South Dakota businessman Dave Billion buys 3M retreat in northern Minnesota for $4 million

South Dakota businessman Dave Billion is the new owner of 3M’s former corporate retreat in northern Minnesota’s lakes country where Billion has vacationed for decades.

The Wonewok Conference Center on Big Mantrap Lake, just north of Park Rapids, Minn., is a 180-foot-long, pine log lodge with six cottages built in 1929. 3M purchased it in 1955 and operated the retreat for 70 years. It closed and went up for sale in 2023.

Billion said he reached out to 3M as soon as he heard it was available and finalized the $4 million sale last month for the retreat and 190 acres of land.

“It’s a beautiful property. They maintained it wonderfully and we expect to kept it in that same vein,” Billion said in an interview Thursday.

Billion said he intends to maintain it as a retreat for companies, including his own Billion Automotive with 16 dealerships across the Upper Midwest. He hopes to have the retreat up and running in 2026.

“We will do our best to emulate what 3M did,” Billion said, “but just maybe broaden it out” for other corporations to rent for weeklong stays or three-day retreats.

The secluded lakeshore oasis was accessible only to 3M employees and customers.

He said he had a vacation home on Mantrap for 20 years and later relocated to nearby Big Sand Lake. The lakes are next to Paul Bunyan State Forest and along the northbound route to Itasca State Park.

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For-sale signs at Wonewok worried conservationists and neighbors about potential development on the pristine piece of property.

Ecologists rank Big Mantrap Lake and its 26 miles of shoreline as having outstanding biological significance. It’s home to wild rice and muskies and serves a vital role to migratory birds, particularly Minnesota’s common loon.

The acquisition to permanently protect 450 acres as public land was funded by the state’s Outdoor Heritage Fund, as part of the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. A matching contribution came through the Minnesota Loon Restoration Project, born out of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion settlement.

3M’s forever chemical contamination resulted in litigation and lasting damage. But the company was careful in selecting future stewards of Wonewok, Billion said, adding 3M carefully vetted potential buyers.

“I think they have a lot of feeling for the property and certainly a lot of respect for the area and the environment of the area. ... 3M, I think, had concern for the local people and for residents on the lake and we want to maintain that same respect. They’ve done such a great job. If we can do something in a similar fashion, I‘d be proud to do that,” Billion said.

3M declined to comment for this story.