Where a family's dream met the wild beauty of the Canadian North
Back in 1987, my grandparents Helena and Viktor Vorn drove up to Thunder Bay with nothing but a beat-up truck and a wild notion that people would actually pay to freeze their butts off in the Canadian wilderness.
Everyone thought they'd lost it, honestly. Who builds a luxury resort where temperatures drop to minus forty? But Grandma Helena had this thing about winter - she'd grown up in northern Sweden and always said that folks had forgotten how magical proper cold can be. She wasn't talking about suffering through it, but actually living in it, celebrating it.
The first "hotel" was basically an oversized hunting cabin with four guest rooms and a wood stove that barely worked. Dad jokes that their first guests were either extremely adventurous or had made a terrible booking mistake. But something clicked. People came for a weekend and didn't want to leave.
We didn't build this place overnight, and that's kind of the point
Started with that four-room cabin. By '95, we'd added the main lodge and twelve more rooms. Viktor insisted on building everything to withstand brutal winters - some contractors laughed at his over-engineering. Turns out he knew what he was doing.
This's when we figured out we weren't just a hotel - we were creating experiences. Added the spa in '98 after Grandma kept saying "people need to warm up right after they freeze." She wasn't wrong. The hot-cold contrast became our signature thing.
My parents took over and expanded like crazy. New dining room, conference center, the whole nine yards. Some purists said we were selling out, but Dad was adamant - you can offer luxury and still respect the wilderness. Just takes more effort.
I took the reins in 2016, third generation running this place. We've gone hard on sustainability - geothermal heating, solar arrays, the works. Grandma Helena passed in 2019, but she got to see us become carbon-neutral. She'd be proud of what we're doing.
"The land was here first, and it'll be here after we're gone"
- Viktor Vorn
The whole sustainability thing isn't just for show
Look, I'll be straight with you - we're a luxury hotel in the middle of nowhere. That's not inherently eco-friendly. But we're doing everything we can to minimize our footprint because, honestly, if we wreck this landscape, we're wrecking the entire reason people come here.
We're not perfect, but we're trying. And we'll keep trying because Grandpa Viktor drilled it into all of us - the land was here first, and it'll be here after we're gone. Our job's just to be good guests while we're using it.
We're still very much a family operation, just bigger
Managing Director
Third generation, can't ski worth a damn but loves this place anyway
Executive Chef
Been with us 12 years, makes magic happen in the kitchen
Head Guide
Local Ojibwe, knows every inch of these woods better than anyone
We've got about 45 full-time staff and another 20 who come in during peak season. Some have been here since my parents' time - Margareta in housekeeping just hit 28 years with us. These folks aren't just employees, they're the reason this place actually works.
Everyone here genuinely loves winter. That's actually part of our hiring process - if you're counting down the days until spring, this probably isn't the job for you. We need people who get excited when the first snow falls, who understand that minus thirty isn't a punishment, it's an opportunity.
It's the stories, honestly
We've had couples get engaged under the northern lights, kids see real snow for the first time, corporate groups who actually started liking each other after a day of winter survival training. One guy comes every January for two weeks - been doing it for 19 years straight. Just him, his books, and the quiet.
There's this thing that happens when people slow down enough to actually experience winter instead of just enduring it. They start noticing stuff - how the snow sounds different at different temperatures, how the light changes throughout the day, how good it feels to warm up by a fire after being outside.
That's what Grandma Helena saw from the beginning. Winter's not the enemy. It's just misunderstood. Our job is to help people understand it, respect it, maybe even fall in love with it a little.
We don't do this for the trophies, but they're nice validation
Excellence in Sustainable Tourism 2022
Best Winter Resort Canada 2021, 2023
5 Key Certification Since 2019
Travelers' Choice 2020-2024