Nearest Town: McGrath

Entering Aitkin County from the south, you couldn’t ask for a better introduction to the area than the Snake River Campground. As part of the 223,000 acres publicly owned and managed by the Aitkin County Land Department, the campground and surrounding forest are a treat for the eye, paddle, and boot. There are 12 camping sites but no electricity. Campers must self-register and pay fee for overnight stays. There are also pit toilets, drinking water, picnic tables, a canoe landing.

The Snake River gets its name from the Native American conflicts of the 1700’s. The Sioux had main camps at Knife Lake, which connects to the Snake River near Mora. When Ojibwe were passing the mouth of the Snake River, they would say, “That river comes from the land of the snakes”. Ojibwe for Snake is “Kanabec”; old maps show the Snake as the Kanabec River. Logging of the late 1800’s removed millions of board feet of White Pine, which were floated down the river to sawmills located in Stillwater. The logging of the pine forest around 1900 and failed attempts at agriculture have left us with a relatively young forest, dominated by “pioneer” tree species such as aspen and birch. The Aitkin County Land Department has been working hard to balance the age classes of aspen and maintaining or expanding hardwood forest stands.