Life on the Mississippi: The Winter Houseboaters of Hidden Harbor Marina
At Hidden Harbor Marina, just across the river from Inver Grove Heights, 13 houseboat owners are braving the cold and living on their boats this winter.
One recent space-cold Minnesota evening, Chris Bettis and Jake Hall made the 50-meter trek from their houseboats up the eastern bank of the Mississippi to meet me for drinks at Vinny’s on the River, a sports bar with wooden wainscoting and diversely sized Captain’s wheels. Bettis and Hall are two of the 13 residents staying the winter at Hidden Harbor Marina. They estimate that between downtown St. Paul and the lock and dam just upstream of Hastings maybe 100 people live on the water. “The further you go down, the nicer and the cheaper the dockage gets: They don’t like liveaboards in St. Paul,” one Hidden Harbor houseboater said. Bettis is on his second screwdriver, Hall’s sipping a Michelob Light. They’re surrounded by a couple other …
