I wrote this originally in 2005. That same year, a cell tower was erected just outside of Lutsen. This tower has extended service to the Sawbill entry point and campground. It is spotty on the drive up the Sawbill Trail, but I actually checked messages at the outfitters last week. I have friends who live on The Grade near Cascade Lake. They receive coverage and 3G service at their place, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this tower extends service to Eagle Mountain. I doubt it reaches the Brule Entry Point.

During the Ham Lake Fire, we had cell service hooked up to help the firefighters. This service continued on the Gunflint until landlines were reconnected–the capability is there.

I’ve certainly gotten a signal as far up the Trail as Devil’s Track and Mink Lake, but nowhere near the end of the Gunflint, but by looking at the Canadian coverage maps, areas at the end of the Arrowhead Trail, like Moose, N. and S. Fowl and Mountain may now have service.

The digital phones simply don’t have the power and the range of the old analog ones, but I think Verizon has also retuned their signal somewhat to focus capacity on where the people are — i.e., in Ely. It’s not as though they have much competition either. Cellular One — now AT&T — was always hopeless for rural coverage even in the analog days, with their Ely tower situated some 200 feet lower than Verizon’s, and now with the added handicap of the shorter range inherent in GSM. You also have a number of strategically located towers up there that aren’t even used by the cell phone companies, for example Frontier’s relay at Slate Lake on Highway 1, which feeds a landline fiber optic network for that area with voice and DSL but carries no mobile repeater even though it’s 20 miles from the nearest tower.

I do think it’s a potential issue for safety. There are enough people in the BWCAW — thousands on some summer nights — that there’s a case for conventional cell coverage. And there have been instances in which people have used it in the past. In the analog days you could get a call off from Basswood Falls. Good luck doing that with today’s facilities. On the other hand, coverage on the highways, with the glaring exception of the Tower-Soudan area, is generally better than it was, perhaps lending more weight to the idea that the carriers are refocusing their signals where the people are.

As I recall, AirTouch, Verizon’s predecessor, had big plans for more towers in this area, but they’ve never been followed through. It’s easy to imagine one up the end of the Fernberg Road, perhaps another part way up the Echo Trail, and of course both those locations would significantly penetrate the wilderness with signal. The practical reality, however, is that some of the highway dead spots like Tower-Soudan are a higher priority than the BWCAW will ever be for this kind of coverage.

By the way there never has been any coverage up the Gunflint Trail or anywhere else in Cook County MN away from the big lake. It goes up to the summit over Grand Marais and that’s it.