Laura Powell at Chik-Wauk. Photo by Joe Friedrichs
Growing Up On the Edge of the Boundary Waters
By Joe Friedrichs
Laura Powell shares her story of growing up on the Canadian side of Saganaga Lake. Commonly known as “Sag,” it is one of the largest lakes inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Laura is a trapper and artist who now lives in Grand Marais, Minn. Her artwork will be on display starting in June 2026 at Chik-Wauk Museum & Nature Center, which is located at the end of the Gunflint Trail.
Chik-Wauk has a new Anishinaabe exhibit opening this summer. Laura and her aunt, the late Tempest Powell, are both featured in the exhibit, which shares the history, culture, and experiences of the native people of the border lakes region, including the Powell family.
Watch the full video here.
Some quotes from Laura:
On growing up on Sag: “I didn’t realize it was an unconventional life… It seemed liked everything was totally normal, until I realized there was a different world.”
“As a kid, we ate a lot of boiled moose meat.”
On Tempest Powell: “A very positive influence, but very quiet. She didn’t talk a whole lot.”
On wilderness: “Wilderness is wild places, right? But, just the whole idea of the word invokes these people that come up here to be weekend warriors. They don’t know how to build a campfire. They don’t know how to keep their feet dry. They don’t know how to pitch a tent. And they sure as hell don’t know how to catch a walleye. And I’ve seen so much of that over the years.”
“To me, it’s just the woods. It’s just a place to go… It just gets romanticized in all the stories that come out. And once things get romanticized, it loses a little bit of it. It loses the realism of it. It dulls the shine.”
On her Anishinaabe heritage: “We weren’t out there killing moose with our bare hands or anything, but that part of my family and my heritage made it possible for us to live out here… That knowledge, it would have taken me 80 years to figure some of the little things you need to know to live up here.”
On trapping: “That’s how we made money in the winter… You were out there all day long. You had to bring a lunch and make a fire.”
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