There are over 14, 000 islands scattered through Lake of the Woods. For early explorers, it was a confusing and dangerous maze, ideal for an enemy ambush. For frontier traders who struck it rich, the tangle of islands made a perfect hideaway. And in the dry days of Prohibition, the same islands gave cover for the rumrunners smuggling booze across the border. Lake of the Woods is so thick with islands its shorelines exceed those of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world. It's easy to get lost in the bewildering labyrinth of channels. Yet that confusion is the key to the character of Lake of the Woods...a place of mystery and surprise. Even it's name arose out of confusion. The first inhabitants called it Lake of Hills. But French explorers mistranslated the Ojibway to mean Lake of the Woods, and the name stuck.