Hamm’s Beer Canoe Has New Home

Many of you remember the Hamm’s Beer Commercials with Sascha the Bear and trainer Earl Hammond. What you may not know is that many of the commercials were filmed at the end of the Gunflint Trail. The one below shows Earl and Sascha motoring around the bay of Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center in the big red canoe.

This canoe was used in other commercials with the bear and then it hung in the lodge at Chik-Wauk until the owners “agreement” was up. Ralph and Bea Griffis sold out to the USFS like many of the big resorts and outfitters did but they made an arrangement with the USFS to be able to use the building as a cabin until the year 2000.

When it was time for the Griffis to leave Chik-Wauk they had to get rid of some of their stuff since they had permanent residence in Texas and couldn’t bring everything with them.  They wanted to sell us the Hamm’s Beer Canoe and another canoe but we weren’t financially able to do so.  They ended up bringing it to Duluth and had plans to sell it either to Grandma’s Restaurant or at an auction or something but in the end they weren’t going to get as much money for the canoe as they wanted.

With the canoe sitting outside in someone’s yard in Superior, Wisconsin Ralph made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. We had to go pick up the canoe and give him a small amount of money and then we could be the new owners of the canoe.  We strapped it on our minivan and with wheels squatting we drove to the end of the Gunflint Trail.

We have proudly hung the canoe in our lodge since then but now the canoe has a new home.  It’s now resting at the Voyageur Brewing Company in Grand Marais, Minnesota. You are welcome to come visit it during our open hours and hope you do.