320 
her lumbermen to a snap and at the 
same time hindering the growth of a 
rival town by preventing the develop- 
ment of her immediate territory? I do 
not mean to say that Minneapolis as a 
city, or her newspapers, are trying to do 
this; but some of her people have en- 
dorsed the movement, and these motives 
are certainly evident. 
There has been suggested by certain 
Duluth parties an alternative project for 
a park, which will, if a park in Northern 
Minnesota is desirable, be open to few- 
er objections than that discussed at -Chi- 
cago. Instead of taking from the heart 
of the Northern part of the state a tract 
of 7,000,000 acres of land which, if left to 
settlement, would. become a magnificent 
farming country, these parties propose 
that the government should take for. this 
purpose Isle Royale in Lake Superior, 
and a part of the counties. of Lake and 
Cook, Minnesota, immediately adjoining 
Isle Royale. The island of course be- 
longs to Michigan, which would involve 
the consent of 2 states to form the park 
proposed, and is entirely owned by private 
corporations; but the purchase of it would 
involve, I am told, dealing with only 7 
corporations, as there are no settlers own- 
ing land on the island. 
On the main land opposite the island 
about 70 per cent of the land still belongs 
to the government, and it is safe to say 
most of this will continue to remain in its 
hands, as over the greater part of these 
2 counties the land is absolutely unfitted 
for cultivation, being rough, broken, and 
rocky. There is a large amount of mag- 
nificent pine timber still standing, but 
most of it is under present conditions in- 
accessible for the lumbermen. The land 
’ owned by private owners could be bought 
for the value of the pine stumpage. 
The beauty of Isle Royale and its ad- 
vantages as a resort for sportsmen are 
doubtless well known to most readers of 
RECREATION, as well as the fame of the 
trout streams of the North shore of Lake 
Superior; but I doubt if many of your 
readers know of the beauties of the lakes 
in the country immediately adjoining 
the international boundary in _ these 
2 counties “and sin, ,ot.. eons countrys 
I have passed many of the most 
enjoyable days of my life canoeing in these 
waters, and have hunted on the Bowstring 
_ lakes and on Winnebegoshish in the other 
proposed park, and I would not give one 
of the magnificent clear water lakes on the 
boundary for all the shallow, marshy lakes 
on the Bowstring and the Mississippi. This 
North shore country is a grand stamping 
ground for moose, caribou, and deer, while 
the lakes are full of bass, pike, trout, sal- 
mon, sturgeon and whitefish, Ducks are 
RECREATION. 
plentiful in season, though not as numer- 
ous as in the country farther West, on ac- 
count of the lack of marsn. 
When a canoe voyageurhas launched his 
canoe in one of the lakes near the ter- 
minus of the Duluth & Iron Range rail- 
road, 100 miles from Duluth, he can travel 
thousands of miles, back and forth, across 
country, North, East, or West. He can 
go to Lake Superior by 2 routes; to Hud- 
son’s Bay, the Arctic Ocean or the Missis- 
sippi. He can travel by direct route to 
Rainy lake, the Lake of the Woods, and 
Lake Winnipeg, or by turning a little 
aside from the old beaten tracks of canoe 
travel, can go across country indefinitely 
through lakes which are seldom if ever 
seen by a white man. 
This is a country over which the In- 
dians have hunted for ages, and in the 
travelled routes every portage is like a 
high road. ; 
I have often seen in sportsmen’s papers 
stories of marvelous shoals of fish, but al- 
ways thought they were fish stories, until 
in 1893-I saw such a sight myself, where 
the fish were so thick they could be 
caught, and were caught, with the hand. 
These were not common trash, like pick- 
erel, but were land locked salmon. I 
think I am right in the term, though 
many call them lake trout. This was in 
the lakes on the boundary, at the head of 
the Pigeon river system, which heads 
close to the waters emptying West into 
Rainy lake. 
As to the healthfulness of this country, 
compared with the marshy country select- 
ed by Mr. Cooper, there is no comparison. 
In hunting in the country proposed by 
him I have travelled for days without 
getting water fit to drink, and have had 
the whole party sick from drinking bad 
water; while in the country I describe, 
good water is everywhere. There is some 
swamp of course, but no marsh. It is all 
cedar and tamarack swamp. , 
I do not mean to be understood as 
claiming that a park such as proposed in 
this state ts necessary, but if it be de- 
sirable, and L. A. S. members and other 
sportsmen are asked to endorse the move- 
ment, I should like them to know some- 
thing of the aspects of the case, before any 
final action is taken toward cutting out of 
the productive part of a young country a 
territory almost as large as the state of 
Rhode Island. 
I wish to add that, if any readers of 
RECREATION are planning trips in the 
Northwest, I could not recommend to 
them a better trip than in the region I 
have been talking about; and. to any such 
I should be glad to give any information 
in my power, or assistance on the spot. 
Ross L. Mahon. 


