit did you have any effect from the fires recently?

So June started off great.

We are actually up.

So the beginning of July, I'm like, here we go.

We're going to gain some ground.

Started off good.

And then the fires hit.

And then so now we've been down.

We were down a little bit in July.

Actually, not as much as I thought, but we were still down.

And now here we are in August.

Still down a little bit, but I'm still hoping for a good uh September.

Fall colors are always good along the door, so that does bring some people out.

How much of this is political with your customers from Canada telling you, "I've just decided not to come to America."

Unfortunately, a lot of it is.

And again, we just try to get the word out there that we're it's just another day here.

Come on down.

But I get it.

You got to be patriotic and they're bitter.

So, I'm hoping that gets better.

Lori Boomer is the owner of Ryden's Border Crossing Store.

This is In Business.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Thank you very much, Ken.

Appreciate it.

From the border, we're heading further down the shore.

We spoke with the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chipoa to see how tourism has been this summer and what they're seeing in their community.

There probably isn't a more beautiful destination location on the northshore of Lake Superior than where we are right now.

This is Grand Portage Bay, Grand Portage Island, and we are on the Grand Portage Reservation.

Our guest is April McCormack.

She is the secretary treasurer of the Grand Portage Tribal Council and we are at the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino for in business and obviously as a destination along the Northshore.

How has the summer been going?

You know, we were really excited to start our summer out with a bang and really get going.

We were predominantly affected by the smoke that occurred.

It was very darkening to the sky and a lot of vulnerable adults and children were affected by the smoke.

And so we actually as a tribal government deployed um emergency management response and through our programs and were able to serve a lot of elders with um checking in with them, making sure they had masks if needed, air purifiers.

So you said the season started out with promise and uh the fires kind of changed that a little bit.

How badly did that affect and um was there any lingering effect?

Sure.

We experienced um a 20% decline.

A majority of our patronage is from Canada almost 70 to 80%.

And so we rely on our Canadian neighbors um to support our our economy here.

And uh what we found is that uh at the beginning of the year we were tracking to be up 10% year-over-year.

And so we really experienced a decline that we were not anticipating.

And usually July is the height of our summer, you know, the the best part of the season.

So to have the impacts uh for tourism uh was really significant on us.

um we experienced about 250 uh hotel reservations being cancelled within that just that week.

And so what we did was we had found out that um some of the Canadian First Nations nations that were impacted by other fires were having to uh evacuate to Thunder Bay and there was actually a a lodging shortage.

So, we opened our hotel up and advertised that they could come down and stay with us.

We have the fall coming up, which is fall colors, and that's a whole another season.

What's your outlook for that?

Well, we're always thrilled to see the leaves change.

They're so brilliant.

Actually, in the ridge behind me, um there's many maples that turn and a lot of birch and so we'll see it blaze orange and yellow.

And um it's such a thrill to see the leaves be able to turn color.

And most people get excited about being outdoors hunting or uh exploring.

And we have a lot of trails here, uh miles and miles of trails.

And so the indicator of the fall season usually is people prepping for those winter trails and snowmmoiling or experiencing the outdoors in winter.

Um so we're we're a destination for those who want to take uh photography of our our maple sugar bushes and those those beautiful places.

That is kind of the draw of the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino is that you're in such a magnificent place and you do have year- round attractions.

As you mentioned, there was snowmmoiling ahead of us.

There's the fall colors.

Uh but the summer really is the heart and soul, if you will, of the season.

Um looking forward to next year.

Obviously, we hope there's no fires.

How important is the summer to the business in general?

Well, the summer usually indicates our highest number of visitors all the way through to our um largest event which is our Ronvu days pow and second weekend in August and so really a lot of our economy is tourism based um so you have to want to come here and experience this beautiful place stay with us um we have other um revenue resources our trading post which is a convenience store but really our our convenience store and our our lodge, our our e our economic engine for our casino.

Where does this all support?

What does it go to?

Our revenues from our uh local economy generate um enough for operations here and and we also find that healthc care and education are like the top two expenses for our tribe.

