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Date/Time: 03/28/2024 08:40AM
Weird sled on Jean Lake

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Previous Messages:
Author Message Text
Minnesotian 08/08/2017 10:32AM
quote Savage Voyageur: I say this is discarded junk from lazy people of the past. "


At what point does discarded junk from lazy people become artifacts?


For example, here is an excerpt from a book published in 1960 where the author and traveling companions find broken pipes and other debris left behind by voyageurs at a well used campsite. Portage into the Past


Trash when the voyageurs went by? Yes.
Trash by 1960 or when the trip was taken? No.


Here's a whole thread of artifacts/trash: BWCA artifacts
timatkn 08/05/2017 11:27PM
Maybe you are right? Why don't ya email the Park Superintendent to find out for sure? I just prefer for the professionals to handle enforcing the Park policy and make decisions, I mean I don't pull people over for speeding :)


An example would be message caches' in Quetico. Park employees contribute to the caches, heck I read a message from the Park Superintendent himself on Ted...yet some people have self appointed themselves park employees and destroyed them---obviously not following what the Park wants.


T
Savage Voyageur 08/05/2017 11:55AM
quote timatkn: "quote Savage Voyageur: "quote Frenchy19: "quote Savage Voyageur: "It would be firewood if I were there. "





Really? Historic relics mean nothing to you? That is a very cool find!"





Yah the sled is cool to look at but if it Was truly historic someone would had hauled it out and put it on display. This is not the first time someone has found this stuff. The window frames are just junk, nothing historic there. When this area and the BWCA was taken over everything in sight was burnt to the ground. Rangers wanted everything manmade gone. Cabins burnt, foundations and chimneys broken up. I hike the woods for fun on down days, there is so much junk in the woods it's sad. I have found many pot belly stoves, lanterns, cathode ray tubes from an old radio, pipes, bails of wire. I have found mining equipment from 100 year old abandoned gold mines just rusting away. Cool? I say this is discarded junk from lazy people of the past. "




I get your point and agree with some of it, but this was found in The Quetico in Canada...not the BWCAW in the United States. Although managed similarly they are definitely not the same. The Canadians often left old camps/buildings behind and ask they not be messed with as they consider them historical unlike the BWCAW who had a policy of complete removal although now they (the BWCAW) say leave anything alone. In this case someone hauled them away from what the Canadians would call a historical site. The proper thing to do would have been to not remove items in the first place but finding them I have been told to either put them back or leave them alone. The Park Officals would prefer to make the decision on what is historical and what should be burned instead of campers making that decision as you seem to advocate above.




T"




Look at the nails in the sled, they are not old they are just common nails found at any hardware store. If they were old they would be square not round.


Look at the window frame corner joinery, these are not old joints. They are common lap joints.


Look at the nylon rope, nylon was invented around WW2 and this stuff looks new.


To sum it up, yah leave these "Old Historic Relics" for everyone to enjoy.
MichiganMan 08/02/2017 10:55PM
Interesting! Thanks everyone for the responses. Apparently I need to be a little less obsessed with trying to catch every fish in Jean/Little Jean and take some time to explore a little more!


Mark
mastertangler 08/02/2017 08:14AM
quote AmarilloJim: "We always thought it was an old logging camp."


That was my thinking. Perhaps the sled was loaded with firewood and manually pulled a short distance to the cabin/ camp?
AmarilloJim 08/02/2017 07:29AM
We always thought it was an old logging camp.
timatkn 08/02/2017 07:27AM
quote Savage Voyageur: "quote Frenchy19: "quote Savage Voyageur: "It would be firewood if I were there. "




Really? Historic relics mean nothing to you? That is a very cool find!"




Yah the sled is cool to look at but if it Was truly historic someone would had hauled it out and put it on display. This is not the first time someone has found this stuff. The window frames are just junk, nothing historic there. When this area and the BWCA was taken over everything in sight was burnt to the ground. Rangers wanted everything manmade gone. Cabins burnt, foundations and chimneys broken up. I hike the woods for fun on down days, there is so much junk in the woods it's sad. I have found many pot belly stoves, lanterns, cathode ray tubes from an old radio, pipes, bails of wire. I have found mining equipment from 100 year old abandoned gold mines just rusting away. Cool? I say this is discarded junk from lazy people of the past. "



I get your point and agree with some of it, but this was found in The Quetico in Canada...not the BWCAW in the United States. Although managed similarly they are definitely not the same. The Canadians often left old camps/buildings behind and ask they not be messed with as they consider them historical unlike the BWCAW who had a policy of complete removal although now they (the BWCAW) say leave anything alone. In this case someone hauled them away from what the Canadians would call a historical site. The proper thing to do would have been to not remove items in the first place but finding them I have been told to either put them back or leave them alone. The Park Officals would prefer to make the decision on what is historical and what should be burned instead of campers making that decision as you seem to advocate above.



T
GeoFisher 08/01/2017 07:48PM
quote MichiganMan: "quote Mocha: "was the stuff just laying right there on the rock by the lake? "



Yes it was. In full view of anyone paddling by. It was a pretty open spot, at first we thought it might be a campsite. There is a fire ring there, but that's all. We thought maybe it was a shore lunch spot for the First Nation folks. We didn't go too far back into the woods, but we didn't really see signs of former habitation or a cabin, or anything like that.



I agree that the sled looks like it could be pulled behind a snowmobile. Maybe someone in there ice fishing or trapping, as HoHo suggested? "



You should have went further back......that is DEFINITELY a cabin site, and lots of interesting stuff.


