Brule Lake is a lake in
Cook County
Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40 percent of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
. It is situated between two long
sills in the
Superior Upland
Superior may refer to:
*Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind
Places
* Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state
*Lak ...
, causing the lake to be eight times longer east and west than it is north and south. Out of the opposite ends flow the
Temperance River
The Temperance River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 7, 2012 river in northern Minnesota. It drains into Lake Superior along its north shore just south of Toft ...
and the South Brule, a tributary of the
Brule River
The Brule River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed December 19, 2011 river in the U.S. states of Michigan and Wisconsin. Nearly, almost all of the course forms a po ...
. Brule Lake was logged heavily in the early 1900s, and the region around it was consumed in 1929 by a logging-related forest fire which bears Brule Lake's name. Now the lake is part of the protected
Boundary Waters Canoe Area
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW or BWCA) comprises of pristine forests, glacial lakes, and streams in the Superior National Forest. Located entirely within the U.S. state of Minnesota at the Boundary Waters, the Wilderness, wi ...
, a federal wilderness area for which Brule Lake serves as an entrance point.
Topography
Brule Lake is one of the largest lakes in the eastern
Arrowhead Region
The Arrowhead Region is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota, so called because of its pointed shape. The predominantly rural region encompasses of land area and includes Carlton, Cook, Lake and Saint Louis counti ...
of Minnesota.
[Minnesota Game and Fish Department. ]
Fins, Feathers and Fur.
' vol. 29–54. p.43 Sept. 1925. It has an area of 4272 acres, and a maximum depth of 78 feet.
It sits 1851 feet above sea level.
[Minnesota State Drainage Commission. ]
Report of the Water Resources Investigation of Minnesota, 1911–1912.
' p.569. McGill-Warner, 1912. It measures approximately eight miles from east to west, and one mile from north to south.
[Grant, U.S., "Lakes With Two Outlets in Northern Minnesota", p. 408. ''The American Geologist'', Volume 19, 1897.] Brule Lake is located in the
Duluth Complex
The Duluth Complex, the related Beaver Bay Complex, and the associated North Shore Volcanic Group are rock formations which comprise much of the basement bedrock of the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota in central North America. The ...
, a geological region marked by bands of softer, more erodible bedrock, and "red rock," a harder and less easily eroded stone, which forms protruding ridges across the Superior Uplands.
[Steeg, Karl ver. "The Influence of Geologic Structure on the Drainage Pattern in Northeastern Minnesota." ''The Journal of Geology,'' p. 353. Vol. 55, No. 4 (Jul. 1947)] In the region of the Brule, these ridges run nearly exactly east-west, and long, thin lakes lie between them.
The valley in which Brule Lake is located is bound on the north by the
Misquah Hills
The Misquah Hills are a range of mountains in northeastern Minnesota, in the United States. They are located in or near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness within Superior National Forest. Eagle Mountain, the highest point in Minnesota at ...
, and on the south by another sill peaked by Brule Mountain. Though the distance between these points is only four miles, the valley is six hundred feet deep.
[Berkey, Chas P. "Preliminary Report of the Levelling Party." ''Annual Report, for the Year 1881.'' Ed. Winchell, N. H. Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota. p. 136. St. Paul, 1882.] Brule Mountain, Misquah Hill (Point 2230), and
Eagle Mountain are all prominent red rock
monadnocks
An inselberg or monadnock ( ) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain.
In Southern Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an ...
surrounding Brule Lake.
[Steeg, Karl ver. "The Influence of Geologic Structure on the Drainage Pattern in Northeastern Minnesota." ''The Journal of Geology,'' Vol. 55, No. 4 (Jul. 1947), p. 355.] Misquah Hill was erroneously identified as the highest point in Minnesota during the 1890s, until the United States Department of the Interior resurveyed in 1961, concluding that Eagle Mountain was taller by 74 feet.
[Summit plaque, Eagle Mountain, Minnesota Historical Society, 1967]
Brule Lake is the source of both the
Temperance and the South
Brule Rivers.
The Temperance drains from the west side of the lake, and flows some thirty miles until entering Lake Superior near
Tofte. The South Brule drains from the east and flows some forty miles until entering Lake Superior forty three miles northeast of the mouth of the Temperance.
The Temperance and Brule have the fourth and third largest catchment areas of any stream entering Lake Superior in Minnesota.
[Eberhart, Adolph Olson; Ralph, Georg A.; Follansbee, Robert. ''Report of the Water Resources Investigation of Minnesota'', 1911–1912. p. 521.] Separated from the mainland by these two watersheds are the
Poplar,
Cascade
Cascade, or Cascading may refer to:
Science and technology Science
* Air shower (physics), a cascade (particle shower) of subatomic particles and ionized nuclei
** Particle shower, a cascade of secondary particles produced as the result of a high ...
, and
Devil Track rivers, which drain a total of slightly over 300 square miles of land themselves.
Plant and animal life
Brule Lake was stocked for
walleye
The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern ...
prior to 1985, and presently supports a self-sustained population.
[Brule Lake information report](_blank)
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2012. Smaller walleye's major forage,
yellow perch
The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samuel Latham Mitchill fr ...
, are small in number in Brule. This limits the size of the walleye population, although once they grow large enough they can forage on Brule's much larger cisco population.
