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Wilderness, Recreation, and Motors in the Boundary Waters, 1945-1964

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Wilderness, Recreation, and Motors in the Boundary Waters, 1945-1964 Sound Po lit ics SouWildernessn, RecdreatioPn, ano d Mlotoris itn theics Boundary Waters, 1945–1964 Mark Harvey During the midtwentieth century, wilderness Benton MacKaye, executive director Olaus Murie and his preservationists looked with growing concern at the wife Margaret, executive secretary and Living Wilderness boundary waters of northeast Minnesota and northwest editor Howard Zahniser, University of Wisconsin ecolo - Ontario. Led by the Friends of the Wilderness in Minne - gist Aldo Leopold, and Forest Service hydrologist Ber- sota and the Wilderness Society in the nation’s capital, nard Frank. 1 preservationists identified the boundary waters as a pre - MacKaye’s invitation to the council had identified the mier wilderness and sought to enhance protection of its boundary waters in richly symbolic terms: magnificent wild lands and waterways. Minnesota’s con - servation leaders, Ernest C. Oberholtzer and Sigurd F. Here is the place of places to emulate, in reverse, the Olson among them, played key roles in this effort along pioneering spirit of Joliet and Marquette. They came to with Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. Their work laid the quell the wilderness for the sake of civilization. We come foundation for the federal Wilderness Act of 1964, but it to restore the wilderness for the sake of civilization. also revived the protracted struggles about motorized re c - Here is the central strategic point from which to reation in the boundary waters, revealing a deep and per - relaunch our gentle campaign to put back the wilderness sistent fault line among Minnesota’s outdoor enthusiasts. on the map of North America. 2 The boundary waters had been at the center of numer - ous disputes since the 1920s but did not emerge into the Putting wilderness back on the continent’s map national spotlight of wilderness protection until World promised to be a daunting task, particularly when the War II ended. In June 1947 the governing council of the expanding postwar economy heightened demands for national Wilderness Society gathered at Ober holtzer’s minerals, timber, and other natural resources. To the Mallard Island home on Rainy Lake. A central figure in preservationists gathered at Rainy Lake, the obstacles numerous boundary-waters disputes, Oberholtzer was seemed great, yet they also felt encouraged by previous hosting more than a dozen of America’s vaunted wilder - efforts to safeguard the vast area of lakes and islands. The ness leaders, including Wilderness Society president Federal Shipstead-Nolan Act of 1930, capping a fierce controversy sparked by efforts of timber entrepreneur Edward W. Backus to dam several lakes for hydroelectric Mark Harvey is associate professor of history at North power and log timber along the shorelines, had “prohib - Dakota State University in Fargo. His scholarly work has focused on the environmental history of the American West. ited logging within 400 feet of lakeshores and barred The author of A Symbol of Wilderness: Echo Park and the further alteration of natural water levels.” In 1933 the American Conservation Movement (2000), he is now com- state of Minnesota bolstered this measure with the “Little pleting a biography of Howard Zahniser, former executive Shipstead-Nolan Act” to “preserve shore lines, rapids, secretary of the Wilderness Society. waterfalls, beaches, and other natural features in an un - 130 Sound Po lit ics Vacationers paddle their wood-and-canvas canoe to shore on one of northern Minnesota’s boundary lakes, 1940 Fall 2002 131 modified state of nature” on state- ever more popular, northern Minne - owned lands in the Shipstead-Nolan sota communities close to the Supe - area. Then, in 1938 and 1939, the rior National Forest increasingly U.S. Forest Service established Supe - turned to tourism. Towns such as Ely rior, Little Indian Sioux, and Caribou and Grand Marais, where logging and Roadless Areas within the three- mining had steadily declined, wel - million-acre Superior National Forest comed tourism as a vital and growing in northeastern Minnesota’s Arrow - source of income. Catering to boating head country. While logging and and fishing enthusiasts had been a motorboats were allowed in these part of northern Minnesota’s economy areas, public roads were banned. since the late nineteenth century, but Two years later, the Forest Service the post-World War II years proved to created a “no-cut” zone covering be a boom period. 362,000 acres. Meanwhile, conser- Rapid growth in numbers of visi - vationists, led by Oberholtzer, had tors, coupled with improvements in established the Quetico-Superior outboard motors, spawned new lake - Council, and President Franklin D. Renowned conservationist side resorts in the boundary waters Roosevelt created the Quetico- Ernest Oberholtzer, 1940 offering canoe and motorboat services. Superior committee in 1934. Both Motorboat usage increased apace; bodies worked to secure a treaty Basswood Lake, with more than a between the United States and sportsmen, resort owners, business dozen resorts and private camps, was Canada to coordinate protection of people, and wilderness activists that especially popular, and Crooked and this vast wilderness region. 