North House Folk School is a non-profit traditional crafts school occupying a cluster of buildings on the western edge of the Grand Marais harbour. Founded in 1997, it draws on the strong Scandinavian (mainly Norwegian) heritage of the North Shore and runs more than 350 short courses a year — wood-canvas canoe building, Sami knife-making, sourdough baking, willow basketry, blacksmithing, Norwegian sweater knitting, lutefisk preparation, and dozens more.
You can sit in on lectures, browse the campus craft store, and watch boats being built in the open shed at the lake's edge. The school's flagship public event is the Wooden Boat Show & Summer Solstice Festival in late June, when the harbour fills with wood-and-canvas canoes, sail-and-oar craft and dragon boats. Open daily; the campus is free to visit.