From Voyageurs National Park on FB: Called “Catamaran” by locals, Bert Upton is among the strangest of historical characters on area waters. He lived in a hut built over a dug-out at Squirrel Narrows. Found frozen to death in the 1930s by Kettle Falls pioneer Oliver Knox; Upton was perched lifeless in the snow just a half-mile from his home. Shunning civilization, Upton defined the word hermit. First spotted rowing his crude log raft on Namakan, no one knows how he got there. Upton’s accent implied an English heritage but any personal inquiries brought a stony silence. Some suspected him a man fleeing the law; others saw a bizarre outcast; everyone knew he was peculiar. Just five feet tall and wildly unkempt, Catamaran wore hacked-off pants and walked barefoot with a stick. Winter demanded shoes but no socks, a cast-off Mackinaw, and a trailing cap made from the leg of old underwear. He was oddly religious, and suspicious of being poisoned. Surviving on snared rabbits and fish, he ofte...
It's all squatches and lake monsters up there.
ReplyDeleteso what area does "the north woods" refer to for you? i reside in a north woods. but everyone has a different idea of what the north woods is.
ReplyDeleteVoyageurs National Park up on the border.
ReplyDeleteyeah, that's way up there. google image search for the park makes me jealous already. i'd love to move to that part of ontario but i don't think i could ever convince the wife.
ReplyDeleteIt's my favorite place. The only things you see on the canadian side of the lakes is research stations. No public access on their side.
ReplyDeleteoh i'm just talking about that general lake heavy region. essentially anything near the border and west of thunder bay. not specifically across the border from the park.
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