Tomahawk Road, Pagami Creek Burn Area, Superior National Forest

Tomahawk Road runs through the Superior National Forest near Isabella, Minnesota, within the area burned by the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire. Lightning sparked the fire in May of that year, and it stayed contained until a windstorm in early September pushed it across more than 36,000 hectares, making it the largest wildfire in Minnesota in over a century. The fire burned into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, killing mature stands of red and white pine. Forest Service crews have since studied the event as a case of extreme fire behavior driven by drought and high winds.

Photo taken in August 2022.