Garden Island in Lake of the Woods is known for its rich wildlife, varied habitats, and a long history of Native American gardening. During annual migrations, many shorebirds stop to rest and feed on its sand beaches, while pelicans, cormorants, gulls, and terns are commonly seen near the sand spit at the island's eastern tip. Inland, habitats range from open marsh to cedar forest, with overstory trees including aspen, balsam poplar, box elder, elm, spruce, and cedar. Deer, bear, beaver, mink, otter, fox, and snowshoe hare can be observed there, and grey wolves sometimes hunt on the island in winter. Several bald eagle nests are also present, with at least two occupied by breeding pairs each year. The origin of the island's name is uncertain, but John Tanner wrote of tending gardens there in the early 1800s. In 1859, explorer and surveyor Simon J. Dawson, sent by Queen Victoria to find a land and water emigration route from eastern Canada to the Red River Valley of the North, stopped on the island and was astonished to find a well-cultivated garden on its east end, including at least five acres of corn and another three acres of pumpkins, squash, and potatoes. Although he did not learn that day of the well-traveled Native American trail, he later established the Dawson Trail from the northwestern tip of the Northwest Angle to what is now Winnipeg. Until the early 1900s, before lake levels rose because of the Kenora dam, Native Americans were known to travel from Warroad along the shore and out to Garden Island to tend their gardens, which still existed then. The island covers 762 acres, and in 1998 Minnesota purchased 324 acres which, combined with 402 acres of existing state-owned property, became a State Recreation Area; the remaining 36 acres are owned by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians. Reaching the island from the south shore of Lake of the Woods highlights the vast scale of the lake, which extends as far as 90 miles long and 55 miles wide, with 1,485 square miles of water, 65,000 miles of shoreline, and more than 14,000 islands. Garden Island offers a sandy beach for swimming and boat docking, and visitors also come to walk its undeveloped beaches and explore its thick forest interior.