On the surface, two proposed pieces of legislation appear unrelated to wilderness protection. The Sportsmen’s Heritage Act seeks “to protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing and shooting.” The National …
By Alissa Johnson When I was in high school—the mid-1990s—a debate arose over motorboat access to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). I went to a demonstration to keep motors …
“Destroy the beauty of the visible shores and islands of these lakes and rivers and you destroy the whole charm and pleasurable utility of the region for the public,” Ober wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Travel back in time with an historic family fishing lodge that thrived in what is now the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness…
By Rob Kesselring Take a drive to the end of the Gunflint Trail and spend a few hours at Chik-Wauk Museum, the word serendipity will come to mind. Could there …
By Alissa Johnson In our last issue, Wilderness News published photos from an album uncovered in an attic trunk. They once belonged to Big Bill Wenstrom, who was the last private …
These photographs were found in a U.S. Forest Service photo album, circa 1920. At the time the region was known as the roadless area of the Superior National Forest. Each photo …
A presentation sponsored by the advocacy group Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness will discuss the discovery of several siltstone quarries on the BWCAW’s Knife Lake which are believed to date to paleolithic times. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 19 in St. Paul.
The landscape of northeast Minnesota would look different today if not for the efforts of a Harvard educated, Chicago lawyer by the name of Frank Hubachek. Born in 1894 to parents of means and influence, Hubachek spent his boyhood holidays in northern Minnesota and learned at a young age the need to experience nature in unspoiled, unfenced settings. It may be tempting to assume that rich people don’t get their hands dirty, that Hubachek’s support was purely financial or legal and that the real firebrands of the wilderness preservation effort were the likes of Ernest Oberholtzer and Sigurd Olson, but you would be wrong.
Sig Olson’s readers were introduced to Big Bill Wenstrom in Open Horizons (p. 97). Sig wrote: “It was Big Bill Wenstrom who taught me how to throw on a canoe. He …
Last July, the Canoe the Heart Expedition commemorated the centennial of Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada and the centennial of Superior National Forest in Minnesota. It also promoted the continued …
When the Canoe the Heart Expedition stopped at the Crooked Lake Pictographs this summer, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness summer intern Kate Logan noticed a splotch of dark, black …
Special Feature Part II By Alissa Johnson In part I of The Changing Nature of Wilderness Protection, Wilderness News uncovered a transformation in the challenges facing the BWCAW. Where issues like …
Special Feature Part I: The Changing Nature of Wilderness Protection The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act from 1978 to Today By Alissa Johnson, Wilderness News Contributor October marked the 30th …
Childhood Memories Evoke the Stirrings of Wilderness Experience By Pat Kallemeyn, Wilderness News Contributor One of my most vivid childhood memories is of the voyager art installed in my hometown’s post …
By Charlie Mahler, Wilderness News Contributor In the Gunflint Trail region, which has seen its share of calamity in recent years in the form of blow-downs and forest fires, geologist Mark …
If the entire human history of North America was compressed into one year, a century would be the equivalent of a single day. Geologic time is even more absurd; a century …
Jack Rajala has spent most of his life in the forest. He is well known in Minnesota forestry circles as an advocate for white pine restoration and as part of Rajala …
For those planning trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Quetico Provincial Park, 2008 brings the 30th anniversary of the BWCAW and new fishing regulations to the Quetico. The …
