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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Listening Point - General Discussion :: The Lost Entry Points
 
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prettypaddle
02/24/2021 10:28AM
  
cowdoc: "Pretty sure it was in the vicinity of the Howl Swamp portage. I have seen a map with its old location but I dont recall where. Pretty sure the people at Tusc could tell you where. Deb at Seagull could probably tell you. She has some history with Tusc Lodge from back in the day."


The 1963-1981 USGS topo maps have two buildings on Tuscarora at the end of the portage from Howl. I'm fighting the urge to tumble down the rabbit hole in search of clues to other entries.


https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer


This site is a treasure trove. Old topo maps and aerial photos all easily searchable. Don't follow the link if you love maps but need to be productive today.
 
jwartman59
04/27/2020 12:29PM
  
No idea on the # ID but portage river hasn’t been an entry point for some time.
 
cyclones30
04/27/2020 12:45PM
  
jwartman59: "No idea on the # ID but portage river hasn’t been an entry point for some time."


But I think the official Moose R. North entry also lists the portage river name on it? If I recall...
 
mschi772
02/24/2021 02:42PM
  
Just gotta say: this is an excellent discussion topic. Rare to think of such great subjects for fresh forum conversation anymore these days, but this is a great one.
 
Finnboy
02/24/2021 08:22PM
  
In regards to entry point 3. I know an old timer that talks about hiking in north of mud creek road. He would leave a canoe on pine lake in the fall. Hike in during late winter/ early spring. Trap beaver until he could paddle out. They did this up by Kek too. Tough as they come.
 
x2jmorris
04/28/2020 06:37AM
  
I've always wondered this too. Interesting to see some of the responses.
 
Wendigo41
02/25/2021 06:14AM
  
There used to be a boat ramp on Spawn Creek going into Jackfish Bay Basswood. It was closed in the mid 60s. You would drive up the Cloquet line with your boat and trailer and put in at the Creek. Basswood was less than a quarter mile away. This was a little before todays entry point system.
 
schweady
04/28/2020 01:44PM
  
Some of your detective work will probably involve looking into changes over the years to the border surrounding the wilderness area.


To explain the absence of EP #21, here's a nugget from Robert Beymer's The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Volume 1: The Western Region:
"In 1978, the border of the BWCA Wilderness was to the north, and three entry points served this area: #21-Fourtown Lake, #22-Horse Lake, and #23-Range River. After the border change and because of deterioration of the old Cloquet Road, which served entry points #22 and #23, the only entry point now recommended is at Mudro Lake."

 
BigOarDeal
04/28/2020 05:00PM
  
In this thread HansSolo talks about Entry Point #2 being Phantom Lake.


What's an entry point you'll (likely) never go back to?
 
Reverendchuck
07/31/2022 08:49PM
  
Someone posted in the campsite reviews said that site #518 was the location of the original Tuscarora Lodge. It’s a beautiful site with a great sandy beach.
 
GopherAdventure
04/27/2020 03:40PM
  
cyclones30: "jwartman59: "No idea on the # ID but portage river hasn’t been an entry point for some time."



But I think the official Moose R. North entry also lists the portage river name on it? If I recall..."
+1
 
TreeBear
04/27/2020 01:20PM
  
cyclones30: "jwartman59: "No idea on the # ID but portage river hasn’t been an entry point for some time."
But I think the official Moose R. North entry also lists the portage river name on it? If I recall..."
It does. The official permit is "Moose River/Portage River North", though who would take the portage unless they really want some adventure on the way in?
 
Canoearoo
02/23/2021 10:40AM
  
So neat! Thanks for the update!
 
afromaniac
02/23/2021 12:05PM
  
The tuscarora lodge used to actually be on tuscarora lake, that could be where ep 53 went
 
cyclones30
02/23/2021 12:30PM
  
I do think it's fitting that Phantom is gone...
 
TreeBear
02/23/2021 09:51AM
  
I'm reviving my post from last year with some updates for the folks that were interested. So I have been digging into this still since then because I find it fascinating that in a wilderness area as busy as the BW, entry points still fall out of favor and close for one reason or another. I'm still searching into a lot of the "why's" so "why did this entry close and this one stay open?" Was it a slow fade like an entry point was deteriorating and the USFS had to pull the plug eventually or did the USFS pull the plug and the entry point faded back into the forest? Obviously different stories for each. Below are my best guesses from what I have found, but some of them are just guesses. As always, chime in if you know more or have stories.


