Saganaga Lake homecoming celebration set for Minnesota record walleye

GRAND MARAIS — The Minnesota state document walleye is now resting in its new, everlasting residence within the fishing historical past annex constructing of the Chik-Wauk Museum on the finish of the Gunflint Path.

The brand new web site is only a stone’s throw from the place LeRoy Chiovitte, of Hermantown, caught the 17-pound, 8-ounce walleye Could 13, 1979, on the Seagull River the place it flows into Saganaga Lake.

Museum organizers have scheduled a celebration occasion for Could 29 from 4-6 p.m. to mark the homecoming. The occasion is free and open to the general public. (The principle museum constructing can be open till 5 p.m. for excursions; $5 for adults and $2 kids.)

Along with the massive fish, historic images will likely be on show, and there will likely be wine and cheese obtainable and a silent public sale fundraiser for the nonprofit museum.

Former College of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks is scheduled to inform his story of a giant walleye he caught in close by Loon Lake in 1989 that may have topped Chiovitte’s fish — if solely it had been weighed sooner.

LeRoy Chiovitte died in 2019 with out designating a everlasting location for his well-known walleye that had been displayed in his front room for 40 years. Based mostly on enter from Information Tribune readers, his household, together with his spouse, Joanne, determined final winter to donate the stuffed fish to the museum so it could be obtainable for anybody to see.

Chik-Wauk Museum & Nature Heart will likely be open to the general public every day beginning Could 28 till Oct. 23 from 10 a.m. to five p.m. For extra info, go to

gunflinthistory.org

.