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Pag 9
Section 1 ECHO/ e
Historic 1965 BWCAW Joseph Per,'(o land exchange threatened .... i
Editor:
The concept of setting
aside a large block of road
less land in northeast Min-
r, esota as public property for
wilderness recreation dates
back to the early 1900s when
writers, scholars, and others
first begin to discuss exploita-
tion of natural resources and
coined the word conservation
as it applied to timber, game
and other material uses of
the land.
The campaign to accom-
plish the feat of setting aside
an area we now know as
the Quetico Superior canoe
country was one that even-
tually reached every major
level of government, the
courts, individuals and. or-
ganizations throughout the
nation and presidents of the
United States.
Across northeast Min-
nesota it would set neigh-
bor against neighbor, friend
against friend in a bitter battle
regarding whether the great-
est value of the land was for
cabins, resorts, hydroelectric
utilities, paper mills, logging
and other businesses or for
public recreational use as a
wilderness area.
In 1902 Minnesota For-
estry Commissioner Chris-
topher Andrews persuaded
the General land Office to
withdraw from sales 500,000
acres of Federal lands in N.
E. Minnesota that otherwise
could be homesteaded or
sold.
Next, President Teddy
Roosevelt established the
Superior National Forest
in 1909 and thus began an
over 50 year attempt to con-
solidate the lands within the
Quetico-Superior area into
Federal ownership.
By this time much of
the Quetico-Superior had
been stripped of timber and
abandoned as tax forfeited
property.
However, plans were al-
ready in place for establish-
ing hydroelectric dams on
many of the suitable •sire'
within the Quetico Superior
region.
These sites would gen-
erate enough electricity to
sustain wood fiber and paper
mills already in business, as
well as multiple other types
of businesses yet to come.
Ernest Oberholtzer, upon
graduating from Harvard in
1908, spent the summer ca-
noeing the wilderness area of
the border lakes and became
a permanent resident ofthe
area in 1912.
After discovering plans
were underway to develop
the Quetico-Superior area
into hydroelectric dams and
paper mills, Oberholtzer soon
became a leader of those op-
posed to development and
created a plan of his own
that would preserve a large
block of wilderness for public
recreation.
By the turn of the cen-
tury times were changing
and people across the nation
were beginning to embrace
the concept of wilderness
preservation.
By 1922 the Superior
National Forest was well on
the way to becoming a desti-
nation for tourists, especially
those with canoes.
The idea of preserving
wilderness was on a collision
course with the area locals
who wanted a road to every
town and lake as well as the
right to determine their own
destiny.
It made sense that ad-
ditional roads would bring
more tourists, more business
and generally create eco-
nomic opportunities for lake,
Cook and St. Louis counties.
Although not yet realized,
if the plan to set aside wilder-
ness was to succeed, three
hurdles would be significant
obstacles.
The area would need to re-
main roadless, aircraft would
need to be banned from land-
ing, and the private property
within the Quetico-Superior
area would need to be ac-
quired.
By 1940 several private
cabins and resorts had been
built on Basswood Lake,
Gun Lake, Fourtown Lake as
well as other sites within the
border lakes roadless area.
It was at this time three
young men from Ely recog-
nized the potential of aircraft
serviced resorts in the wilder-
ness as profitable business
ventures.
William Zupancich built
a resort at Curtain Falls be-
tween Crooked Lake and Iron
Lake in 194.0, Joseph Perko
built on his Crooked lake
property in 1942 and Martin
Skala built on Lac la Croix
in 1945.
These three men and their
resorts, located on private
land with clear access to the
Quetico, turned out to be the
most nettlesome of the key
parcels necessary to consoli-
date the road less area into
Federal ownership.
For a number of years the
resort business flourished and
kept a steady stream of"bush
pilot" planes coming and
going from Ely's Shagawa
Lake.
William Zupancich stated,
"I pray to the good lord that
my Fisherman's Paradise will
remain roadless."
The canoeists seeking
a wilderness experience
were upset with the pontoon
equipped aircraft shuttling
guests and supplies back
and forth between Ely and
the resorts.
So after winning the war
to keep roads from the wil-
derness area, a new conten-
tious battle determining how
to prevent aircraft from the
roadless area was just begin-
ning.
