I got the family out of the house today. We took a trip to the lost forty woods. Apparently a mapping error saved it from logging. It’s not a bucket list trip but was neat to see so many large trees together.
93FE902F-6A56-4EDE-831F-461426727214.jpeg
A905364B-3789-45AF-8605-F7D9F071A960.jpeg
A couple more
603A72DF-229C-4655-8D50-9466DC1F95EF.jpeg
D59AA647-E0A3-479D-A402-D28A4E152570.jpeg
Nice, rare to see trees that size left in Minnesota. Is the Lost 40 a state park or county?
I don’t know if its a state Park , but it is managed by the state.
Cool one place I havent been to and it’s like 20 miles north of our cabin.:???: I gotta go there.
Dutchboy don’t qoute me but I think it’s owned by the feds of state.
Nice time to go now ,no bugs and no leaves on the undergrowth, made it easier to look around.
It might be part of the Chippewa national forest?
Very cool place. I believe the story is that a long long time ago surveyors in cold weather were in a rush to finish their work and accidentally marked those 40 acres as water, so when other areas were logged they left those 40 alone. So some of those trees could be hundreds of years old.
You definitely went at a very good time, I went late last summer and the mosquitoes were just awful, I was pushing my kid in a stroller and acting as almost a constant insect swatter because I didn’t want him bit up.
Like you said not a bucket list item but if in the area I’d say go for it, I love that region of the state.
Is that a big white pine?
I love big old trees like that. Awesome sized trees in Quetico, Washington state and Vancouver Island come to mind
Yea the two pics of my kids and me and the fw are actually two different white pines. The one looking up the trunk is a red. The big white pines definitely stand out but there are some very tall red pines.
These two pictures are the same trees I just couldn’t get the whole trees in the same picture.
F98B02B5-D1A0-43DE-9999-C405C3BBDB8F.jpeg
07BDA482-153C-4D19-B36B-D6BF07413484.jpeg
I really wish I could flash back in time to before they clear cut Minnesota. To this day it pisses me off when they have to cut down every single tree all around just to build a house or widen a road. It takes forever to grow trees like those. I hope your kids appreciated those trees.
Nope , I screwed that up it’s these are the same trees.
136800B5-6A66-4B9D-AFE9-D5F206F2C036.jpeg
299E4B91-F0EF-494B-8860-B52E89F41DDD.jpeg
It is a state managed Scientific & Natural Area. Here is part of the description from the DNR web page:
Lost 40 SNA owes its old-growth pine forest to a surveying error that occurred during the Public Land Survey in 1882. As the story goes, the pines were missed by loggers because surveyors mistakenly mapped the area as Coddington Lake. (The lake is actually located a half-mile to the southeast. Oops.). The site was re-surveyed and the error corrected in 1960. Shortly after, it was incorporated into Big Fork State Forest and its old trees have since endured.
I really wish I could flash back in time to before they clear cut Minnesota. To this day it pisses me off when they have to cut down every single tree all around just to build a house or widen a road. It takes forever to grow trees like those. I hope your kids appreciated those trees.
I’m with ya. I’ve spent my whole life in southeast MN. I have a different love and appreciation for farm country, but I absolutely love those tall pines.
Very cool. Never heard of the place before this post.
Brad Dimond is spot on.
Just northwest of Dora Lake.
It is a very cool pace to see.
We went when the kids were little in late June. I understood the moment we got out of the car how some say that the state bird should be the mosquito.
I live in Illinois. ALL of our state parks are closed. If I want to walk around trees I have my yard.
Looks like a cool trip, great idea. Be sure to check and re-check for ticks… they are out in full force.
Another cool tract of land like that closer to the North Shore. Darn shame that short sighted greed eliminated such beautiful trees.
Another cool tract of land like that closer to the North Shore. Darn shame that short sighted greed eliminated such beautiful trees.
Awesome! Is there a map of the area?
*edit* okay I found the entrance to the area but have not found a full area map yet. Would love to visit.
47°31’03.7″N 91°12’33.1″W
Crystal Bay Township, MN
I like how the placards explaining the burn scars on some of the trees. It says you can tell which direction the fires travelled by what side of the tree the burn scar is on. We saw it in 2007 on a summer vacation of northern MN: North Shore, Tower-Sudan Mine, Lost Forty and Mississippi headwaters. Fun trip. My older siblings and I went on a similar trip in the mid 60s.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Drizzy Musky wrote:</div>
Another cool tract of land like that closer to the North Shore. Darn shame that short sighted greed eliminated such beautiful trees.Awesome! Is there a map of the area?
*edit* okay I found the entrance to the area but have not found a full area map yet. Would love to visit.
47°31’03.7″N 91°12’33.1″W
Crystal Bay Township, MN
Still looking for the exact location myself. Been looking for a bit now, guess its a good thing that its hard to find.
Few things cooler than big trees.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>munchy wrote:</div>
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Drizzy Musky wrote:</div>
Another cool tract of land like that closer to the North Shore. Darn shame that short sighted greed eliminated such beautiful trees.Awesome! Is there a map of the area?
*edit* okay I found the entrance to the area but have not found a full area map yet. Would love to visit.
47°31’03.7″N 91°12’33.1″W
Crystal Bay Township, MNStill looking for the exact location myself. Been looking for a bit now, guess its a good thing that its hard to find.
I found this. It has a map of the entire Upper Manitou Preserve, unsure which area Steger had however.
http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Destinations/Upper_Manitou_Forest_Preserve.html
There is another similar area in NE Wisconsin, the Cathedral Pines, in the National Forest. Really cool.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/cnnf/specialplaces/?cid=fseprd580102
There is another similar area in NE Wisconsin, the Cathedral Pines, in the National Forest. Really cool.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/cnnf/specialplaces/?cid=fseprd580102
Awesome, now marked on my maps for future travels. 
That’s pretty cool. I went to the Muir Woods a couple years ago in CA and it’s really cool to walk through a forest of trees that are so enormous.
Here is a piece of related trivia.
A rough gauge of a red pine tree’s age is 5.5 years per inch of diameter.
This number comes from the U of M. So, a guess from the pictures is about 72 inches in dia. or about 400 years old.
Great pictures…
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
