LOW brief history

Cool video

Good video, thanks for sharing!

yes very good video!!

Pretty cool

I’d like to know more about the lake when the settlers arrived.

I heard a verbal story about how Garden and Massacre Islands got their name, but don’t know how true it is.

The story goes:

When the settlers came, they left Garden Island for the Indians to have where they had literal gardens.

At one point some settlers pillaged the gardens and the natives killed a bunch of them on Massacre Island.

This is a great video, boat tour with the history of the lake from Tourism Kenora. They also have one for the east side of the lake.

I red a book on the complete history of the area that I borrowed from a friend a couple years ago – I wish I could remember the name of the book and author! Very interesting to read what we know about the Native tribes of the area – how they DID NOT get along (IE Massacre Island) and how the voyageurs and the fur trade and then the lumber trade transformed the area, how all the towns got their names, a deep dive into some to of the regional personalities and historical figures, etc. There’s so much more history to that area than what most realize.

EDIT – I believe the book is “Lake of the Woods – Yesterday and Today” by Duane Lund. It was written in the 70s so the “Today” part is dated, but the history lesson is AMAZING!

Thanks Dutchy. Very interesting with some good info.

Prairie Sportsman have put out a lot of nice stories about northern MN.

Nice video. One of the ice fishing “guides” I had a few years ago said his grandma drove the mail boat on LOW for many years. I bet she had some stories.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

EDIT – I believe the book is “Lake of the Woods – Yesterday and Today” by Duane Lund. It was written in the 70s so the “Today” part is dated, but the history lesson is AMAZING!

Interesting side note. Duane Lund was a resident of my Home Town of Staples Minnesota. He was the superintendent of the Staples Schools for 25 years. He was a Very interesting and Great guy. He wrote a fair # of history books as well as being a rather good oil painter.

Good one Dutch!

Massacre Island is named after the unfortunate events surrounding massacre of 21 French who had left Fort St Charles on a supply run. They were intercepted and massacred on what is to believed to be this island in 1736. Quite an interesting story, some of it can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_Island_(Ontario)

I always like reading the history of Lake of the woods. I have started reading a few of the Books Dr. Lund has written. I have had the pleasure of staying on the Island he owned and it is a beautiful place on the Canadian side. I have many family members that call staples home.