Employment
Now Taking Applications: Jobs with Individual Housing Available on the edge of the BWCA for Fall-Winter 2026/ Couples position may be available
Bearskin Lodge is fully staffed for summer but we are currently taking applications for fall and winter employment, including for the very popular couples position.
Bearskin Lodge is the premier family resort located on the famous Gunflint Trail, about 26 miles from the town of Grand Marais, MN. We are on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). Right outside our door are a million and a half acres of pristine lakes and rivers. Our facilities are the best available.
Bearskin does not hire a large staff and we work hard to keep our people happy and contented here. Our staff members tend to stay several years, forming lasting relationships. We’ll do our best to be good to you and in return, we ask you to be reliable, kind, and helpful. We function almost like a family unit here, so we do need people who will get along well with everyone.
The ideal candidates for any job here are people who will love our outdoor, wilderness environment. If you’re a person who will spend your time-off being physically active and canoeing, hiking, biking, skiing or exploring then you’ll fit in here. If you’re just searching for a job–any job– and you’re not looking for this lifestyle, Bearskin isn’t your best choice. All our jobs are very physically active — you’ve got to be willing to “go-go-go” here.
Bearskin does not hire international employees. We do not have the permits to do so. Please don’t send inquiries; we are unable to reply to the dozens of international inquiries we receive every week. Thank you for respecting our time constraints.
Local all-purpose, do-anything resort employee–must already have local nearby housing
Looking at the possibility of adding a person like this in the fall, based on who we might find.
Skills needed: This position could be anywhere from 20 – 40 hours, depending on your availability and our needs. Always done by 4 PM. Sunday is usually a required required day, with additional days based on your schedule. This person will do a little of everything, especially help our team with weekend cabin cleaning. Can be a short- position. We have no housing for this position, so you must have your own place to stay. Ideal position for person with a cabin or house nearby who’d enjoy picking up additional hours.
Guest services / housekeeping / all-purpose helpful human
In a perfect world this person would be part of a couple, to help us with our housing crunch. But we are open to various possibilities.
Skills needed: Attention to detail, a good work ethic, a friendly nature, and a willingness to tackle every job, outdoors or indoors. Good communication skills essential. You’ll have your own small lakeside apartment or house, with access to canoes, gear, skis, and snowshoes. Wages negotiable, depending on experience. This employee could eventually join our permanent staff, if you are a successful fit for working here. Health insurance and dental insurance benefits are available to our permanent employees.
Outdoor, indoor general resort employee – the perfect job for a good problem solver! /Available Fall or Winter
This job probably needs to got to one half of a couple, due to housing needs.
This employee helps everyone, indoors and outside, in all kinds of Minnesota weather. Ideally this employee stays for winter also, which makes it a better fit for someone with experience dealing with daily snow and occasional -10 degree temperatures.
Our resort guests rely on this employee to help them solve daily maintenance and boat problems. This person regularly checks that heat and water are working in every cabin, that light bulbs and smoke/CO detectors are functioning, and makes sure that our guests are warm and safe. Ability to make small repairs, do occasional vehicle maintenance, and independently solve problems to keep our resort world functioning is very helpful. Everyone at Bearskin cleans cabins when needed, and everyone at Bearskin puts in occasional stints at the front desk. In the summer, these outdoor tasks include grass mowing and trimming, stacking wood, dock maintenance, canoe rentals and cleaning, caring for outfitting gear, boat maintenance and rentals, and campground care. In the winter, the job includes snow-plowing and snow-blowing, firewood stacking, shoveling, car-starting and miscellaneous winter tasks, in addition to all the other ways this employee helps out. Lots of lifting in this job–you need a strong, healthy back to do it. Maintenance skills a big plus for this job, but if you have an aptitude for these skills then we can teach you.
Resort Couple — COMBINING OUTDOOR/INDOOR ALL-PURPOSE EMPLOYEE AND EXPERIENCED HOUSEKEEPING GURU
Our couple job needs to be one person with housekeeping skills and one all-purpose person willing to do indoor and outdoor Minnesota jobs. (Of course, all jobs here also require housekeeping help–keeping cabins clean is why we get to live here.)
Live on the edge of the BWCA with someone you enjoy, and experience outdoor escapades together.
We love to hire couples on our staff. It’s nice to have a built-in friend to go on adventures when you’re here. If two of you fit our needs, we’re happy to hire you together. Both individuals need to offer skills we’re looking for, and there has to be an understanding that if one person doesn’t work out then both jobs are affected. Both members of the couple need to fill the roles that are needed, as listed above. Housing unit is a tiny, lofted lakeside cabin to yourselves. Simple, but much-loved.
This is the job that has introduced so many young couples to Grand Marais and given many the foothold that allowed them to begin or buy their Cook County business, or start their permanent “up north” life. Ideal job candidates who are high energy self-starters, are willing to stay awhile, and who are able to fill the maintenance and housekeeping/front desk positions. Potential management roles in the future for the right people. We try to give couples days off together and similar work hours, although we can’t promise it will always work out. This is the dream couples job for the right people. Let’s talk and find out if you’re the ones. Wage and start dates negotiable.
