![]() Oberholtzer's efforts resulted in the creation of the Quetico-Superior Council, a joint U.S.-Canadian commission to manage the region. "It has a greater dollars and cents value in the tourist it brings than our mines and our agriculture in that section of the state." "Minnesota's forest and lake region as it exists today is the greatest asset to that part of the state," Oberholtzer said in 1929, according to the Sauk Centre Herald. But wilderness advocate Ernest Oberholtzer, who had paddled thousands of miles of the region, helped lead the charge against the plan. In 1925, timber baron Edward Backus proposed building dams in the border lakes region near International Falls to produce electrical power for lumber and paper mills. Secretary of Agriculture William Jardine said the new Roadless Area was created "to conserve the value of the Superior National Forest as a game and fish country and as a national playground offering a virile and wholesome form of recreation off the beaten paths."ĭevelopment pressures brought about tighter federal protections in the years to come. The plan, which became a reality by 1921, called for building several roads into the region for access to what would be known as the "Superior Roadless Area." The idea of a canoe area first emerged in a Superior forest plan written by Forest Service landscape architect Arthur Carhart. Portions of the Superior forest area were still in high demand for logging and mining in the early 20th century, so planners began identifying areas to set aside for recreation.Ī visitor portaged a canoe in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on the famed 'Height of Land Portage' from North Lake into South Lake in July 2019. ![]() Canada was protection-minded, too, creating Quetico Provincial Park just over the border in Ontario during this period. agency that oversaw the survey and sale of public land - to preserve 641,000 acres of northern Minnesota border land from being sold. Andrews encouraged the General Land Office - a U.S. In the early 1900s, Minnesota forestry commissioner Christopher C. There would be no BWCA and its heralded million acres of pristine water and land without the Superior National Forest, established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909.īut Roosevelt didn't do it alone. The Kabetogoma Peninsula and the waters of Rainy Lake in far northern Minnesota made a good fit, since they are steeped in history as a trade and travel route. The National Park Service is committed to protecting public lands, too, but focuses on iconic, scenic sites - some more developed and geared to tourists. The Boundary Waters sits directly next to a national park, Voyageurs. Parts of the forest were carved out for primitive travel and exploration, and growing regulations over the years ensured it remained undeveloped. The simple answer is that the federal government created the Superior National Forest, which includes the Boundary Waters, more than a century ago to balance competing demands for industry, preservation and recreation in the Northland. Forest Service and not a national park managed by the National Park Service? It inspired him to ask Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribune's reader-powered reporting project: Why was the BWCA designated a wilderness managed by the U.S. Krogman, of Cottage Grove, remembered seeing signs during their journeys for the "Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness" as well as the "Boundary Waters Canoe Area." He's been thinking more about those signs lately as he reads stories that parallel the past about mining leases and the protection of the BWCA. One of Jason Krogman's summer traditions as a teenager was as Minnesotan as flannel: He would join his father and family friends on fishing trips into the Boundary Waters. ![]() Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher
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