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Minnesota News
Dan Kraker and MPR News Staff

Body of second missing canoeist recovered in Boundary Waters

A waterfall
The bodies of Jesse Haugen and Reis Grams were recently found west of Curtain Falls.
Rescue Squad Team Leader Ben Hartley via St Louis County Rescue Squad Facebook

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Members of the St. Louis County rescue squad and sheriff’s office found the body of 40-year-old Reis Grams of Lino Lakes just west of Curtain Falls around 10 a.m. Monday morning. His body was flown to a sea plane base in Ely.

On May 18 Reis and three other members of his party went over Curtain Falls, which drops 30 feet between Crooked and Iron Lakes in the wilderness about 20 miles north of Ely.

Crews evacuated the two surviving canoeists, one of them seriously injured, and another member of the party the day after the incident. They located the body of 41-year-old Jesse Haugen of Cambridge on May 31.

Around a dozen rescue workers have camped at Curtain Falls for the past two weeks. They used underwater drones and other equipment to search for the bodies, but their efforts were slowed by heavy rain and high water levels.  

A man searches near the base of a waterfall
A member of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad takes part in the search for two missing canoeists at Curtain Falls in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Courtesy of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad