Story Ideas
Keep watching here for more story ideas on Lake Kabetogama, the Ash River Trail and Voyageurs National Park!
Back in the Day
The Kabetogama History Society website (kabetogamahistory.org) offers short stories entitled Back in the Day. These stories tell about fishing and hunting, timber work as an occupation of early settlers. Other short stories tell about early school days, building roads and building out of an untamed wilderness area and first settlers to the area. The following are excerpts of stories on this site:
Logging in the Kabetogama/Ash River area
This wooded area was rich in pine, spruce in abundance long before loggers and settlers ventured to it. In the 1880’s the area was surveyed and sold off to lumbermen as highly valued property. Timber rights for Cutover Is land on Lake Kabetogama were sold for $230,000 in 1899. Lumber Companies stored supplies at Ash River. Lumbering died off when the forests were cut and land was generally sold off to pay delinquent taxes. Though the large lumber camps of the past no longer exist, the logging and paper processing industry is still a dominant occupation along with resort tourism in this area.
Lumber was used to build every home. Most homes were built of milled lumber which had to be hauled from Ray by horse and wagon. Most lumber was sawed by hand. Some old log structures remain today including the lodges at Arrowhead Resort, Ash River Visitor Center and Northern Lights resort. Some of the older cabins in the area have log walls covered with modern siding. A few cabins from the late 40’s and early 50’s remain intact as full log structures.
Early Settlers in the Area
The railroad came to Ray, eight miles north of Kabetogama, in 1907. Most settler came by train or by water via Vermillion or through Gold Portage a narrow pathway between Rainy and Kabetogama Lakes. Homesteaders were mostly of Finnish nationality. They were required to build and live on the land within three years of acquiring it. The names of the fist area homesteaders are among those of current residents in the Kabetogama/Ash River areas.
Farming was difficult because of the harsh winters, low, rocky soil and short growing season. Root cellars were maintained to preserve food. Social life was robust. Dances at different family farms and sharing of meals and sewing and darning gatherings filled the evenings.
www.kabetogamahistory.org.
Early Resort Life on Kabetogama
Deer Horn resort built in 1938 by early Finnish log builders noted in this area for their unique style of log work. Overgrown with trees and brush , it was a challenge to groom the area and prepare it for the summer pleasure of guests. Patricia Hammalainen whose parents ran the resort in the 40’s relates her experiences as a young woman responsible for helping family to succeed in the summer resort business. What were the unique challenges and experiences of this resort family? Find out what unique things they did for fun on the lake in those early resort days. See her story and pictures of early resort life the Kabetogama Historical Society website: (www kabetogamahistory.org).
Contact Pat Hammainen (218) 283-2107
Kabetogama/Ash River Oral History Project
The Voygeur Country Oral History Project is a community history venture involving partners from Ash River, Kabetogama and Voyaguer National Park and includes adjacent areas of Crane and Rainy Lakes. Its mission is capture and preserve the cultural history that links Voyageurs National Park and surrounding communities. Oral interviews conducted by a small group of community members have yielded rich and vibrant stories of earlier times including early resorts, logging, fishing and survival in challenging times. The Kabetogama Historical website :
Among the participants in this project are longtime residents whose ancestors were among the fist resort or summer cabin owners in the area. Their taped interviews reveal stories of bravery, risk taking and sometimes comedic debauchery. Boots whose parents honeymooned here in the 30’s and later bought and maintained a cabin on state leased land has many stories to tell of spending his boyhood here and experiencing many political and cultural changes in the area. He is willing to share insightful and often humorous interpretations of life in this beautiful country that is still his summer home.
Thor Herseth and Alan Burchell are among the many former resort owners whose taped interviews provide information on early resort life and unique conditions in the area. These interviewees and others are willing to share their stories For more stories from these long time residents of the area contact:
Boots Nelson (952-933-6854)
Alan and Miriam Burchell (218) 875-3126
Thor Herseth (218) 875-2507
NOvA Project at Ash River
Visitors to the Ash River / Kabetogama area can appreciate not only the beautiful nature around them but also the pursuit of understanding its fundamental structure. More than 180 scientists from 28 national laboratories and institutions all around the world are working on the NOvA neutrino experiment, which will take place in a laboratory under construction at Ash River Trail. The experiment will investigate the role of subatomic particles called neutrinos in the origin and shaping of matter in the universe.
