THE accompanying picture is a photograph of old Dan 

 Campbell, the original settler of the Big Pork. The his- 

 tory of Dan's life would be an interesting chapter in any 

 book of adventure. He is over ninety years old and still traps 

 bear for a living, and with considerable success. Mr. Camp- 

 bell has forgotten the exact date of his arrival at Big falls 

 on the Big Fork, where he built a cabin and has since made 

 his home. It was many years ago when there was no means 

 of entering that territory from the upper Mississippi. Dan 

 came into the country by way of Winnipeg, then called Fort 

 Gary. With a birch canoe, he came across Lake of the Woods 

 and up the Rainy river to near Fort Frances, then up the Big 

 Fork to the falls. His supplies were obtained for many years 

 in Fort Frances. At the time Mr. Campbell came to the 



ig falls, it was a favorite camping place for the Indians, be- 



use of the wonderful sturgeon fishing. In fact, until recent 

 ears, the 'sturgeon run was a great event on these waters 



at drain to the Rainy. These enormous fish, frequently 

 weighing a hundred pounds, were usually caught by means of 

 gaff hooks, and one may still find broken gaffs of rude con- 

 struction among the rocks below the falls. To successfully 

 gaff a fish weighing seventy-five or a hundred pounds, and 

 drag him out onto the bank, is no easy matter even for a 

 strong man, and many are the tales Dan Campbell can tell 

 about fights with enormous sturgeon, when it was a question 

 as to whether the fish or the Indian or the settler, as the case 

 might be, would come out victorious. 



Dan's bear stories are numerous enough and thrilling enough 

 to fill volumes. His line of dead fall traps used to extend from 

 Big falls to the Sturgeon river and eastward to the headwaters 

 of the Bear. Dead falls were used entirely by Mr. Campbell, 

 who disdained to carry about and set steel traps for any kind 

 of animal. His was the instinct of the true trapper, and many 



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