3 continues to this day. In addition, Knife Lakes each had two by the early While the Wilderness Society the conflict shaped key legal provi - 1950s. Resorts catered to those who council and Minnesota activists took sions in the Wilderness Act of 1964, preferred motors and those who did satisfaction in these steps, the post - a landmark in the nation’s environ - not, yet by one estimate, about 25 war years presented new threats to mental history as well as a touch - percent of canoeists used square-stern the boundary waters. Earlier dis - stone for subsequent battles over the models designed to accommodate putes had often centered on pro - boundary waters. 4 small motors. 6 posed dams, roads, and logging in The proliferation of motorboats the roadless areas. Now, a growing A catalyst for this conflict was accompanied during the war number of conflicts emerged over lay in the tremendous increase in years by airplanes flying into private the use of motors by those entering outdoor recreation in Minnesota resorts deep inside the roadless areas. the region. Activists fought to keep after World War II. According to Hydroplanes proved attractive to the boundary waters free of motors, environmental historian Samuel many resort owners who found a which, they maintained, spoiled the Hays, the sweeping economic and growing base of customers desiring wilderness experience; opponents cultural changes fueled by wartime quick access to the dozens of remote contended that rising demand for economic expansion spawned a lakes along the international border access called for greater use of mo - growing interest in outdoor activi - that held bigger and more plentiful torboats and airplanes. From the ties. Propelled by rising incomes, fish. The lure of “virgin fishing” thus middle 1940s into the 1960s this increased education levels, rapid increased the use of planes and debate proved significant regionally growth of the middle class, and spawned new resorts on private lands and nationally. In Minnesota, the greater leisure time, Americans within the roadless areas, including controversy over motorized recre - flocked to parks, forests, and beaches. 5 one established in 1942 near Curtain ation defined the debate among With travel and outdoor recreation Falls at the outlet of Crooked Lake 132 Minnesota History and another on Friday Bay on the that motor noise spoiled the solitude same lake in 1943. Other new resorts that made the boundary waters a cropped up on Lac La Croix, Lake distinctive place to gain peace and Saganaga, and Kekekabic Lake. In serenity away from the sights and the summer of 1945, 11 private planes sounds of “civilization.” They con - flew out of Ely “carrying passengers tended that, besides being noisy in - and supplies to the various interior trusions, airplanes violated the prin - resorts and even transporting lumber ciple that the roadless areas were to and other materials for new construc - be managed for public enjoyment. tion.” This relatively small number of Individuals like Sigurd Olson, often flights increased, with 69 planes ac - accused of being elitist for their in - Motorboats mingle with nonmotorized 7 cessing the roadless areas in 1948. terest in preserving wilderness, be - craft on the water at End of the Trail Wilderness lovers generally lieved that resort owners who flew Lodge, Saganaga Lake, in Superior scorned the airplanes. They believed customers to private lands deep in National Forest’s roadless area, 1960 Fall 2002 133 Men fishing from a seaplane, a north-woods scene captured on a large-format color postcard, 1945 the boundary waters were the pri - effort, no individual proved as im - 1964 bill establishing the national mary beneficiaries of the roadless portant in that campaign as Olson. wilderness system. Like Oberholtzer, areas. As Olson put it, the resorts “are After teaching school and serving as Olson had explored vast reaches of beautifully situated for they are pro - a school administrator in Ely, Olson the boundary waters by canoe and tected and completely surrounded by became a full-time conservationist in was dedicated to protecting the federal lands. They are immune from 1948 when he joined the Izaak Wal - roadless areas from commodity in - competition. It is as though the gov - ton League and served as its chief terests and motorized recreation. ernment had given them the exclu - spokesman for protecting the bound - Olson’s distinctive contribution sive right of monopoly to the wilder - ary waters. He later joined the coun - proved to be his many essays for ness canoe country around them.” 8 cil of the Wilderness Society and sporting and conservation publica - While the attempt to bring quiet played a crucial role in lobbying to tions such as Nature Magazine, Liv - to the boundary waters was a shared include the boundary waters in the ing Wilderness, and National Parks Magazine, that eloquently presented the values of the wild.
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