Boundary Waters Legends

Throwback - Canoe Country Outfitters

May 4, 2020
Becky Rom
 
45 years later the fight to protect the Boundary Waters from copper mining continues. 

My dad, Bill Rom, owned and operated Canoe Country Outfitters in Ely, Minnesota for thirty years, from 1946 to 1975. He sold the outfitting business after the canoe trip season in the fall of 1975.

Every winter my dad sent a newsletter to customers of Canoe Country Outfitters, who were about 25,000 in number. Many of the people who outfitted with Canoe Country Outfitters for Boundary Waters and Quetico canoe trips knew my dad personally and treated him as their friend. During winter months, my dad talked to customers on the phone and at sport shows about canoe trip plans for the next summer, and he greeted them before and after canoe trips during the spring/summer/fall. His newsletters were another way he communicated with his customers, and the newsletters were viewed as letters from a friend. 

This newsletter was written in the winter of 1975 before the summer canoe season. It was the last newsletter he wrote as owner of Canoe Country Outfitters.

 
- Becky Rom, 
National Campaign Chair 

 

See full PDF here.