And so a lot of the uh revenue that's being generated here go to direct services uh for young people and adults attaining their education and also for anyone who's who's receiving health care.

So it really is a critical um revenue resource for us.

And um I find that it often supports our uh tribal government and and how we uh manage and serve uh our community uh through programs that are otherwise u not funded by grants.

April McCormack is the secretary treasurer for the Grand Portage Tribal Council here in Grand Portage.

We're visiting with her at the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino, a destination on the Northshore affected by both a drop in tourism from Canada, more importantly from the recent wildfires, but the fall season is coming up and you're optimistic.

I am.

Thank you.

Thank you for being a guest on in business.

Migwitch, thank you.

Tourism doesn't just affect individual attractions.

It can have an impact on businesses across an entire community.

We spoke with a local chamber of commerce to find out how the business community is doing this summer.

We could call this conversations on the shore.

In business is in Grand Marray.

We're talking to Linda Jurik.

Linda is the executive director of Visit Cook County and a co-executive director of the Cook County Chamber of Commerce.

Linda, thank you for being on In Business.

Thank you for having me.

We've been talking about how this summer has shaped up from tourism.

We're now towards the end of the season uh before the fall colors bring a second wave of tourists.

But this has been a little bit problematic with first of all the decline in tourism from visitors out of Canada.

We were we were seeing our coming back from our visitors after the COVID era and we were just getting there um when a lot of the tariffs went into place.

As a destination marketer and welcoming of our Canadian visitors at all times, we do stay out of the political fray and we stay with inviting them down all the time.

We are one of those pathways to get into the United States.

So, and in the meantime, have you changed some of your destination marketing to look at other markets uh besides just north of the border and I would say that um really honing in our major market is the metropolitan area of course of Minneapolis St.

Paul, but we as marketers have looked at growth market campaigns and those areas consist of North Dakota, South Dakota, De Moines, Iowa, Milwaukee, um some of the suburbs of Chicago and of course Winnipeg and Thunder Bay.

So outside of uh what happens at a national level or within a medical level with COVID, we look at those areas as um we're a drive- to destination.

You know, we could be a tank away or two tanks away and you can get here to the beautiful Northshore.

This summer also uh had some uh issues with the wildfires.

How did you react to that?

How did that affect us?

I you know, it was pretty crazy.

Um, I'm, you know, being in the media and being a business and community leader, I'm going to have to say I walked out of a meeting that Tuesday after the 4th of July and I have never experienced ash falling and I know lots of people go through this and you know we had three or four days where it was really unbearable and you know I like literally got a mask myself but we quickly pivoted.

We have on our website six webcams two focused on this harbor.

So, we um being innovative and bold and quick to move, we changed all our embarking to said to say, "Go look at our webcams.

You're not going to experience ash.

You're not going to experience smoke.

The fire is very far away from the shores of Lake Superior."

Now, that said, it doesn't negate the fact that the Boundary Waters was closed and many of our travel and tourism partners in the outfitting area um really suffered greatly.

We pivoted quick.

We did a big survey um which really capitalized and expressed and showed the economic impact for our businesses.

We also held a listening session um with our state leaders.

Um this was kind of chamber side and tourism side and uh we had everybody here that you know Grant Hoschild, Senator Hoschild, Representative Scraba, uh representatives from Kolbashar and Stabber's office came and we were able to show some really concrete data on what we needed um to hopefully get a special session to fill that gap.

That didn't happen, but uh there's the regular session coming up.

Will you be looking for some sort of relief in the next session?

I would say um yes, we would try and find some relief.

I think more importantly, it's a bigger problem.

Even those few businesses, there were six that held um business impact insurance, but the fire had to be one mile from their doorstep.

As we all know, the Little Knife Fire was not one mile.

Now, the data that we collected here, I worked with partners in Lake County and St.

Lewis County to collect the same like data so we could show in true comparison and and give true value to what that impact did to our businesses.

Before we talk about the fall season, let's just uh backtrack a little bit to summer.

Some of the numbers that you've collected uh over the season u indicating how tourism has been here in Cook County and along the Northshore.

