I'm looking for suggestions for a 4th of July weekend trip.

I want to see how well my year of Cross-training has paid off. I have a long weekend over the 4th of July and would love to take my Souris River Tranquility on a trip to see some history in the BWCA, whether it's some pictographs or other forms of history. I'll be packing light, so could cover some ground if need be. I'd prefer to go in on the Ely side, but not restricted to it. I like the Gunflint trail side as well. I am open to suggestions. Any suggestions or ideas are welcome.

Thanks.

This trip has plenty of what you asked for. Historic pictograph route

If you want out and back, I'd put in at Moose R. North and head to LLC thru Agnes. Great set of pictos there along with Warrior hill. One portage and you're into Iron and check out Curtain Falls. Head back out if that's your plan. If you have a ride or pay outfitter keep heading east into Crooked and see those pictos and falls and out at Mudro.

Since Warrior Hill is on the Canadian side, do I need anything special?

I am going to go contrary on this--and I am a historian. If you want the history of the BWCA you cannot do better than Basswood, but you need an old map (I have some government maps from the 1930s), some research and if possible a local guide who knows the area. Believe me it is all there from the Voyageur days on up through the logging days of the late nineteenth century to the glory days of places like Basswood Lodge. If you have an extra day or two go up to Knife to see Dorothy's and imagine Prairie Portage when the Chosas ran it. If you have time stop at the Section Thirty mine site and read the stories of the Merritt brothers. Spend an evening at Zaverl's and someone might tell you stories of Jake Peat's cabin boats or the Brown's who ran the Paul Bunyan shop at the end of the Four Mile or the Becky Boo. You want pictographs drive up to Hegman. None other than Carl Gawboy once told me Warrior Hill was a tall tale, but the view is nice. Even Warrior Hill is true, is that history? It never amazes me how many people drive into the BWCA without paying two cents to one of the most historically important and vital communities on the planet--Ely.

I just want to add to my suggestion about Basswood. There are some indigenous American sites there that are far more sacred than Warrior Hill and far more historically relevant than pictographs.

I also urge you to spend some time in Ely getting to know people. In a few years the generation who lived here and went to school at Section Thirty, whose parents worked the underground mines, who knew the history of the Boundary Waters will be gone. Years from now when Warrior Hill is still there along with the pictographs you will regret the chance you had to meet the people who made the history.