The Hubachek Wilderness Research Center sits on the edge of northern Minnesota’s vast wilderness, a launching point into the Boundary Waters. The region has become a focus of controversy. The facilities, which date back to the 1930s, moved to the Fall Lake location…
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.