What are some of those?

Well, I would say as you're here, um, we always have felt the impact of the Minnesota State Fair and this is definitely a very, very quiet Monday in Grand Marray and along the shore because a lot of people take this time to go down and celebrate our state at the state fair.

Our impact was really felt during those week or two weeks of um, really a media storm.

And, you know, I get it.

Sensationalizing fire, sensationalizing ash.

Um we we did as much as we could to fight that story.

Um and we're seeing we're seeing that the numbers are not going to be as bad as what we expected them to be for the month of July.

Um and then of course as we look toward fall, our biggest month being a destination marketing organization, we're like many others in that we collect a lodging tax or a bed tax.

And September is our biggest month.

So all is not lost when you look at for when you look forward to September.

We're claiming ourselves uh Minnesota's fall color capital and we're just gonna make that our bragging right whether it's true or not.

We are Minnesota's fall color capital.

Don't argue with it.

If it works, it works.

And I don't know why you wouldn't be the capital.

I could see a nice little building up on the hill with that capital look to it and then the sign out in the front, capital fall color.

Minnesota fall capital.

It changes with our elevation.

Yeah.

Um we have lots of seasons of fall color.

Linda Jurig is our guest and this is in business.

Thank you for being on Thank you so much.

Good to see you.

Next, we take a look at one of the Northshore's most iconic gift shops.

Our guest is Eric Humphrey.

He is co-owner of the Lake Spirit Trading Post and we're here on In business to talk about tourism on the Northshore and you've got a great perspective on that.

Tell me the history of this building.

Well, this building is the second building.

The first building was built by brothers John and Ed Byron in 1971. and my uh family got involved in 1973 along with a couple other investors um when I was a we lad and then now this building itself is its second iteration as we had a fire in 1988 and rebuilt with this building.

You've been here 20 years in your co-ownership position.

So in those two decades, how has tourism changed in Grand Maran on the Northshore?

Yeah, and that's just two decades of continuous.

Before then I was here off and on.

you know, it's grown a lot.

Um, summer, fall, winter, it's all spring, it's all gotten busier.

Um, it's really, uh, much more, I guess, sustainable.

Before it was just, uh, two or three months and then it was over and now it extends well into the fall and starts a little earlier in the spring.

Well, let's talk about this summer and some of the disruptions that uh, unfortunately occurred all along the Northshore, not just in Grammaray.

And one of them is a continuing uh decline in Canadian visitors.

How has that affected your business?

Yeah, we really miss uh seeing as many Canadians as we're used to a couple years ago.

Uh you know, the real decline started maybe a year and a half ago and uh this time of year it's it's tougher to see because it is so busy, but in the winter time it really is noticeable and we we sure hope they come back soon and and we're hopeful that that happens.

We had talked to uh Linda Jerich from the chamber and she said that they've changed some of their marketing to make up for that.

Have you seen some of that working to bring in places like Fargo or um Winnipeg?

Well, maybe even down as far as south of Chicago.

Uh yeah, it's been a strong summer outside of a little little hiccup there, but uh yeah, it's been a very strong summer.

So, we're fortunate we have a strong voice and people that are marketing for us.

Let's talk about that little hiccup.

Uh July, one would say peak of the summer tourist season and um if you followed some of the media, you would think that this was on fire and it really wasn't, but there was some smoke and there was a definite lack of people.

How did you react to that?

Yeah, it was it was shocking to come on so quickly and it was tough.

And you know, business was down a fair fair amount, maybe a third, slightly more, but certainly not as much as some of the outfitters who took a real hit.

I mean, some of them were closed.

Yeah.

And that's the difference when they closed the boundary waters.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But, uh, you know, once the smoke cleared, you know, even when even when it was smoky, there were some people are still coming and we were very thankful for that.

Uh, it was still a great place to recreate.

Uh, but then the smoke cleared pretty quickly.

So, you know, after about 9 10 days, it was quite a bit better and back to normal.

People came right back.

And is that going to continue, you think, through what is obviously the second season all along the Northshore, which is the beautiful fall colors.

