Quetico-Superior Country of Minnesota and Ontario

An uncommon pictorial proposal for an International Peace Forest in the Boundary Waters region

This brightly colored pictorial map of northern Minnesota and southwestern Ontario was copyrighted in 1949 by the W.A. Fisher Company of Virginia, MN. Research was provided by Grace Lee Nute of the Minnesota Historical Society, with financial sponsorship by the President’s Quetico-Superior Committee in the Interest of the Proposed International Peace Forest.

The constituent components of this theoretical postwar peace preserve, the Quetico Provincial Park and Superior National Forest, are highlighted in orange and green, respectively, with the remote Boundary Waters splitting the two. Native American reservations and Painted Rocks are noted with special symbols and dozens of lakes are labeled (with several fish leaping from their waters, tempting eager anglers). An illustrated history offers a deliberately cohesive (if somewhat misleading) overview of the relationships between the French fur traders (voyageurs), Catholic missionaries, and the local indigenous populations.