Kelso River Dolmen: A Boundary Waters Adventure

Paddling from Sawbill Lake to the Kelso River Dolmen is one of the best BWCA day trips that you can take. The route features big lakes, crooked shorelines, narrow rivers, swamps, easy portages, and carnivorous plants. With the Kelso River Dolmen as the goal of the trip, it offers a set destination. That’s something that other day trips in the area don’t offer.

The story behind the dolmen is that Vikings explored North America and found copper nearby. To mark the mine, they built the dolmen. Legend has it that there’s a second smaller dolmen nearby that when used as a navigation range points to the mine. Some paddlers claim they can see Viking runes on the north side of the dolmen. Other stories include that US Forest Service or CCC workers built it to mark the trail to a nearby fire tower. The most boring explanation is that glaciers carried the rock, and when they melted they deposited the cap stone upon three smaller rocks. Whatever the story, it’s fun to imagine the explanation. I prefer to tell myself, with tongue firmly in cheek, the Viking story. I tell myself this because there are popular myths that the Vikings did explore Minnesota and left a runestone to talk about it.

In the past, I’ve written up the Kelso River route description (there’s also an old vlog from the trip on that page). But the map isn’t available anymore after Google made changes to how it embeds maps. So, I recently made a hand-drawn map of the route. Here it is.

If you want to do this route, you don’t need to bring your own canoe. You can rent a canoe and gear from Sawbill Canoe Outfitters, which is right at the start of the route. I’d recommend bringing the National Geographic Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Map Pack Bundle for a more accurate map. If you haven’t BWCA camped before, then Cliff Jacobson’s Boundary Waters Canoe Camping is a good place to start. You’ll probably also want the Boundary Waters Canoe Area: Eastern Region guidebook.

Books related to the Kelso River Dolmen that spark a paddler’s imagination

• Magic on the Rocks: This is an excellent book about the real historic pictographs found in the Boundary Waters.
• Myths of the Rune Stone: Viking Martyrs and the Birthplace of America: The story about how mythology can work to bind a community together even if the myth is false. That’s also the premise of Jon Turk’s Tracking Lions, Myth, and Wilderness in Samburu (link to my review).
• Vikings in the Attic: In Search of Nordic America: This book explores how the traditions of Scandinavia became ingrained into the Midwest to form its own mythology and can shed light on the belief in a Viking dolmen.