What are you thinking about for fall colors and winter?

Yeah, I am very optimistic.

Um, I think you have to be optimistic, but I think it's a it's a it's the reality up here is that it will be a strong fall.

It will be a good winter.

And uh I think with the rain that we've had recently, it should be a great fall color season.

Eric Humphrey is the co-owner of the Lake Superior Trading Post and we're on In Business in downtown Grand Marray.

This week on In Business, we took a road trip up the northshore of Lake Superior to check on the summer tourist season.

It showed mixed results.

There were positives in the continued recovery from CO and negatives due to the fires that closed the Boundary Waters and the perception elsewhere that the flames were on the doorstep.

The other troubling trend was the continued decline in guest visitors coming down from Canada.

That is a nationwide occurrence all along the border with our neighbor to the north and that includes Duth.

There's a possible solution and we find it on this week's edition of business bygones.

It's difficult to imagine Duth without the tourists.

Canal Park, Lincoln Park, Craft District, the destination locations.

We have great attractions like the deck, Spear Mountain, the Northshore Scenic Railroad, and the Great Lakes Aquarium.

All because of tourism.

But it wasn't always that way.

Canal Park was dominated by a scrapyard.

Lincoln Park was the West End furniture stores, and the only real tourist attraction was the Skyline Parkway built over a hundred years ago.

Instrumental in changing that and creating today's modern and welcoming tourism industry were the Gold Fines.

The business started with Fanny and Abe at the old trading post.

Their sons, Irwin and Manley, took the family business to the next level.

Irwin Goldfin was the older of the two.

He went by the name Irv.

His younger brother, Manley, was often referred to as Monty or Monty.

Later, they would be known as Easy Mark Monty and Soft Touch Irv when they opened one of the nation's first big box discount stores, Golds by the Bridge.

Of course, the Goldfines were tourist pioneers, first as part owners and then owners of the Vista Fleet cruise boats, taking guests on the water to see the big ships from around the world.

The family owned hotels and were interested in adding attractions.

They were instrumental in the development of the Arena Auditorium, now the DAC, Spirit Mountain, the expansion of the Northshore Scenic Railroad, and a force behind the Great Lakes Aquarium.

One of their early premier properties before it became the Edgewater Park and Resort was the Edgewater Hotel on London Road.

The Edgewater Hotel was the first lodging property in the city that greeted tourists coming down the Northshore like from Canada.

John Goldfine remembers what the company did to make sure that more Canadians were coming to Duth and staying at the Edgewater.

Well, we always had Canadian part.

Now admittedly the spread, you know, on the dollar to the Canadian dollar was between 10 and 20%.

Today it's almost 40%.

And that's, you know, a big number, but it could still be discounted.

That meant a Canadian dollar was on par with the American dollar, whatever the exchange rate, which was usually lower.

John remembers special promotions for Canadians coming down for healthcare and making sure our Northshore neighbors were made to feel very welcome and able to take back something with them when they left.

One of the things that you did besides uh the family did besides offering uh Canadian money at par.

A dollar in Canada is worth a dollar in America, you also did a lot to attract Canadians with special events.

Well, and you know, we did have parties for them.

And you got to remember the liquor store down the street, which was in this parking lot at that time.

And they did have discounts for the Canadians, and they did buy a lot of US booze in those days.

You know, who am I to say?

Of course, there were many others along with the Goldfines who saw the future of tourism here in Duth and Superior.

But they were the first to see the potential for welcoming Canadians as part of the mix.

It's unfortunate that that welcoming feeling is not felt the way it used to be north of the border, but that'll change.

All of the businesses and tourism leaders that we spoke to on our road trip and here in the Twin Ports said they were continuing to work very hard to make sure every guest from the north feels as welcome and appreciated as they always have been.

I'm Ken Ber.

Thanks for watching In Business.

If you missed any parts of tonight's show, you can always watch it at pbsnorth.org or listen on Mondays at 5:30 on the north 1033.

Thanks again for watching and until next time, let's take care of each other.