Peculiar placement of MnDOT cameras is a preview of expansion to airports across the state

The Minnesota Department of Transportation often tells motorists to “Know Before You Go” by checking its 511MN.org site to get real-time traffic information, including its network of about 1,500 cameras placed along major highways, each beaming pictures or live video showing current road conditions.

Drivers who went to the site just before Christmas may have seen four traffic cameras in a most peculiar spot: Oak Island, a remote piece of land on Lake of the Woods in the Northwest Angle, the northernmost point in Minnesota, reachable only by air, boat or ice road.

It turns out, the cameras on Oak Island showing the frozen lake and views of cabins were not supposed to have been live. They have been taken down, but they offered a preview of enhancements that may be coming to 511, said MnDOT spokeswoman Anne Meyer.

On 511, drivers can also find a statewide and metro area map showing where there are crashes, gridlock, road construction, electric vehicle charging stations and rest areas.

Airport cameras may be the next feature.

Oak Island may seem like a strange place to test airport cameras, but it’s not. The island, and more specifically the Sunset Lodge, is a sea plane base and a popular aviation destination in the Northwest Angle.

Operated by the MnDOT Office of Aeronautics, the cameras installed last year are incorporated into the FAA’s system of weather cameras.

When reading weather forecasts and reports, “you can look at all that writing and know that winds are at 14 knots and visibility is 4 miles, but what does that look like?” said Younggren, 74, of Hallock, Minn. With the cameras, aviators “can see this is what it looks like.”

Weather cameras like those on Oak Island are located in Alaska and throughout Canada, Younggren said, and are “unbelievable for a pilot.”

In Minnesota, the FAA has an automated weather station in Warroad that pilots can use to get wind speed and direction, temperature, precipitation type and visibility, which are essential for safe aviation.

But that is more than 30 miles from Oak Island, and with the large lake affecting the weather, “there is a ton of difference” between Oak Island and Warroad, Younggren said. With the cameras, Younggren said he can see if the resort is fogged in or what things look like on a clear day. “You get an aviation weather upgrade.”

Sunset Lodge hosts a big fly-in breakfast each March with up to 70 aircraft landing on its 3,000-foot ice runway. In the summer, float planes land directly on the water.

Sunset also has a link to the FAA cameras on its website, and they have been popular with visitors, too, Palmquist said.

“Guests can peek at what is going on,” she said.

Though the FAA cameras on Oak Island are not integrated into MnDOT’s 511 site yet, the agency is doing some testing. Meyer said she wasn’t sure how they briefly appeared as highway traffic cameras on 511.

“Maybe the [511] system read it wrong,” Meyer said, noting an outside vendor runs 511.

MnDOT has been building out its 511 system over the years, and airport cameras could possibly arrive sometime this year.