After years of lobbying
politicians, the conservation-
ists and their allies succeeded
in bringing about enough
political pressure to convince
Washington that banning air-
ct'iff fro/n ,hnding within or
flying below 4,000 feet over
the wilderness area was the
only way the area could be
preserved.
On December 17,1949,
the forty-sixth anniversary of
the Wright Brothers' flight at
Kitty Hawk, President Harry
Truman signed an Executive
Order creating an Air Space
Ban over much of the road
less area.
• By shutting off the air
access, the resorts were des-
perate to find ways to keep
business profitable. Perko
and the other resorters vision
of profitable, long term tour-
ist resort business ownership
was threatened by the lack of
access to their properties.
Perko, Zupancich, Skala
and pilot Elwyn West repeat-
edly violated the air space
ban.
In 1952 these men re-
ceived an order from district
court judge Gunnar Nordbye
forbidding them from further
flights into the road less area,
except for the protection of
their private property.
In the spring of 1953, un-
der the guise of "protection of
private property" these men,
again were back in business.
Between June 30 and July
2, game wardens, forest rang-
ers, FBI agents, and federal
marshals laid a plan to arrest
Perko, West, Skala, and Zu-
pancich. West's planes were
seized and chained.
After the arrests, the con-
servationist had hoped the
resorters would fold. Perko
came close to selling several
times but they all continued
to operate with a long spec-
tacular boat ride from Crane
Lake, across the Dawson Por-
tage, weaving in and out of
the islands of Lac La Croix,
widening the Bottle Portage
into a jeep road and on to the
destination resorts.
Perko, who owned con-
siderable acreage at various
locations in the roadless area,
was the key. Perko wavered
in August of 1953 and con-
sidered selling for $100,000.
Even though the federal
government reasoned that if
Perko sold the others would
follow suit, negotiations
failed and the resorters turned
to another possibility ..... A
ROAD.
While all of this was go-
ing on, these men had sued
the federal government and
took their access denial case
though the lower court sys-
tem, all the way to the Su-
preme Court where, in Oc-
tober of 1953, an appeal was
refused to be heard.
A railroad bed abandoned
in 1944, ran from the town
of Winton to Gun Lake, three
miles inside of the roadless
zone.
In the summer of 1954,
Perko and Zupancich drove
a bulldozer and a tractor
down the Gun Lake Grade to
Gun Lake where, in a week's
time proceeded to gouge
several miles of rough road to
Perko's Crooked Lake Resort
on Friday Bay.
In the spring of 1955,
Perko and Zupancich filed
suit against the Northwest
Paper Company and the Su-
perior National Forest claim-
ing the Gun Lake Grade to
be a public road as well as
their only means of ingress
and egress to their places of
business.
While this was in court
Perko and Zupancich con-
tinued their road trespasses.
When confronted by rangers,
these men broke the locks on
the gates and continued to
daily service the resorts.
On June 24 the Forest
Service, backed by the justice
department, sued the two
men and ask the district court
for a restraining order.
Judge Dennis Donovan
heard the case against Perko
and Zupancich from July 11
to 15 in Minneapolis and then
moved the trial to Duluth on
July 21 and 22.
The judge's ruling on May
31, 1956 granted a permanent
injunction against the men.
Perko, once again con-
sidered selling but the final
terms of the agreement, in-
cluding a land exchange,
were not completed until
1965 at which time Congress
authorized the necessary
funding.
Shortly after Perko had
agreed to sell, Skala sold out,
but, Zupancich stubbornly
held on until 1963 when the
Forest Service condemned,
acquired, and removed his
resort.
The lessons leamed from
years of consolidating the
wilderness into federal own-
ership were further strength-
ened by the Wilderness Act
of 1964.
Perko's land exchange
agreement with the Forest
Service consisted of 91 acres
of his land that no longer
had meaningful access, to be
traded for 3.75 acres of Fed-
eral land within the Superior
National Forest.
The 3.75 acre parcel of-
fered to Perko was surround-
ed by Federal land and it too
did not have vehicle access.
Without access the 3.75
acres did not have enough
value required for a fairly
balanced agreement. Eager to
come to terms, the Forest Ser-
vice made sure that an access
road and electric power line
easements were included in
the land exchange agreement.
