Vermilion Dock and Lift Services

About Vermilion Dock and Lift Services

When freeze-up comes to Lake Vermilion in late fall, the long lake goes quiet: the boats come out, the bays skim over, and the new ice begins to boom and groan through the cold nights. Vermilion Dock and Lift Services, a business named for lakeshore docks and lifts, turns its attention to snow removal once the water hardens. Around Tower that means cabin lanes, lake-road driveways and home drives that drift shut behind a north wind. A plowed lane curving down through birch and spruce toward a frozen bay, open after the storm, is the picture they leave behind. It keeps the shoreline within reach while the lake itself sleeps under the ice.