Photos of Basswood Lodge on Basswood Lake

One of our canoe trip outfitting guests shared some historic photos from the old Basswood Lodge on Basswood Lake near Ely, MN.  The photos are from the collection of her late father, Harold Rosencrans, of Lebanon, Ohio.  Harold vacationed with his family on Basswood Lake.  The photos may be from the 50s or 60s.  Above is a color postcard of Basswood Fishing Lodge, and the two images below appear to be photographs.

Basswood Lodge was known in part for exceptional log craftsmanship.  After the federal government bought out all of these old resorts, some of the log cabins were disassembled, moved, and reassembled outside of the BWCA.  One example is the Ely Chamber of Commerce - which was formerly one of the log cabins at Basswood Lodge.

Some of the locations of old lodges are now sites of BWCA campsites, and an excellent campsite is now near the location of this historic resort.  But tent campers today won't see the human-made structures shown in these photos.  The lodge, spectacular dock system and bridge shown in these photographs live on only in photographs and memories.

If you have historic Boundary Waters photos and an interest in sharing them, please let us know and we're happy to post them with your stories on our blog. 

Canadian Lynx Tracks

We came across these tracks on Pipestone Bay of Basswood Lake recently. My first thought was of a massively oversized rabbit. They're obviously too large to be a Snowshoe Hare, but they have a similar repeating pattern.

I had a hunch on the tracks' true origin, and checked with Tom Rusch at the DNR to get his thoughts on the animal that left them behind. Tom and I agreed that they look like Canadian Lynx tracks. Tom mentioned that, like Snowshoe Hares, the two big prints at the top of the "T-shaped pattern are the hind legs of the lynx, and the smaller prints are from their front paws.

A Dogsled Guide's Day Off

People often ask me what dogsled guides do on our days off. I tell them that our days off tend to look a lot like our days on.

For example, I had this week off from guiding to celebrate a late Christmas with my parents who visited from Iowa. What did I find myself doing on my day off? Sure enough, dogsledding. I took my dad and a few friends dogsledding up to Basswood Lake for a day trip. We cruised around on the dogsleds, set some tip-ups, and had a nice fire and some Zup's polish sausage. The crappies weren't active, but we pulled up several pike, including the one in the below photo.

We also spied two wolves along the way. We saw one that looked somewhat weak on Sunset Road on the way to Fall Lake. The other seemed healthy and robust as it loped across Muskeg Lake off of the Four Mile.

I suppose it's a good sign that you like your job if you do it on your days off.

Boundary Waters Bus

Before restrictions on motors in the BWCAW, land-based motorized vehicles made their way into some remote places.

For example, this old International Harvester bus transported passengers across the Four Mile Portage between Fall Lake and Hoist Bay on Basswood Lake. The passengers would be either starting a canoe trip or going to one of the Basswood resorts.

This bus now sits in the woods near Bear Island River Road outside of Ely, rusting and entombed in a grove of saplings. The below photo shows the driver's side by the back fender. Although it is painted over, you can make out the service being marketed: Canoe Trips.

Today, paddlers can still obtain motorboat tows on Basswood Lake, but motorized land transport is no longer allowed over the Four Mile Portage. Instead of a road for buses, the Four Mile Portage today is overgrown (yet walkable) and partially flooded.