Surrounded by Wildfire: Reflections on the Pagami Creek Fire

Ten years ago this month, the Pagami Creek Fire burned 93,000 acres in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

A lightning strike approximately 13 miles east of Ely ignited the Pagami Creek Fire. First detected on August 18, 2011, the fire smoldered in a bog for several days before it erupted on a monumental scale.

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Pagami Creek Fire was the seventh-largest fire in Minnesota history and the largest inside state lines in nearly 100 years. The powerful blaze vaporized trees and resulted in a massive, 35,000-foot plume that created its own weather system. Smoke from the Pagami Creek Fire drifted as far as Chicago. 

Along its destructive path, the Pagami Creek Fire destroyed numerous campsites and rendered many portages and trails unusable and unsafe within the federally-protected wilderness.

Greg and Julie Welch from Indian River, Michigan, stopped at the Tofte Ranger on Sept. 11, 2011, to pick up their permit to enter through the Kawishiwi Lake Entry Point. Though they normally travel in a canoe in the BWCA, on this particular trip they had separate kayaks. The Forest Service employee at the ranger station told them about the active fire burning near Lake One and Pagami Creek, but the BWCA and their chosen entry point were open.

On Monday, September 12, extreme-shifting winds caused the fire to expand another six miles east.

Greg and Julie were camped on Kawasachong Lake when the fire rolled up on them, suddenly and with little warning. Greg was out fishing from his kayak when he first spotted the flames. Moments later, he said the sound of the fire was deafening. He described it to WTIP’s Joe Friedrichs on Aug. 10, 2021, a little less than 10 years from when the scene unfolded.

The audio below is a feature produced for the WTIP Boundary Waters Podcast.