Edward Wellington Backus was a timber baron, dam builder, mill owner, financier, developer of the northern reaches of Minnesota, and president of the Ontario & Minnesota Power Company and Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company. He was responsible for the construction, commencing in 1905, of a hydroelectric dam at Koochiching Falls between International Falls, Minnesota, and Fort Frances, Ontario, an outpost of the Hudson's Bay Company, which generated much power for the region. It helped drive the paper mill industry of the area, which he also helped finance.