2026-09-17 · Backus / Rocky Dock / Pine Mountain Lake (Cass County)
They Fish Off Broken Concrete — Backus Wants a Real Pier
Backus is pursuing Get Out MORE funding for an accessible aluminum fishing pier at Rocky Dock on Pine Mountain Lake, where shore anglers now fish from broken concrete.
Some Minnesota fishing stories start with a boat. This one starts with a Facebook post, a firefighter, and a shoreline that has been making do with leftover construction debris for longer than anybody wants to admit.
At Backus City Council’s regular meeting on Sept. 14, 2026, Travis Kelly — firefighter, local resident, the kind of guy who asks what the town actually wants — showed up with a request that made the room perk up. He wanted the city’s support to chase grant money for a real fishing pier at Rocky Dock on Pine Mountain Lake.
Not a metaphor pier. An aluminum one. Roughly $80,000 to $100,000, parked to the left of the swimming beach, where people already fish from broken concrete left behind when the park was built. Look. That is a very Minnesota sentence. We will cast from whatever the last decade left on the bank, call it character, and then somebody will finally say out loud: maybe we can do better.
Kelly had been talking with Jim Leavitt, the Minnesota DNR’s shore fishing coordinator, about Get Out MORE funding — the state’s outdoor-rec modernization pot, including money for shore fishing sites and accessibility. Leavitt was already compiling a list of communities that might fit. Backus was on it.
Here’s the cabin coincidence: Kelly and a group of like-minded folks, including Chris Mattson, had asked on Facebook what improvements Backus residents wanted. The pier idea came up. Meanwhile the DNR was already poking around Rocky Dock as a possibility. Two conversations walking toward the same dock. Anyway. Pier.
Get Out MORE is the DNR’s multi-year push to modernize outdoor recreation for people of all abilities — fisheries and fishing infrastructure alone sit in a $60 million slice of a larger $150 million investment, with more aimed at access and welcoming new users. Kelly pointed to another Get Out MORE project that updated an entire lake access on Lower Hay Lake near Jenkins. Proof of concept within shouting distance of Cass County math.
There is a catch, because there is always a catch when the good kind of bureaucracy shows up with a checkbook. To qualify, the pier needs a handicap-accessible pathway to the water. The grant might cover the aluminum; the city or organizers still need money for the path. Kelly mentioned a possible Community Land Fund route through Cass County. The pier is the headline. The ramp is the homework.
He also said the project could spark more enthusiasm for family-friendly upgrades around town. The Facebook thread had other ideas too — picnic tables, grilling gear, a bigger swimming beach, playground equipment. Kids do not care about your strategic plan. They care whether there is somewhere to sit after the minnow bucket tips over.
And while the council was at it, they approved a new water tower paint job with art depicting fishing, the lake, and trees. That is not the pier. That is the town putting the lake on its skyline while the pier paperwork grows up. Honestly, charming in a way that does not need punchline help.
Pine Mountain Lake sits right there in Backus, Cass County — a real working fishing lake with public access already on the map. Rocky Dock is where the shore crowd goes. Right now that crowd is standing on broken concrete. The ask is simple: give them aluminum, give them a path a wheelchair can use, and stop pretending debris is a dock.
This is not a tournament dump. Nobody is inventing a bite. It is a small city saying yes to a firefighter who asked for a pier, a DNR program that already had Backus on a shortlist, and a shoreline that has been patient long enough.
If Get Out MORE and the local match come through, Rocky Dock graduates from creative footing to actual pier. Until then, the concrete is still there. The fish do not care. The kids might. That is usually how these things start.
Sources
- Backus City Council emphatically supports Pine Mountain Lake fishing pier — Pine and Lakes Echo Journal, Travis G. Grimler, Sept. 17, 2026 (coverage of Sept. 14 council meeting)
- Get Out MORE | Minnesota DNR — program overview ($150M investment; fisheries/fishing infrastructure and access focus areas)
- Pine Mountain Lake (MN) — Lake-Link — lake location/size context (Cass County / Backus)