fishermen, trappers, and traders. As commercial The is fishing declined over the years, tourists became preparing a plan for the Kettle Falls the hotel’s primary patrons. area of Today, the Kettle Falls Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places and remains a popular destination for tourists in Voyageurs Voyageurs NP Background National Park with its several docks, scenic trails, and lodging options. The historic Kettle Falls Hotel Voyageurs National Park encompasses 218,054 and adjacent villas operate from late May through acres of land and water along the Canadian border mid-September, and are the only lodging available in northern . The park was established in in Voyageurs National Park. Some features of the 1975 with a mission to preserve, protect, and Kettle Falls area do not meet universal accessibility enhance resources in the Rainy, Kabetogama, standards and some structures in the area are in Namakan, and Sand Point Lakes areas. need of improvements. Voyageurs is a water-based park. The main body of land within the park’s boundary, the Kabetogama Peninsula, is only accessible by boat, seaplane, or snowmobile. Kettle Falls Background Kettle Falls is located at the end of the Kabetogama Peninsula. The area has been used by various peoples throughout history. Native Americans once gathered and hunted at the falls, voyageurs paddled and portaged through the area with their goods and furs, and prospectors stopped at the falls on their way to gold mines at .

Map of Kettle Falls area. Credit: NPS

Plan Purpose The purpose of the Kettle Falls Site Development Plan is to enhance the visitor and employee experience in the Kettle Falls area. The plan will consider a range of employee housing options and overnight opportunities for visitors, as well as improvements to recreational amenities and day- use areas, landscaping, accessibility, and wayfinding. Other issues to be taken into consideration in this plan include access for boats, The Kettle Falls Hotel. Credit: NPS. houseboats, and seaplanes. Once the site The Kettle Falls Hotel was built during the 1910s development plan is complete, the compliance soon after construction on the dams at Kettle Falls phase of the project will begin in which an began. The hotel initially served those who worked environmental assessment will be prepared. on the dam, followed by lumberjacks, commercial

February 2020 Timeline and Progress National Park Service (NPS) held public outreach events on November 5 and 6, 2019 and received comments online in order to gauge public sentiment about preliminary ideas and concepts for Kettle Falls. A few of those ideas included additional concession staff housing, identifying areas and concepts for additional overnight uses, day use activity areas, and other ideas. Feedback was mostly favorable for those concepts, with a couple comments expressing concern for resources. The public and stakeholders are encouraged to keep up with the progress of this project at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/kettlefalls. During the next step of the project, the NPS will begin drafting the site development plan and environmental assessment for additional stakeholder and public review and comment. The estimated timeline for this project is shown below with the red star indicating approximately where we are now in the process and the next steps.

October 2018 January 2020 – – December July 2020 2019 NEPA/Compliance Planning Phase Phase Oct 2018 – Jun – Sep Sep – Dec Jan – Apr 2020 Apr – Jun 2020 Jul 2020 Jun 2019 2019 2019 NPS research Outline and Review of Plan Public review and Decision and develop a preliminary preliminary development comment of plan (FONSI preliminary concepts concepts and and draft and assumed) alternative development civic Environmental Environmental engagement Assessment Assessment

Planning Team Contact Information An inter-divisional team that includes Stay in touch with the park, check for updates, representatives at Voyageurs National Park, the public meeting notices, or get other information on NPS Region 3, 4, 5 Office, Denver Service the park’s website at: https://www.nps.gov/voya/ Center, and the Washington D.C. Area Support and search for Kettle Falls. Office meets regularly to share information and You may also contact Leigh Johnson, project discuss goals and objectives as they work manager for the site development plan, at towards developing a site development plan for [email protected] or contact Bob DeGross, the Kettle Falls area. Voyageurs superintendent, at [email protected]. Learn more and connect with Voyageurs National Park: /VoyageursNPS/

/voyageursnps

February 2020