BOUNDARY WATERS
CANOE AREA

Established in 1978, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) has changed little since the glaciers melted. With over 1,500 miles of canoe routes, nearly 2,200 designated campsites, and more than 1,000 lakes and streams waiting, the BWCAW is visited by over 200,000 people a year. It is the most heavily used wilderness area in the country.

The history of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is a long and rich one. The Sioux Indians apparently controlled the region during and prior to the 1600's. They were soon to be pushed out by the Chipppewa (also called Objibway) who were steadily advancing westward with the assistance of firearms obtained from fur traders. By the time that explorers and fur traders began to push into the BWCAW in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Chippewas were in control of the woodland areas, having driven the Sioux west to the plains. Many Chippewa names, or English translations of these names, are still found on the lakes of the BWCAW.

Jacques de Noyons was believed to have been the first white man to travel through what is now the BWCAW. The French explorer and fur trader Sieur de la Verendrye visited the area in 1731, and returned in the spring of 1732 to establish trading posts on the border lakes. This began the era of the fur trade and the French-Canadian Voyageur. Each spring, hugh birch bark canoes loaded with trade goods would start out from Montreal and Quebec, to return with rich cargoes of beaver, otter, mink and muskrat pelts. The French lost Canada to the English in 1760, after the French and Indian War. English and Scottish traders soon replaced the French posts. But the fur trade had already begun to decline, and by 1800 it was nearly over. In 1842 the Webster-Ashburton Treaty was signed, ending years of disputes between Great Brittain and the United States over the location of the international boundary in northern Minnesota. It was decided that the boundary would be along the main fur trade route to the west and that "all the water communications and all the usual portages shall be free and open to the use of the citizens and subjects of both countries."

During the late 1800's, farmers, loggers, and miners were moving into northern Minnesota. Railroads were soon to follow, allowing extensive mining and logging operations to be undertaken. Much of the north woods would never be the same again.

President Theodore Roosevelt established the Superior National Forest in 1909. Most of what today is called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was set originally set aside as a wilderness recreation area in 1926. Over the years the reputation of this unique area spread, and the number of annual visitors climbed steadily.

There is a delicate balance here. If you plan a trip to the BWCAW, remember that those qualities which call you to this magnificent area are fragile. Steps you take today to preserve this area will benefit not only you, but future generations. Wallace Stegner, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, wrote: "Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed." Enjoy, and care for, this precious resource.