Welcome to the Over The Hills Gang ATV Club

In the untamed wilderness of northern Minnesota, slightly northeast of Outing Minnesota, early settlers to the area, became familiar with a giant of a Moose they named Willow. Willow frequented a swampy area where he wallowed in the nearby willow trees, rutting them up to make a small pond. The pond eventually got so deep that water began to spring up from the ground, which began to flow eastward, forming a small river later named the Moose River. Willow would follow the flowing water for miles, making the river channel deeper and deeper from his tremendous weight as he walked. Willow followed this river each day, browsing for new food sources, always making it back to his wallow.

One day Willow was found wandering south and west from his wallow, toward an area known today as the Emily State Forest. This was odd behavior for Willow to be so far away from his wallow and the river flowing from it. A broken willow branch had pieced Willows right eye and partially obstructed his left eye. Try as he may, Willow was unable to remove the piece of branch causing him to lose sight. Willow began relying on his keen sense of smell. With his nostrils wide open, Willow could smell his wallow from miles away. Willow wandered north and through a small land passage of the Crooked Lake narrows and then made his way back to the east, along what is now the Moose Wallow Road, to the familiar smells and sounds of his wallow. Willow never again ventured far from his wallow and his beloved little river. In later years, settlers renamed Willow the “Blind Moose”. It was never determined what ever became of Willow, he just one-day disappeared. Did he sink into his wallow? Or did his sense of smell fail, and he slowly wandered away? Willows disappearance remains a mystery today.

If you get the chance, follow the path of Willow on the Blind Moose Loop.

– OTHG ATV Club and the Legend of Willow.
Authored by Perry May, March 2022