Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area within the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota, along the Canadian border, given wilderness protection by the US Congress in 1978 after decades of more limited protective designations dating to the 1920s. It covers more than a million acres of interconnected lakes, rivers and boreal forest carved by glaciers, laced with canoe routes that follow trails used for centuries by indigenous peoples and later by fur traders. Motorized watercraft and logging are prohibited within its boundaries, and it is managed by the US Forest Service as one of the most visited wilderness areas in the United States, reached primarily by canoe.