(From Ely.com)

Bass Lake Trail:

Features: 5.6 miles around Bass Lake. Backpacking campsites. Historically and ecologically unique. Requires at least 4-6 hours. Location: On the Echo Trail – six miles north of Ely, Minnesota.

Description: Bass and Low Lakes are located in a basin gouged out of pre-Cambrian rock. Prior to 1925 the two lakes were separated by a ridge of glacial gravel which acted as a natural dam. Logging operation led to the construction of a sluiceway to move logs through the gravel ridge – a drop of 60 feet. Seepage soon weakened the sluiceway as water moved through the gravel adjacent to the structure. The sluiceway and glacial ridge washed out in the spring of 1925 leaving a gorge over 250 feet wide. Bass Lake was lowered 55 feet in 10 hours, reduced to 1/2 its original size and two small lakes, Dry and Little Dry, became isolated in the old lake bed. Approximate 250 acres of land was then exposed and available to the establishment of pioneer plant species.