North House Folk School

Josh spent his youth paddling rivers of Northern Wisconsin and sailing on Lake Michigan. While attending Carleton College he began paddling Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and sailing the midwest collegiate racing circuit. After spending a summer teaching sailing at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, he became a hobby boat builder. During seven years spent as an affordable housing project and construction manager, he built a cedar strip canoe, a nutshell pram, and remodeled an RV trailer into a mobile kitchen. Finally Josh decided he had had his fill of management life and needed to be using his hands on a daily basis. In 2016 he enrolled at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building near Port Townsend, WA. His year of school culminated in a third place finish for his team at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival’s three-day Boat Building Challenge! In the fall of 2017 he went to work for Wilderness Inquiry in Minneapolis, MN. There he redesigned and prototyped Wilderness Inquiry’s 24-foot Voyageur canoe and then helped Wenonah Canoe prepare to mass produce that design for Wilderness Inquiry.

Josh was an Artisan in Residence in North House's Artisan Development Program with hopes to inspire the North House and Grand Marais community into the history and possibilities of traditional wooden boats, and to launch himself into a career as a self-employed boat builder.