Warroad

Hockeytown, USA

According to my tour guide, it is called Warroad because it is the place that the Sioux and Chippewa would meet to have their battles. It is really far north, in case you don't know......just 6 miles from Canada. When people are thinking of Minnesota this might be what they have in mind. It's windy and chilly and sparsely populated with people that wear primarily hunting attire.

I have to say I rather liked it, but that shouldn't come as a surprise. When I told Layla I was going to Minnesota for two days and I would miss her. She said, "I go Minnesota too, Mommy." It did not sink in with her that she wasn't invited. Maybe a mistake on my part, but I guess she likes Minnesota as much as I do.

I found myself in Warroad this week as a guest of the Marvin Window company. Our window supplier (Evanston Lumber) gets to invite customers on the trip, and I was pleased to be invited. It was a two day trip to tour the factory and intense learning/training on the window products.

Our private plane and my new friend Chito

The factory tours were amazing. Between the technology of the machinery and the amount of personal craftsmanship that Marvin does, it was really interesting. Marvin has always been one of my favorite brands because of the quality and the customization ability of the product lines. To see the operation up close and personal was quite something. They do a great job of using the raw materials; they recycle what is scrap and sell the wood pulp (for turkey bedding). Then they buy wood scrap from the loggers to use for heat. The wood sorting is done mostly by machine, but much of the assembly is done by hand.

In addition to observing the production we got to meet with the Director of R&D to see and test a new product that they were working on. I thought it would be fun to stay in R&D all day!

A double hung window (wood with aluminum clad) has 72 pieces.
You can use that for a trivia question and earn a few bets.

The visitor center has a history 'museum' and expansive training area, which is state of the art. It included some great displays, including the window dissection above.

There isn't a lot for shopping or entertainment in Warroad. It's a really small place. It is on Lake of the Woods, which is absolutely beautiful, but not a place you spend a lot of time out on this time of year. It would be a great place to camp and canoe in the summer, though.

There is a casino, run by the 7 clans. Some of the guys in our group were pretty excited about this until we learned that smoking is allowed and drinking is not. Boo! on both accounts. If you are going to give away your money you ought to be able to do it with a beer in hand and not smell like you slept in an ash tray. Needless to say, we skipped the casino and instead visited The Shed. This is the home of Bob Marvin's classic car collection. Bob is the mayor of Warroad and retired from working at the company. This seems like a good enough hobby for a gazillionaire in a small town. The guys mostly loved it, I thought it was interesting for about 10 minutes..... He does also have a nice sports memorabilia collection that I enjoyed.




I looked Warroad up on Wikipedia and surprisingly, it didn't say anything about Marvin. This was kind of shocking since the company basically supports the town and has been located there for almost 100 years. The various family members have built the library, the olympic swimming pool at the high school, and the hockey 'stadium' in town. Not to mention actually employing a large portion of the population.