The Big Bog is part of the Patterned Peatland of Minnesota, whose rare landforms and plant and animal communities provide a vital resource for scientific research, education, and recreation. A place of wonder and renewal for many, the Big Bog is one of the largest undeveloped wilderness areas in the United States. In 1892, government land surveyors declared the Big Bog "practically unfit for any purpose." In the early 1900s, settlers launched an unsuccessful attempt to drain the bog for farming. As people failed to draw a living from the land, they began to recognize its complexity, but the view of the bog as wasteland persisted through World War II, when it was used as an aircraft training site and subjected to bombing. During the 1970s, conflicting proposals to confer National Natural Landmark status and to mine peat from 300,000 acres of the bog resulted in scientific studies detailing the landscape and its rare plant life. Recognition of the bog's value as a wilderness area emerged, and today many parts of the Patterned Peatland of Minnesota have been preserved as State Recreation Areas, Scientific and Natural Areas, State Forests, and Wildlife Management Areas.