After visiting some pictographs and Warrior Hill in Lac La Croix this past week, it sparked my interest in the history of the BWCA. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good book that tells the history? The history of the indians who lived there and the people from hundreds of years ago whose portages I was now using just amazed me.

Two good books for your reading pleasure:
"Our Historic Boundary Waters" by Duane R. Lund" and "The Voyagers Highway" by Grace Lee Nute.
Enjoy!

In no particular order, some history, reference material and storytelling:

A Boundary Waters History: Canoeing Across Time
Stephen Wilburs

Canoe Country
Florence Jaques

Portage Into the Past
J. Arnold Bolz

Troubled Waters: The Fight for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
Kevin Proescholdt, Rip Rapson, Miron L. Heinselman

Magic on the Rocks: Canoe Country Pictographs
Michael Furtman

The Boundary Waters Wilderness Ecosystem
Miron L. Heinselman

Quetico Provincial Park: An Illustrated History
Shirley Peruniak

Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes
Ken Kidd, Selwyn Dewdney

Boundary Waters: The Grace of the Wild
Paul Gruchow

A Trapper’s Legacy
Carl Schel

Tales From Jackpine Bob
Bob Cary

Father Water, Mother Woods
Gary Paulsen

Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods
John J. Rowlands

A History of Ely and Winton Since 1888
???

Canoeing With the Cree
Eric Sevareid

A Place in the Woods
Helen Hoover

Voices From the Rapids: An Underwater Search for Fur Trade Artifacts, 1960-73
Robert C. Wheeler

Trapping the Boundary Waters: A Tenderfoot in Border Country
Charles I. Cook

Gunflint: Reflections on the Trail
Justine Kerfoot

Epic Wanderer: David Thompson & the Mapping of the Canadian West
D’Arcy Jenish

By Water & Rail: A History of Lake County
Hugh E. Bishop

Trapping the Boundary Waters
Charles Ira Cook

Woman of the Boundary Waters
Justine Kerfoot

Betsy & Saganaga
Betsy Powell

Gunflint
John Henrikkson

A Wonderful Country: The Quetico-Superior Stories of Bill Magie
Dave Olesen

Dorothy Molter: The Root Beer Lady
Sarah Guy Levar & Terri Schocke

A History of Incredible Ely
John W. Somrock

Stories of Old Ely & the Lake Country
Mike Hillman

Distant Fires
Scott Anderson

Between the Waters: Tracing the Northwest Trail from Lake Superior to the Mississippi
Larry Luukkonen