St Louis River

The call of the wild may be no stronger anywhere in the lower 48 than the headwaters of the St. Louis River. Beginning in the Laurentian Uplands, where small streams divide in three directions toward Hudson Bay, Lake Superior, and the Mississippi River, it’s a land of timber wolves, moose, and Canada lynx. Wood turtles, sturgeon, walleye, northern pike, bass, bluegill, black crappie, channel catfish, and 163 species of breeding birds call the river home, savoring lush wetlands and wild rice lakes that led the Ojibwa people to settle the region.

This 194-mile river, which drains 2.4 million acres of Minnesota’s northern forests and wetlands, remains the primary reservation fishery for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Below the reservation, it flows through the magnificent Jay Cooke State Park and into a rare freshwater estuary between the twin ports of Duluth, MN, and Superior, WI, where it enters Lake Superior as the largest U.S. tributary of the entire Great Lakes system. The lower St. Louis is the only river in the state with whitewater rafting opportunities.

The Backstory

Historically, the estuary was heavily impacted by industry, resulting in designation as a Great Lakes Area of Concern after the lower river became one of the most heavily polluted waterways in the state by the mid-20th Century. It still hosts the busiest port on the Great Lakes. However, an investment of more than $1 billion and a commitment to restoration and economic development by the City of Duluth has the lower St. Louis well on its way to recovery.

Upstream, the main stem of the St. Louis River and several of its larger tributaries have been dammed for hydropower generation, disrupting connectivity and increasing mercury bioaccumulation in fish. Additionally, the St. Louis River and its tributaries have been adversely impacted by more than a century of iron mining, with the loss of thousands of acres of headwaters wetlands and streams.