Reflecting on the Wilderness Act
By Alissa Johnson When I was a kid, paddling the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness with my family, I didn’t realize that the final word in its name had only been …
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Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center
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 …
Building Wooden Canoes for a Rite of Passage
Picture yourself venturing out for the first time into the wilderness of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Imagine the combination of serenity and wonderment you experience as you ply these pristine lakes and rivers, knowing that you are carrying all you need to survive in a sleek, seventeen-foot, skin-on-frame canoe. Now imagine that you just built that canoe with your own hands over the course of eight days. For six teenage apprentices with Urban Boatbuilders, this was the culminating event in the summer of 2010.
Bill Rom the “Canoe King of Ely”
Ely, Minnesota boasts over twenty outfitters that send visitors into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Campers rent the latest gear, groan under the weight of a canoe without realizing it …
White Pine: Can What Once Was–Ever Be Again?
Bold against the sky, the feathery branches of an old white pine have a distinctive silhouette. Although not the most abundant species in the Quetico-Superior forest today, generations have strongly identified …
Racing Across the Wilderness
These days, the pace in the Boundary Waters and Quetico is fairly slow. It’s a place of leisure, by and large, for today’s visitors. But for Ely’s Don Beland and Atikokan’s …
Woodland Caribou Provincial Park ~ Where Nature Still Rules
This is a place one is more likely to come across a woodland caribou, or hear the cry of a wolf than encounter humankind. It is an ancient, weathered landscape of haunting physical solitude and spiritual solace. A sojourn to the hinterlands of Woodland Caribou is a voyage through time. By canoe, one can follow the waterways of the Ojibway and journey past images of animals and shamans painted on stone.