Powwow Creek
A spur of Powwow Trail used to cross Powwow Creek near where unnamed creek flows in from the northeast. This is about a mile upstream from where Ferne Creek flows into Powwow Creek. This is shown on the 1993 Fisher F-4 map. This spur of the Powwow Trail used to continue out to Ferne Lake and along the north shore of that lake. This same trail is shown on the 2001 Fisher F-5 map so it probably existed near Powwow Creek at that time too. Remember, this is before the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire. The trail still is visible on satellite images (i.e. Google Maps). This trail is not displayed at all on the 2010 McKenzie #19 map (Isabella Lake). Finally, this old spur of the Powwow Trail continued on, heading almost straight north from Ferne Lake and eventually ending at Nuthatch Lake.
This area was scorched by the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire that burned much of the southwestern part of the BWCA and was the largest fire in recorded history at about 100,000 acres (almost 10% of the entire BWCA).
There was a large fire in this area around 1863-1864. This fire is known as the North Kawishiwi River/Alice Lake/Cypress Lake/Saganaga Lake Complex. This burn began south of the current BWCAW's southern boundary near the town of Isabella, Minnesota.
Paddling Powwow Creek
Only about a 60 rod section of Powwow Creek (a wide area) is floatable in a canoe. The remaining 800 rods or so is a bushwhack. On a positive note, the bushwhack is through peat bog as the creek passes through this landform almost the entire distance between the Perent River and Powwow Lake.
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