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Big Bog State Recreation Area, a recent addition to the Minnesota state park system, is located on Minnesota State Highway 72, north of Waskish, Minnesota. It covers 9,459 acres (38.3 km2), primarily swamps, bogs, and upland "islands". The park was started by local grassroots efforts in 2002, it became a state recreation area and officially opened in June 2006. The "Big Bog" is composed mostly of wetlands. The name was not widely used but had shown up previously in maps, such as by the National Geographic Society. The greater Big Bog region stretches from jackpine forests north of Upper Red Lake in Beltrami County, Minnesota and Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota to the communities along U.S. Route 71 leading to International Falls (Mizpah, Gemmell, Margie, Big Falls, and Littlefork) in Koochiching County, Minnesota. This includes much of the Pine Island State Forest and two National Natural Areas: Upper Red Lake Peatland, and the Lost River Peatland. It is also almost entirely unpopulated, except for the town of Waskish along Highway 72.