In 1962, the access road
and electric power line were
built crossing through Fed-
eral property and leading
directly to what would be-
come Perko's property once
the agreement was finally
consummated.
The actual exchange of
properties was completed in
1965, and Perko was then
issued a Special Use Permit
from the Forest Service for
his access road.
So it seemed, finally, the
U.S. Government and Jo-
seph Perko had both agreed
to something and could lay
aside their differences. Each
party had bargained what
they had ask for and were
happy with the outcome.
In 1962, the U.S. Forest
Service designed, inspected,
surveyed, "signed off" on
documents, and allowed the
construction of the access
road connecting to the federal
property soon to be disposed
into Perko's ownership.
Anxious to "seal the deal,"
considering that Perko might
somehow "back out," the
Federal Government, in
1963, authorized the con-
struction of a cabin on the
property still in federal own-
ership.
In 1965, with the terms of
the agreement firmly estab-
lished and federal funds au-
thorized, Perko and the Fed-
eral Government consum-
mated the mutually agreed
upon terms of the contract.
The documents provided
to Perko at the time of, and
since the closing of this land
exchange agreement in 1965,
are now being compromised
in a campaign to relocate the
property boundary such that
the access road as depicted
on the original documents
no longer connects or pro-
vides access to the land as it
was disposed by the federal
government.
These documents include
"Exhibit A," an as built plat
drawing establishing a survey"
line, a section comer (the east
property boundary) and the
access road as it connects to
the property.
The premise of the "new
2010" survey is that the road
was constructed in the wrong
location and the section cor-
ner established in the plat
drawing was incorrectly lo-
cated.
The allegations are that
the "new 2010" survey of
the section line is married
to the property boundary in
commonality, one being the
same as the other.
In other words, the "Ex-
hibit A" has errors.
However, "Exhibit A"
establishes the property
boundary as it was disposed
and agreed upon by the Fed-
eral Government and Joseph
Perko in 1965.
For 48 years there were
no mistakes on the document
and, for that matter, in 2010
there are no mistakes on any
of the documents. They are
what they are, exactly what
the government intended.
The three documents
that established the property
boundary on the parcel dis-
posed to Perko are factual,
honest, historic, honorable
and binding.
The Perko investment
was based on the terms of
the document agreements,
and it is beyond doubt he
was provided with deceitful
and misleading documents
to enhance the completion of
the land exchange agreement
with the intent to deny legal
rights of those documents 48
years later.
However, if the "new
2010" survey is upheld, then
Perko was deceitfully and
fraudulently mislead into the
land exchange contract with
the federal government.
The historic and "sacred"
land exchange between Jo-
seph Perko and the federal
government must stand as
agreed to in 1965.
The devaluation of the
Perko parcel by relocating
the property boundary is ap-
proximately $40,000.
At this time the refusal by
government to examine the
documents in the presence
of an unbiased panel will not
be allowed.
In addition to the facts of
the dispute, there is a moral
obligation to get this right.
It seems to me those indi-
viduals and organizations that
fought so hard to acquire the
private land of Joseph Perko,
all of which has now become
a "gift" of public land to be
enjoyed by all Americans
need to respond to this threat
of a good land exchange
gone bad.
The absolute facts of the
Perko/Federal Government
historical land exchange
should ne'er be doubted,
they are documented.
The Perko land exchange
is as iconic as the Tank Man in
Beijing's Tiananmen Square
on June 4th of 1989 when a
.man of tiny stature, stopped
a column of Chinese military
tanks during the government
crackdown on protesters.
Equally a hero that day was
the government driver in that
lead tank.
Will the Perko land ex-
change be crushed or will i
the driver and crew blow tha ;
whistle and stop the tank. ',
Copies of the Perko/gov: i
emment 1965 land exchang
documents can be vieweO
at the Ely Winton Histori-
cal Society Museum in Ely i
Minnesota. All information is
from the Minnesota Histori- i
cal Library.
Lawrence Thomforde i
Zumbrota, MN i
Editor's Note: Thomforde.
is the current owner of the
referenced Perko property,
and has lost the ability to
drive to his property due to
actions by the U.S. Forest
Service. He has gone so far i
as to petition U.S. Sen. Amy
Klobuchar for relief. As of i
Tuesday, his cries for justice
have gone unheard.
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