Articles

Quetico Park is a world-renowned wilderness park in Ontario that lies adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Minnesota. Most of the articles I’ve written are about the natural history of Quetico Park but a few, such as the article on Devil’s Crater, are about other areas in Northwestern Ontario.

I have also included articles about extraordinary people who are associated with Quetico Park. Shirley Peruniak has worked as a naturalist and historian in Quetico Park for many decades and has had an enormous impact on generations of Quetico Park visitors.  Joe and Vera Meany were Park Rangers for twenty -four years at the Lac la Croix Ranger Station and are greatly missed by canoeists who became accustomed to their hospitality and vivid personalities. Bob Hayes became a Quetico Park ranger in 1940 when he was just sixteen years old. He returned as a park ranger after serving in World War II. Bob and Leone now live in Winton, Minnesota. Don Meany started making paddles in 1964 because he was a marathon canoe racer and thought he could make beter paddles than those available at the time. He started the XY Paddle Company in Atikokan and now his son Spencer is continuing the tradition of making innovative, high-quality paddles.

Betty Powell-Skoog grew up on a homestead that is now part of Quetico Park and has written a terrific book, A Life in Two Worlds, about her life. Bill Muir, featured in “Boundary Waters Botanist”, taught at a college in Minnesota and also led students on canoe trips when he was blind. For decades Charles Farnum, “Bushwacker Extraordinaire”, took ambitious, exploratory canoe trips in Quetico Park with members of his extended family. Stuart Osthoff, the editor of the Boundary Waters Journal, said, “Of the hundreds of stories I’ve published in the past thirteen years, nothing has impressed me more than the ambition, energy and resilience of Chuck Farnum.” At ninety-two, Chuck Farnum is still resilient and full of energy.

Quetico Park People

Book Reviews

Ecology

 

Other Places