Don't post specific details :) . But that is a cool site.
GeoFisher 08/01/2017 07:47PM
quote MichiganMan: "quote Mocha: "was the stuff just laying right there on the rock by the lake? "



Yes it was. In full view of anyone paddling by. It was a pretty open spot, at first we thought it might be a campsite. There is a fire ring there, but that's all. We thought maybe it was a shore lunch spot for the First Nation folks. We didn't go too far back into the woods, but we didn't really see signs of former habitation or a cabin, or anything like that.



I agree that the sled looks like it could be pulled behind a snowmobile. Maybe someone in there ice fishing or trapping, as HoHo suggested? "
GeoFisher 08/01/2017 07:45PM
quote MichiganMan: "Found this weird sled at a shore lunch spot on Jean Lake, near the entrance to Little Jean. There were also several wooden window frames laying there. Anyone know the story behind this stuff? "


Did you walk back in the woods .......lots of interesting stuff on that spot.......LOTS.


Later,


Geo
Savage Voyageur 07/31/2017 05:56PM
quote Frenchy19: "quote Savage Voyageur: "It would be firewood if I were there. "



Really? Historic relics mean nothing to you? That is a very cool find!"



Yah the sled is cool to look at but if it Was truly historic someone would had hauled it out and put it on display. This is not the first time someone has found this stuff. The window frames are just junk, nothing historic there. When this area and the BWCA was taken over everything in sight was burnt to the ground. Rangers wanted everything manmade gone. Cabins burnt, foundations and chimneys broken up. I hike the woods for fun on down days, there is so much junk in the woods it's sad. I have found many pot belly stoves, lanterns, cathode ray tubes from an old radio, pipes, bails of wire. I have found mining equipment from 100 year old abandoned gold mines just rusting away. Cool? I say this is discarded junk from lazy people of the past.
Yellowbird 07/31/2017 04:31PM
There is an old camp behind the campsite at the entrance of Little Jean (site H3). Maybe there is a connection with these items.
aholmgren 07/31/2017 11:04AM
thanks for picturing and posting. neat find. looks like it has sheet metal on the runners. it doesn't look to be a sled a dog team towed. old and weather but with some rope still it.
stevedug 07/31/2017 10:15AM
we stopped at that exact spot a couple weeks ago to stretch our legs and saw the sled and window frame. they weren't together like in your pick, but a bit spread out on that open rock area. the sled is obviously pretty old, but the window was weirder I thought, since it still had remnants of bug screening on the edges.
Pinetree 07/31/2017 07:08AM
old mining attempt?
missmolly 07/31/2017 06:54AM
Agreed. That's an old sled design. Maybe the windows were used as drying racks.
Frenchy19 07/30/2017 09:59PM
quote Ho Ho: "thebotanyguy's point that it looks like something that would be towed by a snowmobile got me thinking, aren't there some traplines still run in the winter in Quetico (or at least, weren't there until recently), and weren't the trappers allowed to used snowmobiles to run the lines - especially in the western part of the park (including Jean) that has been administered by the LLC First Nation? Maybe it's connected with that activity.



"



No way is that a recent "trapline still run in the winter." That sled is old, dude.
Pinetree 07/30/2017 09:12PM
Looking at that sled it looks like it would be unstable behind a snowmobile.

I would be curious what kind of bottom it had?
MichiganMan 07/30/2017 09:07PM
quote Mocha: "was the stuff just laying right there on the rock by the lake? "


Yes it was. In full view of anyone paddling by. It was a pretty open spot, at first we thought it might be a campsite. There is a fire ring there, but that's all. We thought maybe it was a shore lunch spot for the First Nation folks. We didn't go too far back into the woods, but we didn't really see signs of former habitation or a cabin, or anything like that.


I agree that the sled looks like it could be pulled behind a snowmobile. Maybe someone in there ice fishing or trapping, as HoHo suggested?
Ho Ho 07/30/2017 08:05PM
thebotanyguy's point that it looks like something that would be towed by a snowmobile got me thinking, aren't there some traplines still run in the winter in Quetico (or at least, weren't there until recently), and weren't the trappers allowed to used snowmobiles to run the lines - especially in the western part of the park (including Jean) that has been administered by the LLC First Nation? Maybe it's connected with that activity.


Frenchy19 07/30/2017 08:04PM
quote Savage Voyageur: "It would be firewood if I were there. "


Really? Historic relics mean nothing to you? That is a very cool find!
Pinetree 07/30/2017 12:27PM
does the island big enough maybe a cabin was present once?
Savage Voyageur 07/30/2017 12:23PM
It would be firewood if I were there.
thebotanyguy 07/30/2017 12:09AM
The sled and hitch look like something that would be towed behind a snowmobile. The window frames, I have no clue what they might be for.
Pinetree 07/29/2017 10:59PM
That is one heavy duty metal bar on that sled.
Mocha 07/29/2017 09:14PM
was the stuff just laying right there on the rock by the lake? if so, chances are someone found it back in the woods and drug it out, maybe intending to pack it out or maybe leaving it hoping someone else would. Cool stuff!
QueticoMike 07/29/2017 01:18PM
That is an interesting find.
MichiganMan 07/28/2017 09:51PM
Found this weird sled at a shore lunch spot on Jean Lake, near the entrance to Little Jean. There were also several wooden window frames laying there. Anyone know the story behind this stuff?