page_title: Quetico Provincial Park
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Quetico Provincial Park / History
context_page_description: Quetico Provincial Park is a large wilderness park in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, known for its excellent canoeing and fishing. The 4,760 km² park shares its southern border with Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which is part of the larger Superior National Forest. These large wilderness parks are often collectively referred to as the Boundary Waters or the Quetico-Superior Country.
context_section_description: The north country was inhabited by the Paleo-Indian culture circa 8000 BC.  Limited artifacts have been found in the park from that era and the subsequent Archaic period circa 6000 years ago. Among these is rock art, such as a canoe pictograph at Agnes Lake. Artifacts from the Early Woodland Era (circa 1300 years ago) have not been found there, but pottery and clay pipes from the Later Woodland Indians have been found there.
  In 1909, an "Order in Council" by the Government of Ontario established the Quetico Forest Reserve.  Early the same year, the United States federal government established the adjacent Superior National Forest and Superior Game Refuge, part of which would eventually be designated and protected as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Quetico Provincial Park was created in 1913 through passage of the Provincial Parks Act. Road access was not constructed until 1954.
  Ontario's creation of the park created a conflict with the Lac La Croix First Nation, who had a reserve located within the park boundaries. In 1915, the province cancelled the band's right to Reserve 24C and relocated the people, also effectively cancelling their treaty rights from the reserve. The grievances of the band were not addressed until 1991, when the Minister of Natural Resources, Bud Wildman, made a landmark, formal apology in the legislature for these actions. Wildman also committed to government "immediate and long-term assistance to improve the economic and social conditions of the band." He approved one of the band's requests: to allow them to use mechanized boats and canoes on three additional lakes in the park for the purposes of guiding, and to expand use of floatplanes, during an interim period while public review was conducted.
  The origin of the park's name is obscure. Locals say the park is named after the "Quebec Timber Company". The name may also be a version of the French words quête de la côte, which means "search for the coast". It may also be from an Ojibwe name for a benevolent spirit who resides in places of great beauty.
  The park has been completely protected from logging since 1971. Motor vehicles, including boats, were banned in the Quetico in 1979. An exception allows members of the Lac La Croix Guides Association, part of the Lac La Croix First Nation, to operate power boats with engines of no more than 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) on Quetico, Beaverhouse, Wolseley, Tanner, Minn, and McAree lakes. Following public review of an amended management plan in the late 1990s, and additional changes, in the early 21st century, the official plan (Agreement of Coexistence) is to phase out motorized guiding activities by the Lac La Croix First Nation in Quetico Provincial Park through simple attrition by the year 2015.
caption: French River Rapids, field sketch by Paul Kane, 1845.
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