Gull Lake Chain feature | Welcome Wannigan

TOP LEFT: The 2021 Nisswa Chamber of Commerce Welcome Wannigan crew. ABOVE: It’s all hands on deck when the Welcome Wannigan pulls up to a boat on Gull Lake to share free coffee and doughnuts. LEFT: Miss Nisswa 2021 Sam Jackson puts a doughnut and a cup of coffee into a fishing net for an angler on Gull Lake.

Photos by Nancy Vogt

FEATURE Welcome Wannigan greets anglers with free coffee, doughnuts

It’s a fishing opener tradition on Gull Lake

Anyone who regularly goes fishing on Gull Lake on opening day of the walleye/ northern pike fishing opener each May has likely seen a crowded pontoon pulling up alongside various boats throughout the morning hours.

Those anglers who have welcomed the pontoon to pull up next to them are the lucky recipients of a hot cup of coffee and fresh doughnut, compliments of the Nisswa Chamber of Commerce.

It’s the Welcome Wannigan, of course.

So, what exactly is a “wannigan?”

Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines a wannigan (or wanigan) as “a shelter (as for sleeping, eating or storage) often mounted on wheels or tracks and towed by tractor or mounted on a raft or boat.”

The word was first used in 1890, the Merriam-Webster says.

The Free Dictionary describes a wannigan as “a boat or small chest equipped with supplies for a lumber camp; provisions for a camp or cabin; a small house, bunkhouse or shed mounted on skids and towed behind a tractor train as eating and sleeping quarters for a work crew.”

And: “a cabin, caboose or houseboat.”

Wanigan is apparently a borrowing of Ojibwa “waanikaan,” meaning “storage pit,” The Free Dictionary says.

“... It denoted a storage chest containing small supplies for a lumber camp, a boat outfitted to carry such supplies, or the camp provisions in general.”

According to Nisswa history, “wannigan” was a term used for supply boats that plied the waters of Minnesota lakes bringing needed goods and food to logging camps.

Thus, since 1959, the Nisswa Chamber’s Welcome Wannigan has used various boats, captains and crews to motor around Gull Lake the morning of the fishing opener to serve hot coffee and doughnuts to anglers.

As the story goes, Peg Benton, wife of then-Nisswa mayor Russ Benton, came up with the idea to take an old Scandinavian coffee and doughnut tradition and blend it with northwoods history.

In recent years, the wannigan has consisted of a pontoon boat carrying the Nisswa Chamber president and staff, a few chamber members, and Miss Nisswa and Little Miss Nisswa complete with crowns and sashes - no matter what the weather.

That weather has run the gamut, from warm temperatures and sunshine, to rain, to cold temperatures and even snow.

No matter what the weather, the wannigan crew always has fun.