Qualla: Cross River Heritage Center

Cross River Heritage Center: Introduction

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Horace T. Stickney called it a "depressed place." When he purchased the parcel along the Cross River in 1921, the land bore the scars of the Schroeder Lumber Company's operations -- a burned landscape dotted with a bunkhouse, a superintendent's house, a shed, and an office building. The logging era had stripped the North Shore and moved on. What Stickney built in its place became something the loggers never imagined: a Tudor Revival inn with half-timbered gables, stone fireplaces, and indoor bathrooms, perched on Minnesota's Highway 61 near the west bank of the Cross River. That building, constructed in 1929 after his first store burned to the ground, now houses the Cross River Heritage Center -- a museum operated by the Schroeder Area Historical Society that collects and interprets the history of this stretch of Lake Superior's North Shore.

Cross River Heritage Center: From Ashes to Half-Timbered Gables

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Stickney's first attempt at commerce on the Cross River lasted until a gas stove malfunctioned during food preparation and burned his 1922 store to the ground. The setback proved fortuitous for architecture. Local artisans and an unnamed architect helped Stickney design a replace...

Cross River Heritage Center: A Highway 61 Landmark

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A small sign on Highway 61 advertised the Stickney Store and Cabins, and that was enough. By 1930, Stickney had built the first log cabin behind the inn overlooking the Cross River. A Minnesota tourism pamphlet soon described the growing property as "Stickney's Resort." By 1936, ...

Cross River Heritage Center: Three Generations, Four Names

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The story of the building is also a family story spanning three generations. Horace and Nell Stickney ran the inn until 1955, when they sold it to Horace's nephew, Harry Stickney Lamb. Harry and his wife Doris Mae had moved to Schroeder in December 1954. After Harry became postma...

Cross River Heritage Center: Saved from the Bulldozer

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The building's most dramatic chapter came in 1998, when the Minnesota Department of Transportation purchased and condemned it to make way for highway repairs and bridge replacement. The Stickney Inn, which had weathered fire, economic shifts, and generational change, faced demoli...