Lake Superior and inland lakes here in the Arrowhead Region are beautiful and amazing places to camp, hike, fish, and canoe, but they are also dangerous, as a party of canoeists were reminded on May 18. That Saturday, a group of five people were in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), when four of their party went over Curtain Falls on the Minnesota-Ontario border, about 20 miles north of Ely. Erik Grams, 43, of Ham Lake, was unharmed, but Kyle Sellers, 47, of Ham Lake, was airlifted to a Duluth hospital with serious injuries, and two others, Jesse Haugen, 41, of Cambridge and 40-year-old Reis Grams of Lino Lakes, went missing and have yet to be found.
St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office and Rescue Squad responded to the incident, and search efforts were continuing on Monday, May 20, amid “poor weather and difficult water conditions”, according to a report by MPR News. Searchers have been utilizing drones and remote-operated vehicles to aid them.
“High water, rapid current. The falls progress down about 30 feet. It’s not a straight drop, but they move down between Crooked Lake and Iron Lake and they trickle down with a lot of fast-moving water,” St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office Division Commander Nate Skelton said in an interview with MPR. Skelton shared about the party to which Haugen and Grams, the missing individuals, belong. “They’ve been in there before. They’re familiar with the area. Four of them were basically anchored at the top of the falls fishing, which they’ve done in the past, and it sounds like one of them may have had an issue and the other one went to try to give some assistance, and both canoes and four people went over the falls.”
The search is a “24-hour operation”. On May 23, Governor Tim Walz authorized the National Guard to assist in the search. Rising water levels and poor weather have continued to hinder the search efforts. A National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopter transported equipment and a boat to the search scene on the 23rd, aiding the efforts of the search-and-rescue teams.
According to Nate Skelton, search teams are focusing on the base of Curtain Falls, where it flows into Iron Lake, and they plan to gradually move into searching Iron Lake. On May 21, Angie Grams, wife of missing canoeist Reis Grams, said in an interview with FOX 9 that she still believes Reis might be alive. “He would want every single person who has ever believed in God, just start praying right now. And he knows that is the only way he is getting out of there.”
