In Business: Latitude 218 Outfitters Opens Area Lakes to Everyone with Rentals

A new rental business in Bemidji has seen success this summer since opening. Latitude 218 Outfitters opened this past spring and rents out watercraft to different area lakes.

Located across the Lake Bemidji Northwoods Access, location is everything for this new business. The shop has almost hit 200 rentals for its first summer, making this new endeavor a promising one.

“I find a lot of people are either selling their pontoons and just renting because of the easy factor,” said owner Aaron Guthrie. “It seems like there’s a lack of watercraft rentals and being right across from the access and the lake, I thought it was a winner of an idea.”

Latitude 218 Outfitters has serviced areas from Park Rapids to Blackduck this summer. While they continue to work on putting their watercraft into area lakes, they aim to keep aquatic invasive species out.

“You would definitely not want to negatively impact any of our resources here,” said Guthrie. “We wash and power wash the boats every single time they come out of the water. So, even though we’re not washing them with the high [temperature] that would kill everything, we’re doing our part and keeping our trailers clean.”

With his business, Guthrie looks to provide other opportunities to grow the tourism industry of the Bemidji area. One area of growth of Latitude 218 Outfitters includes not closing for the winter season but partnering with Polaris Adventures Outfitters for more rental options, where they’ll be housing snowmobiles and side-by-sides for the spring.

While this plan is in the early stages, Guthrie looks forward to what he can bring to the area.

“With Bemidji, I think there’s a lot of space for more tourism here,” said Guthrie. “I think that we could really drive the economy with tourism. Where the towns south of us are getting so impacted by the metro area and coming up to vacation, I think people are moving a little farther north and seeing that we have a really great resource here.”

Latitude 218 Outfitters is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information on the business can be found on their website.