Not far from the twin cities in central Minnesota, you'll find the
Kuna Lakes recreation area.
When you see it now, on a sunny fall day,
it's almost impossible to believe that this is what
it looked like just a few decades ago.
The towns of Crosby, Ironton, Deerwood and
Kuna that make up the area, sit at the southernmost tip of the Iron Range.
And when mining died out, the town struggled to survive.
But as Julie and I found out the people who live there
took what the mines left behind and turned it into solid gold.
This might be the best way to see the
Kuna country state recreation area.
But the best way to experience it is with a buddy
on a bike.
This Minnesota state park just two hours north of the Twin Cities offers 70 miles
of award winning one way mountain bike trails
for everyone from newbies like Bell and me
to more thrill seeking
experienced riders
and we see more and more people who are saying I want to spend time outdoors.
I want to try this mountain bike thing, Eric Mo, head of the
Kuna Lakes mountain bike crew says the popularity
of the sport and this park is exploding.
It's just such a beautiful rich area to try it in, especially with the rich history.
We never forget that our current state is based on the history of mining
in the area. It's hard to believe. But 50 years ago, this is what the area looked like.
Situated at the southernmost tip of the iron Range in the fifties and sixties,
more than 30 mines operated here.
But by the late seventies, most of them had shut down,
forcing many businesses in the town surrounding them to do the same.
This is my hometown Aubrey Coup. The head of the Caya
Lakes Chamber of Commerce grew up in Crosby, the heart of the Caya
Lakes area through the nineties and into the mid 2000 s
there, there was not a lot of hope here.
And what would you say the percentage of stores
on main street that were boarded up were,
I'd say 30 to 40%
were unoccupied. We're falling into disrepair and the land around it.
Well, that's probably my least favorite part of the story. It became a dumping zone.
There was furniture, there were burnt out cars, but as the years passed,
the land started to heal and the people who live here decided to save it.
I can't even tell you about the pounds
and pounds of garbage that volunteers went into
and pulled out of these mine pits. It's really been
organic, grassroots all those things that you didn't know,
that's the way to build a town, but that's how it's happened.
Business owner Jonna Johnson ran the chamber
at the time and says that volunteer spirit
sparked a movement that really caught fire when a mountain biking scout came to town
and told them the topography created by the mines would make for world class trains.
Once again, volunteers paved the way,
building the first five miles of trails that connect the towns of Crosby, Ironton,
Kuna and Deerwood.
Lots and lots of work fundraising for the trail getting land acquisitions
every year with the help of the DNR and state and federal funding,
they built more trails and more people started discovering
Kuna.
I think when the trails opened,
there was like 24,000 people that we saw and that was huge.
And now I'm thinking it's 360,000 people. So that's a 10 year change.
Visitors are finding a lot of beauty outside of
trails as well,
including a network of pristine spring fed lakes and not just any lake.
There are 28 of these spring fed lakes that used to be mines. They are clear as a bell.
So perfect for kayaking paddling or scuba diving
and some of them are as deep as 500 ft.
It's going up like this. It's definitely there's no plateau
in sight.
All those visitors attracted the attention of entrepreneurs like Jake Zesch
who used to come to Crosby from Milwaukee to visit his in laws.
I saw downtown and I saw all these
other little businesses starting and kind of watching
them just boom in the first year that they opened up and then stay busy.
Two years ago, he and his wife decided to open a business of their own. They,
some of the last land available in Crosby and built four cabins that make up the
Kuna cabin collection which opened June 1st.
It has been phenomenal if there was two or three days open for the entire month,
that was a shock.
Isn't that crazy? I'm amazed.
It seems like every week there's something else opening in this area.
The main streets of these towns now filled with coffee shops,
bike shops and breweries.
A testament not just to the popularity of the sport and these trails,
but also to the people who live here. There's the Kuna
grit.
There were a lot of us that wanted to show off
what we had and had the vision and the drive.
I
love
it. You have to see it to believe it.
Come here. Give it a shot. There's something for everyone here to do.
One more cool thing to come out of this remarkable turnaround in
Kuna Lakes. They are now helping other mining towns like Chisholm do the same.
Chisholm by the way, opened 25 miles of mountain bike trail in 2020.
Great story.
It was so fun. We really truly love the people there
and it, and it doesn't shut down just because winter is coming. A lot of people. Fat
bike tire. Is that what you call it?
I don't,
obviously
fat tire bike up there.
Snowmobile, snowshoe, ice fish. There's tons of stuff.
And I assume that there's places you can rent bikes.
That's the first thing I thought of. When I saw people biking, a bunch
of bike stores have opened up.
We met actually a lot of women running these stores too. I have to say.
Um, and the kayaks to those clear kayaks were so super cool on a sunny day.
Um, because again, those lakes are really pristine,
they don't have houses around them and because they're
spring fed and they were the actual mines.
They're 3 4 500 ft deep
and they're stocked, there's trout. So a lot of people fish up there.
So, anyway, it's, it's a beautiful part of the state
that, uh, that we both found
it was really great. Yeah. A lot of people.