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The Boundary Waters is the most heavily visited wilderness area in the United States.
Immaculate Wilderness, Uncertain Future: Paddling the Boundary Waters
A proposed copper mine in northern Minnesota has become a battleground for politicians and environmentalists — and a pressing reason to explore the waterways.
The Boundary Waters is the most heavily visited wilderness area in the United States.
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By
Stephanie Pearson
April 27, 2026
Saganaga Lake was so calm that I could see boulders 10 feet below the surface. The water reflected a mirror image of the clouds above as my partner, Brian, and I paddled between earth and sky. On the horizon, a forest of white pine, spruce and cedar delineated the northern shoreline, in Canada. The border between the two nations floated in the middle of this vast lake, one of more than 1,100 within Minnesota’s roadless, 1.1-million-acre
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
.
It was warm for mid-September — high 70s. We found a campsite on a small island dwarfed by a towering white pine. We quickly hauled up the canoe and jumped into the lake. I lost my breath, embracing the numbing water and letting it strip away 48 hours of grime.
What a difference a day makes. The previous afternoon we were stormbound, sitting under a tarp hastily strung between pines, watching lightning flash around us as rivulets of rainwater slowly flooded our campsite. Every so often a red-eyed loon would break the lake’s surface carrying a minnow in her beak to feed her chick.
But a nagging concern kept pulling me from the present: The beauty of this thriving ecosystem is increasingly shrouded by the threat of a proposed copper and nickel mine within the Rainy River watershed, which encompasses most of the Boundary Waters. Environmental groups warn that sulfuric acid, a byproduct of the mining operation, could contaminate the water and endanger everything living in it.
I grew up in northern Minnesota and have been paddling these lakes since I was a young child, first with my parents and four siblings, and later guiding teenagers out of a camp based on Sea Gull Lake. Now I paddle whenever I can string together a few free days and secure a permit.
A Pristine Ecosystem
Image
Environmental groups warn that sulfuric acid, a byproduct of the copper mining operation, could contaminate the ecosystem.
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Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis, via Getty Images
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