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, which manages the project, will generate a beam of neutrinos to send to the 15,000-ton detector at the new Ash River facility. The particles will complete the interstate trip in less than a second. Scientists will study changes that the particles undergo as they travel.
The $278 million NOvA project is funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The NOvA experiment will be operated by the University of Minnesota School of Physics and Astronomy at Ash River. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $40.1 million to the project.
For more information, contact Bill Miller via e-mail at Miller@soudan.umn.edu or (218) 753-6611 or visit our website at http://www-nova.fnal.gov/fermilab_nova.pdf
Great Story Ideas about Voyageurs National Park
Woodenfrog
Who Was Chief Wooden Frog? How did the campground and the islands on the western end of Kabetogama Lake get the name Wooden Frog? Who was Chief Wooden Frog? From about 1736 to 1941, four bands of the Bois Forte Ojibwe Indians made their homes in what is now Voyageurs National Park. Bois Forte is French for “strong wood,” or in the language of the Ojibwe, Sug-waun-dug-ah-win-e-wug, which translates as “men of the thick fir woods,” referring to the dense forests of northern Minnesota.
The John Woodenfrog family lived on what became known as Chief Wooden Frog’s Islands on Kabetogama Lake until about 1930. The islands are named for either John Woodenfrog or his father Jim Woodenfrog, or Me tigo mah kah keence, which translates as Tree Frog or Wood Frog. The Woodenfrogs were some of the last of the Ojibwe Indians to leave the area as children were being forced to attend school on the reservation established at Nett Lake. Today, many descendents of families who once lived in the park now live on the Bois Forte Reservation at Nett Lake or in communities surrounding the park. Park contact information: Mary_Graves@nps.gov
Prehistoric Fish, Oh My!
Voyageurs is home to one of the world’s oldest fish species- the Lake Sturgeon. Lake Sturgeon can live to be more than 100 years old and do look prehistoric. At first glance one may not believe the size of these fish but it is true they can grow to be more than 150 pounds!
The Ojibwe fished for sturgeon, years before Kettle Falls was built, as a staple in their food supply. Over the years sturgeon have become a favorite of people as caviar.
Today, the population of Lake Sturgeon in the park is stable, but threats to this living fossil persist. A recent study was initiated by the National Park Service and partner agencies to study Lake Sturgeon in the Namakan Reservoir on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. Movements and spawning behavior of sturgeon are being monitoring with state-of-the-art technology to aid in conservation of this amazing animal. To learn more about this research contact Steve_Windels@nps.gov
The Talking Rocks of Voyageurs
The rocks of Voyageurs National Park tell amazing stories that stretch across time. The rocks tell of continent building and movement, mountain rising, ice ages and soil formation. One of the reasons Voyageurs National Park was established was because of the amazing geological features.
In 1975, Voyageurs National Park was established “to preserve, for the inspiration and enjoyment of future generations, the outstanding scenery, geological conditions, and the waterway system which constituted part of the historic route of the Voyageurs who contributed significantly to the opening of the northwestern United States.”
The rocks of Voyageurs National Park are dated to be about half as old as the planet. Nowhere else in North American parks can you see and touch extensive exposures of rocks this old. The rocks of Voyageurs were created in the Precambrian Era, and are part of the Canadian Shield. They are older than the schist at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Visit Voyageurs National Park to see the story of gold and mica mining and hear the story of volcanoes erupting and the shifting of fault lines. We think you also will be amazed at the small amount of soil that supports the vast amount of life in this national park. Park contact information: Steve_Windels@nps.gov
A Demand for Hats
The waterways of Voyageurs National Park include one of the most important segments of a 3,000-mile fur trade route of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The driving force behind the fur trade was a demand for hats—beaver hats desired by fashionable Europeans. When beaver could no longer be found in Europe, the demand shifted to North America.
As the fur trade expanded westward, it relied on the voyageurs, or French-Canadian canoemen, to muscle trade goods and furs between Montreal and the Canadian northwest. Voyageur is a French word for “traveler.”
As a rule, the voyageurs are of French extraction, descendants of the trappers and traders of the old fur-companies, though by long intermarriage the blood of four nationalities mingles in their veins. Their grandfathers have been French-Canadians, their grandmothers Crow, English, and Cree, and Ojibway … Read more by H.M. Robinson, “A Voyage with the Voyageurs,” 1878
The lakes of Voyageurs National Park became a strategic relay and supply point along the fur trade route. The route of the voyageurs shaped the international boundary and the legacy of the voyageurs inspired the naming of this national park. Park contact information: Mary_Graves@nps.gov
The Story of I.W. Stevens
Ingvald Walter Stevens was born in Vang, Valdres Norway in 1885 and immigrated to the U.S. at age 19. In 1932 he purchased a 400-acre island in what is now Voyageurs National Park. “Steve,” as he became known, lived alone year round on the island for nearly fifty years and became a symbol of self-sufficiency and independence.
