Voyageurs National Park: A Land of Lakes

01The state of Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes.

02Our national park this week protects four major ones.

03The National Park Service says water is the foundation of this wild and remote place.

04Welcome to Voyagers National Park.

05You must have a strong desire to see Voyagers to make the visit.

06It is not an easy place to get to.

07Much of the park is accessible only by boat.

08The Voyagers for whom the park was named understood this well.

09Voyager is a French word meaning traveler.

10In the 1700s, French-Canadian fur traders started coming to the area seeking beaver fur and other animal coats.

11The product was in great demand in Europe.

12The fur traders traveled to and from the area for business.

13They took canoes to get around.

14The boat trips were often long and hard.

15The waters and wild animals created great dangers.

16Voyager life became legendary.

17The men were seen as brave adventurers.

18But they were also romantics.

19They became known for singing songs as they navigated the waterways.

20Of course, the Voyagers were not the first people in the area that is now Voyagers National Park.

21People first arrived there about 10,000 years ago.

22They were mostly nomadic and did not settle permanently.

23In the last 1,000 years, Native American tribes settled in the area, including the Cree, Monsoni, and Assinibon.

24The Ojibwa were the residents of more modern times.

25They served as guides to the fur traders.

26They also provided canoes and other important items.

27Voyagers National Park covers almost 88,500 hectares.

28About half of that surface is water.

29Creating the park was a long and difficult process.

30Minnesotan state lawmakers first proposed the idea in 1891.

31But it was 80 years before Congress established the park.

32President Richard Nixon signed the bill that finally established Voyagers as a national park in 1971.

33The park protects four major Minnesotan lakes.

34Rainy Lake, Cabotogama, Namakin, and Sand Point.

35Rainy is the biggest.

36It covers about 930 square kilometers.

37It is a popular fishing lake.

38Fishers may catch walleye, northern pike, and smallmouth bass.

39In the winter, thick ice covers Rainy Lake.

40Visitors can walk and drive on it.

41Rainy Lake meets with Namakin and Cabotogama lakes at Kettle Falls.

42A dam was built on the falls in the early 20th century.

43Along with it came the Kettle Falls Hotel.

44It housed traders, loggers, and visitors searching for gold in the area.

45The hotel fell into disuse in more modern times.

46But in 1987, the National Park Service made repairs and improvements to the building.

47It is the only indoor place to stay in the area.

48Nature and art meet at the Ellsworth Rock Gardens in Voyagers National Park.

49Park officials describe the gardens as the showplace of Lake Cabotogama.

50A carpenter and artist from Chicago named Jack Ellsworth built a summer home on the lake in the 1940s.

51He then designed, built, and cared for the rock gardens over 20 years.

52The artist also created garden sculptures from native stone.

53There were once about 200 rock sculptures.

54Ellsworth stopped caring for the gardens in his older age.

55When the National Park Service took control of the land, the gardens needed repair and restoration.

56Today, it is an interesting place to visit within the park.

57Voyagers National Park may be best seen at night.

58Officials there like to say that half of the park comes out after dark.

59Certainly, much of its magic does.

60The most spectacular light display on Earth is sometimes visible at Voyagers.

61The aurora borealis, or northern lights, appear periodically in the night sky as streaks or clouds of light.

62The lights are most often white or soft green.

63However, they sometimes deepen into colors like yellow, red, blue, and even purple.

64The northern lights are not always immediately recognizable, but keep watching.

65If the light you see comes and goes or intensifies over time, you may be witnessing the aurora borealis.

66Along with the northern lights, Voyagers is a great place to see meteors.

67These bursts of light cross the area's black skies mostly in August, during the Perseids meteor shower.

68Meteors, often called shooting stars, form when pieces of ice and dust cross into Earth's atmosphere and begin to burn brightly.

69The display of natural fireworks is a great way to finish the day at Voyagers National Park.

70You can fall asleep under the stars and be sure that more extraordinary nature awaits you when day breaks in Voyagers National Park.

71I'm Katie Weaver.

72And I'm Ashley Thompson.