Flambeau Trail – Turtle Portage

For centuries Native Americans and voyagers using the Flambeau Trail carried their birch bark canoes and cargo across the wide plain between Echo Lake, called Big Turtle Lake, and Grand Portage Lake, or Little Turtle Lake. They sometimes paused there to re-gum leaky canoes with native pine pitch before paddling to Lac du Flambeau. From there the Flambeau Trail followed the waterways through Little Turtle Lake and a narrow channel into Mercer Lake, also called Sugar Camp Lake. Travelers then faced one final portage, three grueling miles through tamarack swamps to reach the Manitowish River, then called the Chippewa River. After that, canoe travel was easier for the last 24 miles to the trail's end at the Indian village and fur trading post at Lac du Flambeau.

Mercer, Wisconsin · United States