The Cut Foot Sioux Trail is a 22-mile (35 km) loop trail in the Chippewa National Forest of Minnesota, USA. It follows gravel and sand forestry roads that are now used for hiking, biking, cross-country skiing and horse back riding. The trail passes by several lakes.
The trail starts at the Cut Foot Sioux Visitor Information Center on Minnesota State Highway 46 in west-central Itasca County. The Center, on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, offers interpretive programs and a fishing pier. From the Center the trail runs west through wooded country past several lakes, including Cut Foot Sioux Lake, then turns north and slopes gradually up to Farley Tower, an old lookout. Turning east, the trail runs along the Northern Divide, then drops down to the Bowstring river before heading south back to the Visitor center.
The trail connects with Simpson Creek Trail, a 13-mile (21 km) trail system through large red pines on a peninsula that extends into Lake Winnibigoshish, and passes through the Cut Foot Experimental Forest, used for studying pine forest management. Walkers may see eagles, osprey and loons on the lakes.
The Cut Foot Sioux Ranger Station, near Lake Winnibigoshish, is the oldest remaining ranger station building in the Forest Service's Eastern Region. A log cabin, it was built in 1904 and abandoned in 1918, but has been restored and is in good condition as of 2008.
US Forest Service Map
Famous quotes containing the words cut, foot and/or trail:
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—Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987)
“In conversation the game is, to say something new with old words. And you shall observe a man of the people picking his way along, step by step, using every time an old boulder, yet never setting his foot on an old place.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)