Almost every county in Minnesota has an established shooting and archery range. One that doesn’t? Cook County. Far northeastern Minnesota is one of just a few areas in the state without a gun or archery range. But that’s soon to change with the opening of Flintlock Range, a shooting and archery range that’s being developed north of Grand Marais. With a tentative opening later this year, Flintlock Range will provide Cook County’s first established location for target practice and education.
The driving force behind this new project is the Flintlock Range Association, a group of community members who have been volunteering their time and energy to help make a shooting range a reality. Justin Rexrode, the Flintlock Range Association president, said that the vision for an established range in Cook County has been in the works for over 20 years. Despite its sparse population, the heavily timbered landscape in far northeastern Minnesota means that there are few open spaces where people can safely set up a target practice. The go-to alternative thus far has been gravel pits or power line right-of-ways, neither of which are ideal solutions.
“Cook County is a spot that needs a shooting range,” Rexrode said. “There needs to be a place for people to safely learn how to shoot, for law enforcement training, for archery, for so many reasons—it was time.”
Although earlier efforts to establish a range were hindered by the high cost of land, a land exchange between Cook County and the U.S. Forest Service caught the attention of some who saw the potential for a shooting range. The parcel in question—360 acres on Forest Service Road 304, off the Gunflint Trail—would need quite a bit of work to develop it into a shooting range, but it was an effort the Flintlock Range Association was willing to take on. After several years of planning, paperwork, and fundraising, their proposal to establish the range was approved by the Cook County Board of Commissioners in January 2024. The county agreed to lease the land to the association, and now they’re at the stage of getting ready to start the actual development and turn this dream into a reality.
So what will the Flintlock Range entail? According to Rexrode, people visiting the range will first find the archery range, followed by a trap and skeet range, and finally a rifle and pistol range. The association will set certain hours when people can access the range, in accordance with local and state regulations on when shooting ranges can be open.
While Flintlock Range will certainly appeal to people interested in recreational shooting, it will also serve another community need—education.
“The range is going to be essential for the youth firearm safety training at the local school district, for classes, as well as for local law enforcement training, as they have nowhere to train right now except for gravel pits,” Rexrode said. “Firearm safety is huge, and the more you can teach people safe handling practices, the safer people are with firearms.”
Currently, the biggest hurdle to developing the land has been the rainy summer. The Flintlock Range Association hopes the range could open before the end of 2024, but that timeline is dependent on weather and how smoothly the rest of the development process goes. Either way, Rexrode is looking forward to what the Flintlock Range will bring to Cook County.
“People were elated when they heard a range was coming about—people from all walks of life, including people who I never would have thought were shooting sports enthusiasts,” Rexrode said. “It hasn’t been an easy endeavor to get here and there’s lots of work ahead, but it’s something that’s really needed here.”
