Courtesy Bay Mills Resort & Casinos
The marina at Bay Mills Resort & Casinos in Bay Mills, Michigan.
Courtesy Lengendary Waters
The Lakeside outdoor dining patio at Legendary Waters in Red Cliff, Wisconsin.
“It’s so beautiful around here. It’s just a million-dollar site,” Steven Standing Cloud says. “It’s really awesome.”
As general manager of a tribal casino in northern Minnesota, you might think Steven connects a “million-
Courtesy Bay Mills Resort Casinos
The RV Park at Bay Mills.
dollar site” to the 450-slot machines and gaming tables inside a new addition on the Grand Portage Lodge & Casino complex, but Steven is describing the view of Lake Superior outside the lodge windows.
Indeed, the resort complex, which just completed the
Bob Berg / Lake Superior Magazine
One of the Lakeside cabins for rent at Hollow Rock Resort, part of the Grand Portage Lodge & Casino options at Grand Portage, Minnesota.
second phase of a three-part renovation, sits on some of the area’s most stunning lakeshore real estate. It links to hundreds of miles of hiking or snowmobile trails, offers a marina and ferry-service connection to Isle Royale and is within a long stroll to a national park and a short drive to the highest waterfall in the state.
Bob Berg / Lake Superior Magazine
At Grand Portage Lodge & Casino, you can choose your style of overnight stay. The Hollow Rock Resort cabins feature north woods luxury with full kitchens and great views.
While the history of U.S. casinos focuses on a desert location that needed slot machines to attract visitors, gaming in the Big Lake region grew on sites attractive before the first slot machine was plugged in.
What gaming did bring to these shores were opportunities – first for the local communities and increasingly for those who want comfortable lodging,
Bob Berg / Lake Superior Magazine
The newly remodeled hotel offers classy rooms and suites.
outdoor recreation and national-quality entertainment while traveling.
The blossoming of amenities mean that casino resorts may make the best choice and perhaps the best buy even for travelers without an interest in slots or table games.
The new remodeling and refocusing for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe casino resort epitomizes the industry growth.
That casino’s impact since opening in the late 1980s has been “huge, huge,” emphasizes Tribal Chairman Norman Deschampe, pointing to 250 employees and
Courtesy Legendary Waters
The Lake is the draw at Legendary Waters, from hotel room balconies to the waterfront dining to the Lakeside camping.
local spending for supplies and services plus charity donations.
The tribe had already entered into the hospitality market; on the site before the casino was a major hotel.
Now, along with a hotel with many Lake-view rooms, one finds a restaurant, café, lounge, an under renovation entertainment/convention area, a convenience store/gas station (which has a smoke-free slot space), a new gift store and the expanded gaming floor in the main building.
Entering the remodeled main building, the gaming floor to the left may briefly attract attention, but the view to the right is the show stopper and main focal point.
Gesturing out the floor-to-ceiling windows of the sitting area beside a locally constructed stone fireplace, Steven recommends trying the shoreside trails just out the door. Later, he takes us to a secluded set of cabins right on the water for rent at Hollow Rock Resort, purchased by the tribe 15 years ago and since renovated.
Through national and state partnerships, the tribe is involved in Grand Portage National Monument and Grand Portage State Park. All of which makes the casino resort a travel destination and a great base camp for enjoying the area, including Grand Marais about 35 minutes away.
Becoming such a base is the goal of many casino resort complexes.
This certainly holds true at another shoreside destination location that grew from the first tribal casino on Lake Superior, which is also the first one in the U.S. The tiny King Club Casino, owned by the Bay Mills Indian Community on the eastern shore, opened in 1984 as Bay Mills Blackjack Casino and still operates.
The income seeded the newer, much bigger casino resort down the road. It also seeded a stunning 18-hole golf course with Lake views that rival any scenic overlook, a small marina, a multi-service RV park and a restaurant known for a Friday night crab-and-prime-rib buffet, and there’s a hotel with 142 rooms to choose.
The golf course has made Bay Mills stand out, agrees David Shubinski, who directed marketing. It’s hosted a Canadian Open Tournament, at which golf phenom Michelle Wie played against men for the first time. There’s a golf pro onsite to teach, and the course itself really is a beautiful walk whether or not you’re chasing a little white ball.
“We save the best for last,” David says. “The 18th hole is high up on the top of the hill.” That vista of Lake Superior can feature a passing freighter.
Most casino complexes have certain amenities that stand out.
At Black Bear Casino Resort, owned by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Carlton, Minnesota, the food is well known. It offers pleasant options at its buffet, but its Seven Fires Steakhouse gets particularly high ratings for, what else, perfectly prepared prime rib and steaks. The 408-room onsite hotel with a swimming pool and arcade has become a popular venue for local birthday parties and gatherings. The band also owns Fond du Luth Casino in downtown Duluth, which partners for gaming packages with local hotels and has established charitable giving throughout the year, as do all regional casinos.
The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians operates five casinos around the Upper Peninsula and offers lodging that ranges from a campground and cabin in Hessel to a 319-room hotel in Sault Ste. Marie. Along with Hessel and the Sault, it operates in St. Ignace, Manistique and Christmas.
A major community asset in the Sault at the Kewadin Casino, Hotel and Convention Center is the spectacular 1,500-seat DreamMakers Theatre. It’s hosted national musical acts like Loretta Lynn, KISS and Ray Charles, even luring Wayne Newton away from Las Vegas for a concert. Its great acoustic qualities enhance plays and other stage performances, too.
For Legendary Waters Resort & Casino, the complex owned by the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Wisconsin, the Lake itself is its biggest asset. Everything here revolves around the Lake.
The hotel offers 47 rooms, says former manager Wendy Young. “Each room has a view of Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands.” The premier suite is like a one-bedroom apartment, she adds, with its own “gorgeous balcony.” Even the hotel’s small fitness center has windows to the Lake.
The gaming space, with 240 slots, table games and a lounge, is unique in that it has windows, too. The lounge’s floor-to-ceiling windows look onto the Lake and Basswood Island.
Just like at Bay Mills, guests can arrive by water. Legendary Waters has a marina with 12 transient and 40 seasonal slips. Last year a handful of seaplanes also pulled up. The complex includes tent and RV sites, kayak and boat launching and a free shuttle to Bayfield or the Big Top Chautauqua.
“In the summertime, I can tell you that we are a resort,” Wendy says. “People come here for family reunions. We have lots of weddings. They may not be that interested in gaming; it is the resort atmosphere.”
Rooms at many casino resorts often are good deals for overnight stays, especially for waterfront hotels. This summer, the least expensive hillside room at Grand Portage Lodge runs $105 a night. The “queen deluxe” two-bed room at Legendary Waters (the smallest available) runs $155 and at Bay Mills, the lowest weekday rate is the Tuesday special at $69.
In Ontario, casinos by Lake Superior don’t feature lodging, but visitors who gamble help to fund local and provincial government.
OLG, a provincial agency, oversees the casinos in Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie and continues that role even as a private British Columbia management company, Gateway Entertainment, took over the day-to-day operations locally in May.
The casinos give a portion of earnings to the municipalities: $26+ million for Sault Ste. Marie since its casino opened in 1999 and $40+ million for Thunder Bay since opening in 2000.
During that same time, employees have earned $250+ million in wages and benefits in the Sault and $260+ million in Thunder Bay.
“People say all the money leaves the community when you gamble,” says Tony Bitoni with OLG, “but it really does not.”
As these gaming operations continue to mature, the community benefit and hospitality opportunities do indeed seem to be a sure bet.
