Company Profile
Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center
Company Overview
Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center was the first environmental learning center in the nation to be accredited as a K-12 school and is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in environmental education. During the school year, more than 15,000 children, teachers and parent chaperones head to our campus to have their own adventure in learning and during the summer we offer summer camp, family programs, wilderness trips and academic programs.
In environmental education and summer camp, the outdoors is the classroom – and ours is spectacular. Located on a ridge overlooking Lake Superior, Wolf Ridge’s 2,000 acre campus is bordered by the Baptism River and features creeks, two lakes, two high peaks, 18-miles of trail and a mixed forest of maple, birch and spruce. Wildlife is abundant and includes pine marten, eagles, moose, black bear, white-tailed deer, fox, wolves, beaver, peregrine falcons and loons. Facilities include four classroom buildings, two dormitories, a dining hall, a raptor aviary, a library, two auditoriums, two rock-climbing walls, two outdoor ropes courses and an administration building.
Overall, Wolf Ridge is a place where minds open to the joy and wonder of discovery of our natural world. We seek to stimulate a love and understanding of nature by involving children and adults in direct observation of and participation in the outdoors. We promote self-awareness and leadership development in the process.
Company History
In 1971, the school district in Grand Marais, MN received a Title III grant to open the former Isabella Job Corps facility for use as the Environmental Learning Center. Jack Pichotta, then a social studies teacher in Cloquet, proposed the concept and wrote the program content of the grant proposal. In 1972, Pichotta was employed as the director of the ELC. When the Title III support ended in 1974, the U.S. Forest Service facility lease was transferred from the Grand Marais School District to the Lake Superior School District. In 1975, due to efforts of Pichotta and the Lake Superior District, the Forest Service agreed to transfer the lease from the school district to the newly incorporated non-profit Environmental Learning Center, with Pichotta as President.
In 1988, when we moved from Isabella to the site in Finland overlooking Lake Superior, it had become obvious that the name Environmental Learning Center (ELC) wasn’t enough anymore. Many ELCs had sprung up around the country, and we needed something unique that reflected our new location. For nearly 20 years, wolves had been a common educational subject at the ELC and remained an icon of the northwoods to which thousands of students would annually come. At the new Finland site, we decided to build on the ridge overlooking the Baptism River Valley to the north and Lake Superior to the south. The combination of Wolf and Ridge came together and our official name became Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center.
Today, we are still the quality educational facility we set out to be. As an accredited K-12 educational program with a wide array of outdoor programs, we’re proud to offer a world-class experience for students, teachers and parents.