Voyageur's Highway: Minnesota's Border Lake Land

Recent History

Recent History THE BORDER COUNTRY’S recent history may be said to have begun in one sense in 1909with the passage of an act of Congresscreating the Superior National Forest. Simultaneouslythe Quetico Provincial Park was created on the opposite shores by the province of Ontario. Too much praise can hardly be given to the individuals and governments that were responsible for this far-visioned action. The period of despoiling was approaching its end and the era of conservation was beginning . The Superior National Forest is one of the largest forests in the United States, stretching along the border line some r80 miles westward from Lake Superior. It contains almost three million acres, of which nearly a fifth is water surface. There are over fifteen hundred lakes in the forest. Parts of the forest are designated game refuges. Federal forest officers and rangers protect and administer the forest. Many lookout towers of steel, ninety feet high, have been placed in strategic places. From them keen eyes watch constantly for forest fires, the scourge of the North Country. CCC camps in recent years have been of great usefulness in the forest. Their men have cleaned out slashings left from logging operations, windfalls, and other fire hazards; eradicated ribes, the alternate host of the white pine blister rust; cut portages and marked them; built canoe landings; and constructed camp sites. 90 Recent History ~­ ~ THE BORDER COUNTRY'S recent history may be said to have begun in one sense in 19°9 with the passage of an act of Congress creating the Superior National Forest. Simultaneously the Quetico Provincial Park was created on the opposite shores by the province of Ontario. Too much praise can hardly be given to the individuals and governments that were responsible for this far-visioned action. The period of despoiling was approaching its end and the era of conservation was beginning . The Superior National Forest is one of the largest forests in the United States, stretching along the border line some 180 miles westward from Lake Superior. It contains almost three million acres, of which nearly a fifth is water surface. There are over fifteen hundred lakes in the forest. Parts of the forest are designated game refuges. Federal forest officers and rangers protect and administer the forest. Many lookout towers of steel, ninety feet high, have been placed in strategic places. From them keen eyes watch constantly for forest fires, the scourge of the North Country. CCC camps in recent years have been of great usefulness in the forest. Their men have cleaned out slashings left from logging operations, windfalls, and other fire hazards; eradicated ribes, the alternate host of the white pine blister rust; cut portages and marked them; built canoe landings; and constructed camp sites. RecentHistory All this has not been secured without a fight. About 192s private power and pulp companies, by attempting to construct dams, were threatening the continuance of the border-lakes region as the last great wilderness and canoeing country in the United States. An aroused public, finally aware of what was going on, created an international body, the Quetico-Superior Council with headquarters in Minneapolis, to serve as a clearinghouse for individuals and organizations in Canada and the United States in protecting the North Country. Shortly the council secured the enactment of legislation by Congress and the Minnesota legislature designating a wilderness area in northeastern Minnesota which Congress proposed to protect. It embraces the country south and east of Rainy Lake as far as North Lake just east of Gunflint Lake. Baleful projects in the area have frequently been thwarted. The council’s main objects at present are: acquisition by the Federal government of lands privately owned in the designated area; and a treaty with Canada assuring co-operative administration of the twin areas by both countries in such a manner that their value as a great public recreation ground, canoe country, and wild-life sanctuary will not be unnecessarily interfered with by the utilization of its other public values. A truly adequate program cannot be maintained until much of the area within the United States has become public property. No long-range planning can be undertaken until it is certain that the Canadian part of the area is to be maintained in the same spirit and with the same objectives as the part south of the line. Dominion as well as provincial action and control are therefore necessary. The International Joint Commission is a great factor in furthering this enterprise...