Swansenreport

Copper Crow Distillery: History in a Glass on the Shore of Lake Superior

Five miles north of Bayfield, off Highway 13 where the road curves through Red Cliff, there’s a building in the pines that stops people cold. Not because it’s grand. Because of what it represents.

Curtis and Linda Basina opened Copper Crow Distillery in 2018. Members of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, they became the first Native Americans to make distilled spirits on a reservation in nearly 200 years. Let that sink in for a second.

A Law Nobody Told Them About

Here’s where it gets remarkable. The Basinas had already been to the workshops. Already invested their savings. Already bought the building and the equipment. Then they found out that making liquor on Native American land had been federally banned since 1834 — and most of those statutes were never fully repealed. Production remained illegal until December 2018.

Curtis called it “a huge slap in the face.” Understandably. But instead of walking away from everything they’d built, they pushed harder. Lobbied. Waited. Got the law changed. Opened their doors.

One other thing helped: while the distillery sits on the Red Cliff Reservation, Curtis privately owned the land it’s built on. A legal technicality, maybe. But it made the difference.

Whey Vodka and Bayfield Apples

Walk into Copper Crow and you’re not looking at a generic craft spirits menu. Apple brandy made from Bayfield orchard fruit. Gin with a Wisconsin character. And then there’s the vodka.

The whey idea came from a Seattle distillery expert named Rusty Figgins, who pulled Curtis aside at an event and cut straight to it: You’re from the dairy state. Whey is basically a waste product. Figure it out and you’ll have something nobody else has. Curtis figured it out. Today 40% of Copper Crow’s vodka is made from whey — creamy, slightly sweet, nothing like what you’d expect. Only about a dozen distillers worldwide make it, and the process demands serious quantities of fresh cheese byproduct to pull off.

Whiskeys and bourbons are aging in barrels right now, waiting. The portfolio isn’t done growing.

The Spot

Right on the Lake Superior Scenic Byway, just past that big curve at Red Cliff. Tasting room, outdoor patio, food trucks on weekends, dogs welcome. The kind of place where you sit down for one drink and end up staying three hours — possibly talking to the owners, because they’re usually around.

Thursday through Sunday. Check the website before you go, especially if you’re visiting outside summer.

Bigger Than the Bottles

Curtis has said plainly that he wants Copper Crow to be a model. If other tribes or individual tribal members are looking at distilling as a business, he wants to hear from them. Come up, spend some time, ask whatever you need to ask.

What the Basinas built isn’t just a distillery that makes excellent spirits in a beautiful place. It’s proof that something the federal government made illegal for nearly two centuries can become a source of community pride, economic opportunity, and — for the tourists who discover it — one of the most memorable stops in the Northwoods.

That’s the thing about Copper Crow. Every sip has a backstory. And the backstory is worth knowing.