Vermilion Range Old Settlers Reunion & Picnic

The Vermilion Range Old Settlers Association was organized in 1914.  The annual Old Settlers picnic at McKinley Park was originally sponsored by the Oliver Mining Company as a summer outing for its employees, and turned into a community-wide celebration.  At one time, old Settlers could boast over 1,000 people in attendance, when cars would line the road all the way up to the Soudan Community Store, and the township would run buses back and forth to ferry people to and from the park.

The picnic was started in 1916, before the United States entered into World War I and has met every year but one (2020 – year of the Covid-19 pandemic).  The Old Settlers meet annually at McKinley Park on Lake Vermilion on the third Saturday in July.  While originally open to those born or living on the Vermilion Iron Range, which stretches from Tower-Soudan to Ely, membership is now open to everyone.  A membership paid each year entitles one to a very generous serving of booyah, a lumberjack stew of meat and vegetables, cooked outdoors overnight over a fire in vintage cast iron kettles.

The booyah, the main attraction, has been a tradition for over a century at the get-together.  The local volunteer team of cooks say the recipe always remains the same although the sources of ingredients have changed over the years.  Back in the “old days” the pork and beef were from a local farm, as were the potatoes, onions, cabbage, carrots, celery, tomatoes, green beans, and peas.  The only seasoning is pepper.

Folks who attend bring their own pot and soup bowls and eating utensils, and their own picnic fixings.  Families gather every year as a tradition to honor their ancestors and the pioneers who settled here.  The picnic is a reunion in celebration of the Soudan Underground Mine’s history and the heritage of the old settlers who came to the Vermilion Range in the late 1900’s from places such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Austria, and Yugoslavia to work in the mine.

Narrative provided by Nancy Larson of the Tower-Soudan Historical Society