Arrowhead Region

Recreational area covering some 41,400 sq km/16,000 sq mi in northeastern Minnesota, and situated largely within the Superior Highlands section of the Canadian Shield. It is bounded on the north by Ontario and on the east by the northern shore of Lake Superior, and stretches south from International Falls to the Mille Lacs area.The Arrowhead Region was given its name, which alludes to its shape, in 1924.

The Arrowhead Region includes Superior National Forest, which covers 12,000 sq km/4,633 sq mi and has over 2,000 lakes, Voyageurs National Park, and, in the far northeast, Grand Portage National Monument, site of a famed 14-km/9-mi overland route used by Indians, explorers, missionaries, and fur traders to skirt impassable falls and rapids on the Pigeon River. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area extends for some 240 km/150 mi along the Ontario border. Forestry has long been a significant economic activity in this extensively wooded and lake-filled area, which is also the site of major mining operations, most notably in the Mesabi Range. Duluth and Two Harbors, important ore-shipping ports, and Eagle Mount, at 701 m/2,301 ft the highest point in the state, are also in the Arrowhead.