I love solitude, I love the wilderness, I love the wildlife. I do not like crowds. I do not like the city, where even the snow is dirty. I like my own company. I don’t want to live if I can’t take care of myself.
He heated his cabin with wood, grew his own vegetables, ground wheat and baked his own bread, read by gaslight, hauled water from the lake, in the winter chopping through thick ice. Civilization was 16 miles by boat or 4 miles on skis. An Associated Press article in 1977 made him a celebrity for awhile. A prolific writer, Stevens answered letters, wrote articles for outdoor magazines and kept a daily diary. He left Namakan Lake in 1979 at the age of 94 and lived to be 104. Park contact information: Mary_graves@nps.gov
Voyageurs Watershed
Voyageurs National Park lies in the 14,900-square-mile Rainy Lake basin which forms the headwaters of the Winnipeg River, which flows into Hudson Bay. This basin includes three watersheds that contribute to the park: the Rainy Lake headwaters, Vermilion Lake, and Rainy Lake. About 70% of the basin lies within Ontario and 30% in Minnesota.
Lake levels in the park’s four largest lakes are controlled by a dam crossing the international border at Fort Frances and International Falls, as well as by small dams at Kettle Falls and Squirrel Falls on Namakan Lake. Rainy Lake is controlled separately from the Namakan Reservoir, which is composed of Kabetogama, Namakan, Sand Point, Crane, and Little Vermilion Lakes. The Namakan River, which enters Namakan Lake from the east, is the largest source of flow to the park.
The direction of flow through the four main lakes in the park (Rainy, Kabetogama, Namakan, and Sand Point) is northwesterly. Water leaving Rainy Lake flows to Rainy River then to Lake of the Woods, which in turns flows to the Hudson Bay via the Winnipeg River. Park Contact information: Ryan_Maki@nps.gov
Amazing Flora and Fauna
Have you ever walked through a forest mixed with golden colored tamarack or under a canopy of aspens and maples displaying an amazing array of red, gold and yellow leaves? Have you ever followed the smell of pine scents as you walk along rock covered ridges all while a fox scurries by and you spot signs of wolves along a trail? That is just some of what lies within Voyageurs National Park.
The park lies in a transition zone between the boreal forests to the north and deciduous forests to the south. Nearly 700 species of plants have been identified within the park. Boreal forest species are most abundant, occupying about 70% of the park. Quaking aspen dominates with other species including birch, pines, spruces and balsam fir.
Within this abundant diversity of the northern forest, wildlife abounds. Many characteristic of the north woods are found here including moose, white-tailed deer, gray wolves, fox, coyotes, lynx, bobcats, black bears, ravens, and common loons. A host of other animals can be found such as bald eagles, beavers, river otters, red squirrels, and small rodents. Voyageurs also hosts more than 240 bird species who either live in or migrate through the park. Park Contact: Steve_Windels@nps.gov
Not a Sneeze on the Border!
Many centuries ago, Kettle Falls was a main artery of the travel route along the wilderness border region. Native peoples gathered, hunted, and speared sturgeon at the falls, voyageurs paddled and portaged through the area carrying their goods and furs, and prospectors travelled to the picturesque stopping place on their way to the Rainy Lake gold mines.
Around the time construction of the dams at Kettle Falls began in 1910, the Kettle Falls Hotel was built. The stonecutters and masons who built the dams were early patrons of the hotel, followed by lumberjacks, commercial fisherman, trappers, and traders. When the logging era came to an end and commercial fishing declined, tourism became the major industry and sports fishermen and families came to Kettle Falls.
In advertisements from the 1930s, the Kettle Falls Hotel was a “Hay Fever Victims Sanctuary” where sufferers found relief due to the purity of sun-washed pine scented air and there was “not a sneeze on the border”. Located on the Minnesota – Canadian boundary at the eastern edge of the Kabetogama Peninsula, the historic hotel is still a destination of fishing enthusiasts and families and the air is still pine scented and pure. Park contact information: Catherine_Crawdford@nsp.gov