A Mound of Destruction: One Year After the Lutsen Resort Fire

By Joe Friedrichs

LUTSEN – The cold is keeping it quiet. The Poplar River, frozen solid except for a sand trap-sized pool of open water, makes virtual­ly no sound. Behind us, Lake Superior bil­lows sea smoke, with small waves lapping the shoreline. It’s -15 Fahrenheit outside. Looking across the river, there’s a stone chimney standing alone. And then there’s the charred remains of the resort.

“The snow really makes the black stand out,” says Quinton McCorquodale, the former facilities direc­tor for Lutsen Resort. “Most everything that burned up is still over there. And here we are, a year later.”

Just after midnight on Feb. 6, 2024, Lut­sen Resort caught fire. The blaze obliterated the historic lodge. The investigation into the fire remains ongoing. In the aftermath of the devastation, the re­sort’s embattled own­er, Bryce Campbell, has been the focus of intense scrutiny in the media and online forums. Campbell is also the centerpiece of multiple investigations led by state agencies, insurance companies, and private firms into his business dealings and his whereabouts the night of the fire.

The investigation into the fire at Lutsen Resort is being led by the State Fire Mar­shal’s Office and the Minnesota Depart­ment of Commerce Fraud Bureau. Pri­vate investigators are also heavily involved in the situation. Re­peated emails and re­quests for information from the agencies by this reporter have of­ten resulted in blan­ket statements lacking specifics. Jen Longae­cker, communications director for the Min­nesota Department of Public Safety, said the agency adheres to state statutes that “pro­tect investigative data from public disclosure while an investigation is ongoing.”

For his part, Mc­Corquodale, who oversaw the resort’s housekeeping and maintenance depart­ment, has little in the way of sympathy for Campbell. From his perspective, Mc­Corquodale, who was hired at Lutsen Resort in October 2022, be­lieves Campbell tried to “pin him for arson” in connection with the fire.

According to Mc­Corquodale, he and Campbell had a dis­cussion Feb. 5, about 12 hours before the fire was first reported, con­cerning the financial woes at Lutsen Resort. The resort owed mon­ey to vendors, contrac­tors, state agencies, and others, was the running narrative for those “in the know,” according to former staff from the resort. McCorquodale said he’d become privy to information via emails exchanged between the resort’s gener­al manager, Edward Vanegas, and Lutsen Resort Accounting Director Donna Mc­Curdy-Wolke, that the company could miss payroll in the near fu­ture.

Following the ex­change, which oc­curred Monday after­noon, McCorquodale said he packed up some of his personal possessions and con­sidered the possibility that he’d just worked his last shift at the resort. It was large­ly okay, he reasoned, as he’d already been looking for work and had landed another job at a nearby lodge. Leaving his office for what could potentially be the last time, Mc­Corquodale carried with him a notebook, a screwdriver, and a full-face respirator mask. As he was leav­ing the building, he passed by Campbell in the hallway.

Not long after, Campbell sent a text message to Vanegas indicating that if some­thing strange should happen to the resort, that people needed to know about the “gas mask” McCorquodale was carrying, accord­ing to Vanegas. Indeed, when the building burned down later that night, Vanegas told investigators about McCorquodale and the gas mask. Vanegas also described Mc­ as “erratic” on occa­sion. Campbell sup­ported the claims.

McCorquodale, who was one of the first people to arrive on the scene of the fire after he was called by the night watchman, says he was interviewed by investigators on numerous occasions about the night of the fire. He had an alibi, he explained, that he was on a date with some­one in Grand Marais and later returned to a room at the Mountain Inn near the ski hill, about a mile up the road from Lusten Re­sort. McCorquodale was still with his date at the time the fire was reported, he said.

“I offered the in­vestigators to take the mask and look at it or do whatever they wanted to do with it,” McCorquodale says.

Within a matter of days, McCorquodale says the questions stopped coming in terms of his where­abouts and anything related to the mask. The questions from investigators, he says, started to focus on Campbell and water heaters in the build­ing.

The court of public opinion has not been gracious to Campbell after the fire. Within 48 hours of the blaze, news reports from some of the largest media outlets in Min­nesota began to focus on unresolved fire code violations tied to Lutsen Resort. In addition to the viola­tions, which were re­ported by the fire mar­shal, a bleak financial picture emerged for the resort. Campbell and Lutsen Resort owed money to busi­nesses and individuals locally and beyond. The resort, accord­ing to public records, owed numerous con­tractors and architects for services provid­ed. They were also behind on payments to the state for liquor taxes. Most notably, at least locally, Lutsen Resort was facing nu­merous lawsuits from contractors, business­es, and nearby prop­erty owners who say Campbell owed them money.

Indeed, in the af­termath of the fire, a bleak financial picture also emerged for the other resort Campbell owned on Minneso­ta’s North Shore at the start of last year: Su­perior Shores Resort near Two Harbors. On July 24, Judge Steven Hanke placed Superior Shores un­der the management of Kinseth Hospitality Companies, Inc. after Campbell reported­ly failed to meet the terms of a contract for deed on the property.

During a July 31 hearing, the compa­ny’s executive vice president, Bruce Kinseth, said some of his staff arrived at Su­perior Shores July 26 following Hanke’s ex parte order and the ap­pointment of the en­tity as the “receiver,” or temporary man­agers, of the resort. Upon initial review of the situation, Kinseth described Superior Shores as a “financial disaster.” They also discovered a “tremen­dous amount” of bills due, Kinseth said, adding that some peo­ple Campbell and the resort owe money to came to the proper­ty “demanding pay­ment.”

