Will Steger plans wilderness education center

Will Steger speaks at the Norway House.
Will Steger
Sam Harper for MPR News file

Will Steger likes to challenge himself.

In 1986, he led the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole without re-supply. He's led long expeditions across Greenland and Antarctica.

For the last 30 years, he's been working on a different kind of challenge: building the Steger Wilderness Center in a remote setting north of Ely on the edge of the Boundary Waters.

Until now it's been used primarily as a convening center where small groups of influential people gather to make important decisions.

But Steger is planning to add an education center. He says it will be a place where kids from inner-city schools like Summit Academy in North Minneapolis can go to learn a trade.

Use the audio player above to hear Steger talk with Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer about his vision for the center.

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