I was on a week long canoe trip in July 1969. I have the original map from that trip. We stopped at Painted Rock to look at the art. I did not make a mark on the map to show the location. Does anyone know where I can find a location of the Painted Rocks on a map?

I’m not sure such a map of the pictographs (if that’s what you are referring to) exists. Many are shown on maps but I know of no map that shows them all. However if you know the lake or area you were on, it should be pretty easy to help you as most are well known.

Painted Rock Island is on Lake of the Woods. It has a really nice set of Pictographs. That is mostly a power boat lake but some people do canoe in the Canadian sections with Islands. Other than that you need to give us a lake whether it was BWCA or Quetico would help. Then someone should be able to help you.

Ryan

This should assist.
Book on pictographs

Thanks to everyone for the help and suggestions. I should have provided more info in the original post. We left Charles L. Sommers canoe base near Ely and went north, then west on Crooked Lake (Lac La Croix). After your responses, I went back to the maps and studied it more closely. I found the location labeled on the map just south of the Canadian Ranger cabin, in the section of Crooked Lake that turns back south.
We had been traveling west in the lake, probably actually in Quetico park along the border. I have added a close-up photo of the map showing the location.

Thanks for helping me relive some wonderful memories!

JC

Your map doesn’t have Crooked Lake on it. More likely you are talking about the pictographs on crooked lake near lower basswood falls.

Although possible, I doubt you left Charles Sommers base and traveled all the way to Lac La Croix and back. That isn’t a typical route of that base. That would be way too far for a scout group to travel on a trip for a week. They pack you way too heavy for that :) Also you would have paddled right by the Pictographs on Crooked to get to LacLa Croix so you would be asking about 2 sets of large groups of pictographs not one.

That’s my detective work anyway. I pulled a few pics off this site on the probable location you saw the pictos years ago.

Based on your map that is Lac La Croix. If you went on a longer trip which troops that go into Quetico do you could have made that distance. Would have been a pretty long trip since you’d have paddled from the base. More like a 10 to 14 day trip out and back. The pictographs are near the deer head symbols. That site has two different areas which is why 2 marks. I did note you said a week and that would have been an unbelievable distance to make in a week.



If you paddled the border route you’d have also gone by another site near but north of Lower Basswood falls.

Ryan

If the pictographs you are thinking of are on Crooked Lake, it is a famous location in part due to the painting by Francis Lee Jacques.

Pictured Rocks on Crooked Lake.

I would think you could easily go from moose to lac La Croix then down to Moose River North in a week. Not terribly far… newer fisher maps have more of an icon to mark pictographs. The ones you showed are on the Canadian side of the border. But we all slip over for a look…
You would’ve gone by the ones by lower basswood falls too. Our Canadian friends sneak over and peek at those… so we’re even! Haha!
Many trips across the border route over the years. Always fun to take in the Falls, Pictographs, and the beauty of that area. The Fisher maps were the standard for a lot of years. My dad had some in his workshop from a trip he took in 1951. I was so enthralled with them when I was a kid. I could basically paddle those areas without a map I had them memorized so well.

Totally doable f you go one way and get picked up. I did a similar trip 2 years ago. Northern Tier doesn’t generally do that though! In general You paddle out from Moose and you paddle back to Moose. Some troops occasionally do a north to south or a south to north trip across Quetico. Since Northern tier also has a base near Atikokan. Works well if they have two crews starting at each end.

Ryan