Ely, Minnesota

Ely is a recreational outfitters town, a base for launching trips into the Boundary Waters. The local radio station, WELY, calls itself “end of the road radio.” It is 15 miles south of the international boundary. Dirt roads extend further into the region though, to remote resorts that are truly at the end of the road, like the Northern Tier Boy Scouts Camp on Moose Lake, 20 miles further from Ely, and less than five miles from the boundary. But there are no roads that make it to the boundary itself in the Boundary Waters. The region was declared a wilderness as part of the Wilderness Act of 1964, and 1.1 million square miles were designated for canoe travel only. Businesses, roads, and residents were removed. Motor boats and low flying aircraft (including sea planes) are prohibited from most of the 1,000 lakes in the region.