Northern pike
The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...
and
smallmouth bass
The smallmouth bass (''Micropterus dolomieu'') is a species of freshwater fish in the Centrarchidae, sunfish family (biology), family (Centrarchidae) of the order (biology), order Centrarchiformes. It is the type species of its genus ''Micropterus ...
are also sport fish found in this lake. The 2009 survey also turned up
white sucker
The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii'') is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is common ...
.
In February 1926, the Minnesota Game and Fish department organized a survey of the Brule and
Winchell lakes region, which reported a heavy presence of moose, a comparatively light presence of deer, also timber wolves, foxes, mink, and the trail of a
Canadian lynx
The Canada lynx (''Lynx canadensis'') or Canadian lynx is one of the four living species in the genus ''Lynx''. It is a medium-sized wild cat characterized by long, dense fur, triangular ears with black tufts at the tips, and broad, snowshoe ...
.
Human use
Brule Lake lies in a region which has seen human population since the end of the last ice age.
It has variously been within the territory of the
Dakota
Dakota may refer to:
* Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux
** Dakota language, their language
Dakota may also refer to:
Places United States
* Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Dakota, Illinois, a town
* Dakota, Minnesota ...
,
Cree
The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...
,
Ojibwa
The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thro ...
,
French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
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* The French (band), ...
,
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
, and
Americans
Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...
.
[Wilbers, Steven. ]
Boundary Waters Chronology
' Accessed May 21, 2012. It saw little development until the opening of a railroad that allowed loggers easier access to the interior of the Arrowhead region's dense pine forest. A survey of the region was made by
Ulysses S. Grant II and
Newton Horace Winchell
Newton Horace Winchell (17 December 1839 – 2 May 1914) was an American geologist chiefly notable for his six-volume work ''The Geology of Minnesota: Final Report of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota'', which was prepared ...
in 1893, which established the surface elevation of the Brule and the heights of many of the hills around it.
[Berkey, Chas P. "Preliminary Report of the Levelling Party." ''Annual Report, for the Year 1881.'' Ed. Winchell, N. H. Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota. p. 134. St. Paul, 1882.] In 1898, the
Duluth and Northern Minnesota Railroad was opened to service the logging firm of Alger, Smith Company, and in time a spur of this railroad was built to Lake Brule.
[Wolff, Julius F. "Some Vanished Settlements of the Arrowhead Country." ''Minnesota History.'' v. 34, p. 181]
/ref>
Around 1920, the General Logging Company had acquired the rights to stands of white pine in the region of Brule Lake from the Alger, Smith Company.[Wolff, Julius F. "Some Major Forest Fires in the Sawbill Country." Minnesota History, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Dec. 1958). p. 132.] Laws requiring the removal of pine slash were not being effectively enforced in the region, increasing the danger of forest fire.[Wolff, Julius F. "Some Major Forest Fires in the Sawbill Country." Minnesota History, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Dec. 1958). p. 133.] Twenty one days later,United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...
's firefighting capacity in the region.[Wolff, Julius F. "Some Major Forest Fires in the Sawbill Country." Minnesota History, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Dec. 1958). p. 134.]
With the decline of the lumber industry between 1920 and 1940, many lumber railways were dismantled, including the Alger line.[Ryan, J. C.]
Minnesota Logging Railroads
''Minnesota History.'' Vol. 24, Issue 4 (1946) p. 301. The railroad grade was acquired by the county[State of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources]
All-Terrain Vehicle Use On the North Shore State Trail: A Feasibility Study.
March 1, 2006. p. 37. and now functions as a gravel road, known as "The Grade," which provides the only access for motorized vehicles to Brule Lake.
In 1925, an unauthorized canal was blasted between Brule Lake and the South Brule River, while a dam was built to close off its outlet into the Temperance.["Northern Lakes Present Varied Problems". p. 43. ''Fins, Feathers, and Fur'', Official Bulletin of the Minnesota Game and Fish Department. No 43, September 1925.] These were later repaired, using nearby boulders, brush, and two bags of cement.[Brickner, Joe. ''Completing the Game and Fish House.'' Cook County New Herald, December 22, 1960.] During the 1920s, Edward Wellington Backus
Edward Wellington Backus (December 1, 1861 – October 29, 1934) was a timber baron, dam builder, mill owner, financier, developer of the northern reaches of Minnesota, and president of the Ontario & Minnesota Power Company and Minnesota and Ontari ...
was attempting to build hydroelectric dams on northern Minnesotan rivers, and the blasting was likely connected to this development. It has been variously blamed on land speculators trying to convince buyers that the Brule had enough flow to be a viable source of hydroelectric power,[BWCA History](_blank)
accessed May 21, 2012. In 1964, the United States government passed the Wilderness Act
The Wilderness Act of 1964 () is a federal land management statute meant to protect U.S. Wilderness Area, federal wilderness and to create a formal mechanism for designating wilderness. It was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Socie ...
, designating the BWCA a wilderness area under special conservation rules.[US Forest Service]
Forest Roadless Area Inventory and Evaluation.
p. C-2 As a resort was located on Brule's shores, motorboats with a motor under 10 horsepower were permitted by law to continue to operate until 1994 or the resort closed. Since the resort closed, Brule Lake is open only to non-motorized craft.[Title 36: Parks, Forests, and Public Property]
293.16 Special provisions governing the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Superior National Forest, Minnesota.
See also
* Gust Hagberg
References
{{authority control
Lakes of Cook County, Minnesota
Lakes of Minnesota