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—Sigurd F. Olson
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Introduction to the BWCA Wilderness
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) is paradise for the wilderness paddler. Stretching for nearly 200 miles along the Canadian border of northeastern Minnesota, this magnificent region offers more than 1,000 portage linked lakes, over 2,000 campsites, 154 miles of portage trails, and 1,200 miles of canoe routes through some of the most beautiful country in the world. That’s why over 250,000 people visit it each year and make it the most popular wilderness area in America. At over a million acres, the BWCA is one of the largest assets of our National Wilderness Preservation system, containing the largest remaining old-growth forests east of the Rocky Mountains.
HISTORY
The canoe routes on which you will paddle are the very same water trails used for countless generations by the ancestral Native Americans and by the French-Canadian fur traders, known as Voyageurs. Jacques de Noyons, in about 1688, was probably the first European to paddle through the lakes and streams that now comprise the BWCAW. At that time, the Assiniboine and Cree tribal groups may have lived in the area, but by the time of the French-Canadian fur traders, the Anishinaabe had moved into the region from the east, displacing original groups that eventually moved west to the plains.