Well friends, it looks like Harlan Schwartz has made a decision to "move on" and look for new adventures elsewhere.  So the disposition of Red Lake Outfitters seems in limbo at the moment.

Good luck and good fortune my friend (as always indicated by the 'cap note' of each of my posts).

The last of Harlan's videos (posted Sept 27th) addresses his decision toward the end of the vid.

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dd

The business know as Red Lake Outfitters is now operating (in some capacity) as (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links).

dd

Interesting note starting this video and more info as others comment on the video

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HighnDry wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2020 at 9:20pm:


  I just watched most of the video up to the part where he's chopping veggies on the log.

  I think he's found out what some of us that are older have learned the hard way too.

  When you are a newcomer to a small isolated town,
especially from the "big city", some if not ALL the locals will NEVER see you as one of them.

  It's made even worse when you do something successfully that they couldn't.

  I dated a gal once that came from a small town in the UP. She was a born/bred proud Yooper as they call themselves. She had moved here to go to nursing school, get some experience in one of the many local hospitals and then move back to her home area.

We got along great and she knew that if I could find steady work I wouldn't of hesitated to move to the UP.

We each took a week's vacation and she took me home to meet her parents/family. That went fine at first but things quickly soured when she asked her family members that worked in construction ( I was a Foreman for a small company then) IF they would help me find a job if WE moved up there?

They were openly hostile about it. Her brothers and some of her male friends got drinking one night and told me that I THOUGHT I was too good for them because I wasn't ONE of them.

  Long story short, I got into a fight with one of them, came out on top and then her brother jumped on me. Pretty well ruined the whole relationship.

I had taken a lot of verbal abuse before it came to blows. I wouldn't have taken it from ANYONE down here, I shouldn't have taken it for so long up there either.

Harlin turned his cheek too many times. If someone ran me off the road, damaged my truck and hurt my dog, I would confront them, man to man in a public setting and either they'd give me a ( * ) whupping or I'd take one.

  Sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand and be ready to defend it. Bullies like he's dealing with ONLY respect one thing and that's someone that puts MORE fear into them than they TRY to put into their victims.

HighnDry wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2020 at 9:20pm:



HighnDry,

Thanks for sharing that video.  I've been watching Harlan's videos for a long time but somehow missed that one.  It explains a lot... at least from his point of view. 

There has been so much of a dust-up in the Red Lake air over the past couple years, it's been hard to know what or who to believe.  Frankly, it is STILL very cloudy from where I sit BUT at least I'm hearing how Harlan wants us to view & understand what had happened up until last July.  As most of us know, he has since departed the scene and his business was sold to Chukuni Outdoor Supply.

Years ago, I'm pretty certain I used that "other" outfitter that Harlan alleges (in the linked video) had been giving him so much trouble.  I found the guy pretty much as described by Harlan... an on-again, off-again, marginal outfitter who mostly worked in the mines.  He was VERY difficult to reach and, seemingly, not nearly as serious & certainly not as successful a business person.  I wasn't particularly impressed. 

On the other hand, Harlan certainly did a lot to promote the region and his business.  He WAS successful.  Therefore, I can certainly envision small town enmities, politics, and hi jinks at play but I don't necessarily know if the way he tells it is the entire story.  Harlan has high credibility with me (ie. he has always done what he said he was going to do) but, likewise, some of the WCPP park officials have decent credibility with me, too... and I KNOW they didn't always see eye-to-eye with Harlan.

I think it is fair to say Harlan was a "change agent" (probably a fairly aggressive one) and, well, we all know that most folks don't do so well with change.

I truly know very little about the reasons for Harlan's departure from the scene and the demise of Red Lake Outfitters.  My bottom line, whatever the reasons were, is: I'm going to miss the guy.  He was an effective "promoter" and I think he did a lot of good for the area.  I think it's sad that, for whatever reasons, folks in Red Lake couldn't play well in their sandbox together.  What with all the fires and now the loss of their top marketing guy and advocate, it may be a while before WCPP activity and popularity recovers.

Jimbo