2: Phantom Lake: This one is confirmed. Closed when the BW boundary moved south.
3: A Hiking Trail somewhere near Trout/Vermillion. I have seen it called the "Pine Lake Trail." I confirmed this one's existence on an old map which had it marked as a hiking EP, but it had none of the trail corridor marked. I have no clue what the story was with this one or really any idea where the access was. That said, as demonstrated by the big trails (Kek, Border Route, Pow Wow, Sioux Hustler, and so on) passionate volunteers are key to a trail staying open. Who knows what happened here?
5: I have found no mention of this one anywhere. My two guesses were Bear Creek/Phantom Creek or one of the ski trail areas into Coxey.
17: Was this the Portage River? Today the Portage shares an EP with North Moose, but, considering the history, separate EP's would make sense.
18: Stuart River Trail: I am not 100% positive that EP 18 was it, but I know the Stuart River Trail existed running up to Mule before heading to Stuart Lake and then (possibly?) over to the Ranger Cabins on LLC. Probably a similar story to the Kek that it was an access road and became obsolete. Volunteers didn't champion the cause and it closed? Again, if anyone knows more....
21: Now the Angleworm Trail, but used to be Fourtown Lake
22: Now Mudro Restricted, but used to be Horse Lake
23: Now Mudro, but used to be Range Lake. All three of these changed with the BW border shift.
46: Either Swamp Lake apart from Liz or the North Brule River. To me, the River makes sense with former portages still marked on some of our maps. It never would have been a huge entry point (probably another single permit a day like the rest of the Lima Grade.) But it didn't add anything over Morgan and Ram other than skipping some portages, and river EP's are always time consuming to maintain.
53: I have zero leads with this one. Current EP numbers would say this one should be somewhere on the north Gunflint between Tuscarora and Seagull. Could Seagull Creek have been a back EP to Paulson (J.A.P.) or Jimmy in the day? I haven't found anything.
63: Again, nothing solid, only theories. Caribou, Deer, or Moon all could have been accessible either from portages from Flour or as an extension of the old road on the south side of Clearwater. Neither would have added much with Clearwater to the north and E Bearskin to the south. Again, I don't have any hard evidence for this theory.
65: I don't have anything here either unless the E Bearskin EP was split between Deer/Moose and Alder or maybe something crazy like a Stump River. But I have zero leads.
72 or 73: I have nothing on 72 or 73. They are after the "from Canada" Ep which would delineate them as hiking trails or one of the late canoe add ons, but maybe not always?
85: No great ideas here either. Was the Eastern Pow Wow gone before it would have received an EP number?
 
HighnDry
02/23/2021 12:50PM
  
afromaniac: "The tuscarora lodge used to actually be on tuscarora lake, that could be where ep 53 went "


Is there a map out there that shows clearly where this lodge was before it was moved? I've curious about where old outfitter lodges were located and whether there are remnants that are recognizable if you paddled up them.
 
Mocha
02/23/2021 12:40PM
  
I seem to remember 53 having something to do with seagull lake. one person to ask would be jim wiinanen who used to manage the wilderness canoe base, then retired and took a job in GM as the catastrophic emergency person (can't think of the actual title of the job). he might be retired from that now, too.
it might have been the motor permit before that turned to a letter OR it could have been the seagull only permit before that changed to 54A...
it did not have anything to do with seagull creek or Jap.

also, lizz, swamp and meeds all were on one permit at one time, but then everyone pretty much took the lizz portages because who wants to do a mile portage... and the portage into swamp somehow got left by the wayside in terms of maintenance. so, the creation of separate permits for lizz 47 and meeds 48. pretty sure I've seen photos of bushwacking into swamp from someone on this site.
 
cowdoc
02/23/2021 03:37PM
  
Pretty sure it was in the vicinity of the Howl Swamp portage. I have seen a map with its old location but I dont recall where. Pretty sure the people at Tusc could tell you where. Deb at Seagull could probably tell you. She has some history with Tusc Lodge from back in the day.
 
cowdoc
04/27/2020 04:18PM
  
Same deal maybe with Lizz/Swamp Lakes #47. Swamp may have been the missing #46
 
GopherAdventure
04/27/2020 05:01PM
  
EP 3 was a hiking entry point east of the Trout Lake entry on the north side of Vermillion Lake. Not sure when or why it disappeared.


Tony
 
straighthairedcurly
02/23/2021 08:42PM
  
I wonder if any of the camps have old history on these.
 
canoe212
04/28/2020 10:58AM
  
I believe Bear Creek between Crab and Trout was once an entry point. No idea as to its number.
 
canoe212
04/28/2020 11:03AM
  
ebay listing
 
TreeBear
04/27/2020 11:05AM
  
Like most of you, I spend a lot of my winter studying up on maps and dreaming of the summer trips (and it may have gotten even worse with the virus)! I also spend a decent amount of time learning about the local history because I find it helps me to keep perspective and appreciate the BW even more.

One thing I have been staring at lately is the "lost entry points." When we look at our current list of entry points, they are assigned a number 1 through 86 (with the day-used motor permits assigned a letter). As one scrolls through, it becomes obvious that a bunch of numbers are missing. I know that entry points have closed over time because the Boundary Water borders have moved (such as Phantom Lake EP) or because the entry point is no longer maintained (such as the Eastern Pow Wow).

So, my question is, do all of the "open numbers" represent former entry points or, to word that differently, have there been 86 different entry points at some point in BWCA history? If so, does anyone know why the USFS didn't reuse the old numbers very often? If the old numbers do in fact represent closed EPs, I would love to fill in at least the names for the sake of knowing and understanding more.

Numbers without current EPs:

2:
3:
5:
17:
18:
46:
53:
63:
65:
72:
73:
85:

Thanks for any help with filling in the gaps! I appreciate it.