Canoe Country Outfitters
Bill Rom started the business and then sold it to Bob Olson Sr. (who had already worked there for 25 years) in 1975.
Their current area of outfitting operations includes all entry points of Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Superior National Forest & Quetico Provincial Park, with a focus on those typically accessed from Ely, Minnesota.
[2][3] "A 1960's article by Argosy magazine dubbed Bill the "Canoe King of Ely" and for good reason.
[12] Historical Society copies indicate that in the early 1950s CCO distributed and utilized Calvin Rutstrum publications and a pamphlet designed for canoeing outfitters.
He profiled employee Bill Magie, and their outfitting of and participation in his trip and their visit to Dorothy Molter on her island in Knife Lake.
She appeared on the TV show "To Tell the Truth" and stumped the panel because none thought that a young teenage girl could be guiding wilderness canoe trips.
[3] Bill Rom's parents immigrated to the United States from Yugoslavia, now Slovenia, in the late 1800s.
[20] After serving in the Navy during World War II, he married Barbara Berlin of Kent, Washington, and together they started Bill Rom's Canoe Country Outfitters in 1946.
[23] Rom incurred the wrath of many for taking positions for banning or reductions of motorized access, cans and bottles in what is now the BWCAW.
[3] He testified with Sigurd Olson against logging in the Superior Roadless Area in 1964 at the Selke Commission in Ely, MN.
He organized a 1970 Earth Day Symposium at Northrup Auditorium at the University of Minnesota including Bill Magie and Clayton Rudd (editor, The Naturalist) on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
During the debate over airspace reservation, an explosive was set off near the Rom family home as a scare tactic.
[4] In 1975, during the important fishing opener and Memorial Day weekend, persons unhappy with his efforts blocked the entrance to his business with logging trucks.
[32] He helped establish the first air mail service between Duluth and Port Arthur, Ontario (now Thunder Bay).
[32] He had a license suspension "when he flew his Curtiss Jenny biplane "in a half-loop and 180-degree twist" under Duluth's Aerial Bridge on a $50 bet.
"[32] Starting in 1925, for 5 years he worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "on the first extensive survey on what was to become the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
[35] Starting in 1953 he then worked at the Pioneer mine in Ely, MN and then accepted the position of manager of CCO in 1964.
[36] Bob bought the business in 1975; he remains at Canoe Country Outfitters but his sons run the operation.
In an article about canoe races in Quetico, Don Beland quipped that he and Bob Olson had completed the Hunter Island loop (where only canoes are allowed) in under 24 hours, much faster than the then-current record of 33 hours and 38 minutes but "with a three horse motor".
[24][25] They provide outfitting services for trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Quetico Provincial Park and the Superior National Forest.
They also provide tow and livery services, lodging, Basswood Lake base camp fishing, and a campground.
