This year over 250,000 folks will travel to the Northwoods of Minnesota commune with nature and the outdoors. For the young adults and teens this opportunity comes in the form of an Minnesota Adventure Camp.
When one thinks of the BWCA, they are reminded of a picturesque area in the northern third of the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota. between The International Boundary between Canada and the United States and extends nearly 150 miles while consuming nearly 1.3 million acres. The Canadians protected areas are Canada’s Quetico Provincial Park and Voyageurs National Park. The main means of transport in the BWCA is mainly canoing with over 1200 miles of canoe routes, 11 hiking trails and approximately 2000 designated campsites plus loads of Portages.
Those who come pursue an experience of expansive solitude and personal one to one with nature. It is this Minnesota wilderness that seems to offer freedom to those take the challenge of this adventure. When at this Minnesota Sanctuary one realizes hw small they are and how much thiings have changed over the last 100 years. While paddeling it may be days before you see another human requiring individual independence and being self-sufficient.
This joint sanctuary is the largest international area set aside for wilderness recreational purposes in the world. This area has served as a travel corridor for native peoples and, more recently, as one of the main routes to the west for European explorers and fur traders. The Voyageurs’ Highway was a heavily traveled route between an Canada and Minnesota. Modern-day living is nothing but a far off memory when one paddles along the majestic lakes.
So how did this come to be? Here is the short form.
July 10, 1930, the Shipstead-Newton-Nolan Act, the first statute in which Congress expressly orders land be protected as “wilderness,” is signed into law by President Herbert Hoover
September 3 1964, the Wilderness Act, U.S. is signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, establishing the U.S. wilderness preservation system and prohibiting the use of motorboats and snowmobiles within wilderness areas except for areas where use is well established within the Boundary Waters, defining wilderness as an area “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man . . . an area of undeveloped . . . land retaining its primeval character and influence without permanent improvements.” This date is considered by many to be the birth of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
To learn more about Canoe Camps in Minnesota see Swift Nature Camp
Swift Nature Camp is a Minnesota Overnight Summer Camp for boys and girls ages 6-15. Our focus is to blend traditional summer camp with a Science Summer Camp increasing a child’s appreciation for nature, science and the environment.
