MINNEAPOLIS — It’s a well-preserved gem of boreal forest, around 350 acres fronting two lakes on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. It long belonged to a wealthy Chicago family with a deep love of the wilderness. Now the land and its tall pines near Ely are under the control and ownership of the University of Minnesota, which plans to use it for research on climate change’s effects on northern forests and for teaching classes.

The Hubachek Wilderness Research Center is primitive and needs some work, such as a new septic system, before it can host classes or small conferences. The laboratory is basically just a cabin. And none of the cabins dotting the property is insulated, so it’s mainly a three-season facility. But it has a rich history, and the university hopes to build its capacity slowly but surely.

“It’s a wonderful place for people to come and study and reflect and experience the wilderness,” said Linda Nagel, director of operations at the university’s Cloquet Forestry Center and the overseer of the Ely facility.

The Hubachek center sits on Fall Lake, a popular spot for entering the BWCA, and has a spectacular view over Browns Lake, which is just outside the wilderness area. It’s dotted with rustic but meticulously maintained little log cabins that Frank B. Hubachek Sr. moved from a larger property he owned on Basswood Lake before it was incorporated into the BWCA and turned back into wilderness.

“It feels like you’re at an up-north family resort. It’s very lovely,” said Peter Reich, who has held the university’s Hubachek chair in forest ecology and tree physiology since the early 1990s and has been the lead researcher using the facility in recent decades. He said it gives researchers ready access to the Boundary Waters but also permits them to conduct more manipulative experiments that aren’t possible within the BWCA.