BF In The "Lost Forty", Chippewa NF, MN

[hiflier]

I was doing some research for the sequel to my novel, "The Tale of Six Rivers". Unlike the novel, which starts off in NorCal, the follow-up story is starting out in Bemidji, Minnesota. There is a tract of land to the East of Bemidji called the "Lost Forty" which has an interesting history as far as its beginning back in 1882.  https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snas/detail.html?id=sna01063

 

Of course, since the sequel concerns "our" subject, I also looked for any BF related stories. Found this one from June, 2015: http://squatchable.com/report.asp?id=7932&title=Strange+incident+while+taking+photos+in+the+Lost+Forty+SNA

 

Is anyone here on the Forum familiar with the Chippewa National Forest to which the Lost Forty is a part of? The Lost Forty sits just East of Coddington Lake which sends it water into an area called the Dishpan.  

[hiflier]

Earlier in my research, when I clicked on the Chippewa National Park website there was a story about the CNF having the oldest known bear in the world. Bear Number 56. It was a Black Bear (obviously) sow who was 39 years old and had beaten all the odds of being killed by hunters or a road collision. A few days later I went back and typed in "Bear 56" to refresh some details on her and saw an article saying she had passed away from natural causes back in August of 2013. She was 39 1/2 years old.

 

When she was alive the Wildlife and Forestry had put out a request to hunters not to shoot her. She had been collared and tagged most of her life and a lot of hunters knew her so even when she visited bait piles they held their fire. She was never a nuisance bear and didn't even raid bird feeders, had 28 cubs in her lifetime, and quite simply did all the right things to stay alive when most females bears don't make it past the age of 18. They can tell a bear's age just like a tree because there are rings of growth in their teeth. Officials had tranquilized her and tagged her in 1981 and puld a tooth to check her age. That's how they knew she was born in 1974.

 

Even though the National Park Service needs to update their information on her I thought it was a pretty cool story. Had I done the math I could have figured out that she was already gone. Bear 56 was a keeper  

Edited December 14, 2019 by hiflier

[NatFoot]

^^ 

 

Cool story. 28 Cubs. Wow.

[Pdub]

I don’t know if I qualify as an expert on the Chippewa National Forest but I have been to the Lost 40. Did the hiking trail with my daughter a few years ago. We were camping at Lake Itasca (headwaters of the Mississippi). Beautiful area, old growth white pines are magnificent trees. The area is filled with lakes, forest and relatively few people. Also several large reservations in the area. 

[hiflier]

My understanding is no one can camp at the LF as it is a scientific management area like other sections of the Chippewa NF that surround it. If you go to the link you will see tons of very large boggy areas with woody hills poking up through. Bogs are supposedly warmer in winter according to our own NathanFooter. And you'll also see very large wildlife management areas. You can see your "Lost 40" trail, to, Pdub:   https://www.topozone.com/minnesota/itasca-mn/lake/coddington-lake/

 

[Pdub]

I think you are correct, no camping allowed there. We were camped about an hour away and just drove over for a few hours. I’d be curious to know the temperature variations in the bogs vs other surrounding areas. Just looked it up currently 5 Degrees F with -1 windchill in Bemidji. Winter is very long and very cold up there.