Later, Campbell at­tempted to get a tem­porary restraining or­der in place that would have allowed him at least some control over Superior Shores. On Sept. 17, District Judge Eric Hylden said Campbell needed to put down $280,000 in the form of a bond payment to retain any ownership in the busi­ness and have the re­straining order take ef­fect. Campbell failed to make the payment by the Oct. 1 deadline, and essentially lost control of the resort.

Things didn’t im­prove for Campbell when it was revealed publicly in Novem­ber that he was in the building not long be­fore the fire started at Lutsen Resort. Ac­cording to multiple sources familiar with the situation, includ­ing Vanegas and an individual involved with various aspects of the investigation into the fire, Campbell entered Lutsen Resort sometime late in the evening on the night of Feb. 5.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said crews were notified of a fire alarm at the re­sort’s main lodge be­fore 12:25 a.m. Feb. 6. This timing puts Campbell inside Lut­sen Resort less than an hour before the fire is first reported to authorities. Nei­ther Vanegas nor the person involved with the investigation spe­cifically referred to Campbell being in­volved in the origins of the fire.

According to both sources, Campbell said he worked at Lut­sen Resort for most of the day on Monday, Feb. 5. He explained that he left the resort for the first time that night at approximately 8:40 p.m. Following that, Campbell, ac­cording to the sourc­es, said he ordered a Domino’s pizza from Two Harbors, plan­ning to pick it up be­fore returning to his condominium at Burl­ington Bay, part of the facility he owned at Superior Shores Re­sort. Campbell said he ate some of the pizza at Burlington Bay. While eating or short­ly thereafter, Camp­bell allegedly connect­ed with someone on a social networking app. The person Campbell said he connected with is a property owner in Cook County.

Following that, Campbell left the Two Harbors area and drove back up Highway 61 at ap­proximately 10:30 p.m. While heading toward the Grand Marais area, Camp­bell stopped at Lutsen Resort. He parked at an undisclosed loca­tion and entered the resort through a back or side entrance, ac­cording to both sourc­es. This meant the night watchman, Tyler Cobb, the only other person confirmed to be in the building the night of the fire, did not know Campbell had returned to Lut­sen Resort. Campbell, according to sources, said he needed to get something from his office. He left Lutsen Resort for the final time sometime be­tween 11:30 p.m. and midnight, according to both sources. Cobb reported the fire to lo­cal authorities a short time later, at approxi­mately 12:24 a.m. In a series of conversations and email exchang­es Nov. 4 with multi­ple officials from the State Fire Marshal’s Office, the agency did not verify if they had knowledge of Camp­bell being in the build­ing within an hour of the fire starting at Lut­sen Resort.

“We are unable to confirm or deny any details related to this case, including the whereabouts of specif­ic individuals,” Lon­gaecker said.

Vanegas said Camp­bell confessed to him that he was in the building the night of the fire more than a month after it was ex­tinguished. During a phone call March 10, Vanegas said Camp­bell explained that he “went back” to Lutsen Resort the night of the fire.

“You went back?” Vanegas questioned.

Not long after, Vane­gas said he hung up the phone, distraught by the words he was hearing. Later that night, Vanegas said Campbell texted him and apologized for al­lowing his “personal behavior” to impact the business. Vane­gas said investigators were particularly in­terested in that text message.

One year later, the investigation into the fire at Lutsen Resort remains ongoing. When the investiga­tion wraps up, and if there are findings of fault, Longaecker said the State Fire Mar­shal’s Office does not have charging author­ity.

“City or county at­torneys do,” she said.

This means that if there are charges brought against any­one specific to the fire that destroyed Lut­sen Resort, the Cook County attorney will need to present them. In an email from then Cook County Attor­ney Molly Hicken to this reporter sent Dec. 29, she wrote: “It is our obligation to pro­tect the integrity of both the investigation and any potential fu­ture prosecution, and for that reason we will not be sharing any in­formation in response to your questions.”

Hicken officially stepped down from her post as county at­torney, an elected po­sition, four days after sending that email. Hicken left her post to serve as the chief legal officer at Mid­west Family Ski Re­sorts, which includes Lutsen Mountains, the ski hill just up the road from Lutsen Resort. The new county attor­ney, Jeanne Peterson, has been a longtime and close associate to Hicken.

Meanwhile, this re­porter has spoken to, exchanged numerous emails with, and met in-person for nearly two hours with Camp­bell, dating back to August 2024 and as recently as this month. Campbell prefers to talk off the record, cit­ing the ongoing inves­tigation. After losing both of the resorts he owned at this time last year – one to a fire, the other from court­room proceedings – Campbell, a Canadian citizen, finds himself back where he start­ed before he and his now-deceased mother, Sheila, purchased Lut­sen Resort in 2018. As of this month, Campbell is living in a hotel room at the Copper River Inn in Fort Frances, Ontario. Campbell has owned the 70-room Copper River Inn since 2014.

As the investigation reaches and poten­tially passes the one-year mark since the early-morning fire at Lutsen Resort, ques­tions continue to swirl regarding Campbell and his future on Min­nesota’s North Shore.

“It’s a fall from grace,” Vanegas says. “That’s the story of Bryce Campbell.” This is part one of a two-part story follow­ing up on the one-year anniversary of the fire at Lutsen Resort. Next week will focus on Bryce Campbell and his return to Canada following a tumultu­ous 2024 on Minneso­ta’s North Shore.