What’s it like to live and work here
We don’t have much turn-over in jobs here. Bearskin staff tends to get hired and then stay a long time, but in the next few months there are some transitions that will be occurring. It’s always hard to say goodbye to a beloved group of employees as they move on to their next adventures in life, but we also always look forward to meeting our new “Bearskin family.”
Working at Bearskin is considered one of the most desirable jobs on the Gunflint Trail. We try our best to be fair employers, we offer on-site lakeside housing, and we give our staff options to get out and enjoy our beautiful environment. The best employees are always the ones who explore this area while they are here. It’s a challenging environment if you wanted a job in the city, but if you’d love to live in the Boundary Waters/Gunflint Trail area then working at Bearskin can be a dream-come-true.
Our ideal employees have a good work ethic, are personable and get along well with guests and colleagues, have excellent communication skills, and are willing to do whatever needs to be done to help Bearskin function well. We work very closely together, so happy, drama-free employees are greatly appreciated. This is a small enough staff that if you don’t fully do your part, the burden falls on your co-workers/friends. There’s no “extra” here, we need employees who truly contribute.
We do hire some short-term employees, but we are most appreciative of employees who want to stay a while. It’s not a life commitment — we know your next adventure is eventually out there. But we are a small family resort, and it’s super nice if we don’t have to re-train new employees too often.
Are you doing online school?
Get your masters or finish your degree while you work at Bearskin. Our internet is good, and we can usually adjust your schedule to fit classes.
Are you an artist or creator?
We will support you in your endeavors and have helped many up-and-coming creative types grow their skills and market their wares.
Our jobs can become permanent for people willing to commit for a while, and benefits are available after you are considered permanent staff.
About our remote location!
Not everyone will be happy working at Bearskin. We are on the edge of one of the nation’s great wilderness areas, and we truly understand that isn’t a perfect fit for everyone. This is the deep Northwoods. Groceries and the closest (small) town are 26 miles away. There are very limited social activities nearby, so we make our own fun. We do our shopping online (UPS and FedEx come every weekday.) This is Minnesota, just a few miles from the Canadian border, so it gets cold here in the winter and you need to have serious winter clothing and boots for December – April. We no longer hire staff without a vehicle. You will need your own vehicle even to get groceries — there is no public transportation, no Uber or Lyft. Your winter vehicle should be 4-wheel drive, or at least front-wheel drive. Think about who you really are before you decide that this is the right job for you. This is an amazing place to work, but it’s not right for everybody.
General info for all applicants
What it is like to be on our staff: We primarily hire full-time employees who plan to stay two or more seasons. Our staff tends to be happy here and they stay with us. We try to be kind to our staff, as we know they are what makes our business possible. Our staff members get along, and are drama-free — to us, your ability to pitch in and work, to enjoy living in the middle of nowhere, and to get along with our other staff means more than skills. Non-smoking housing, no tolerance for drugs or for excessive alcohol use. Live healthy here.
Living and working here
We offer lakeside housing with a BWCAW lake view that would be the envy of many in Cook County. This is a healthy, non-smoking environment that is ideal for people who get along well with others, who like working hard, and who can find joy in living and working in a remote wilderness location. Funny hours, working on some holidays, vacation times only in the quiet season — these may all be part of a Bearskin job, so if your dream job is 9-5 M-F, then this isn’t it. Salary negotiable, but we pay employees very fairly. If this sounds like where you want to be, contact sue@bearskin.com
General job info for all employees:
All of our employees are cross-trained in numerous areas — you will probably work at the front desk, answer phones, help with canoe trips, advise tourists on good hiking destinations and because all of us do this all the time, help clean cabins. Clean cabins are how we all get to enjoy this life on the edge of the BWCAW! Some of our employees need to be able to lift canoes, mow and trim lawns, stack wood, and clean up at the campground.
We pay an hourly wage, not a set “per month” salary. We adhere to fair employment practices. A work week is 40 hours; anything over that is paid over-time, as the law requires. You will not be asked to work a large number of unexpected hours, and if circumstances require many more hours, you will be paid well for your extra time. Your start time will normally be at either 7:30 AM or 9:30 AM; you will be off at either 4 PM or 6 PM. No weird hours. You will always get 2 days off during each week, usually consecutive but not always possible. Your days off will rarely be Saturday and Sunday. We try to give couples the same days off whenever possible. Discretionary bonuses are occasionally paid to staff as a thanks for finishing out the work of a season and sticking with Bearskin for the future. We appreciate you.
Are you the type of person who researches a job extensively before you apply or interview? We’ve accumulated more information on this additional page.
International Employees? No, we don’t hire any visa program employees at Bearskin. We are too far from civilization to take good care of foreign employees. Please don’t send inquiries. During summer hiring season we get 10 – 20 email inquiries from international employees daily (yes, every day — we are inundated), and do not have the time to properly answer all the international correspondence. Sorry.