Richard “Dick” Swenson invented the Sven-Saw in Minnesota after a trip to the Boundary Waters. Dick and his daughter, Linnea, visited Grand Marais in February 2024. Photo by Joe Friedrichs
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Family Business Keeps BWCA Campers Warm for Generations
By Joe Friedrichs
When Richard Swenson saw something that didn’t make sense, he went practical.
Such was the case in 1960 on a portage trail in what is now the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
“My brother and I met two men on their way out,” Swenson said. “One had a bandaged foot. He had cut his foot badly with an axe and was on his way back to the Ely hospital. I thought to myself, ‘There has to be a better way.’”
Indeed there was. And it came in the form of a saw.
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