Grand Portage National Monument

Grand Portage National Monument

Grand Portage National Monument, historic site in the northeastern corner of Minnesota, U.S., on Lake Superior near the Canadian border, 140 miles (225 km) northeast of Duluth. Designated a national historic site in 1951 and a national monument in 1958, it has an area of 1.1 square miles (2.8 square km). The monument covers an 8.5-mile (13.7-km) overland trail (portage) from Lake Superior’s north shore that bypassed the obstacles to early canoe travel, notably the 70-foot- (21-metre-) high thundering Pigeon Falls, on the Pigeon River. Its name in Ojibwan is Kitchi Onigaming, meaning “Great Carrying Place.”

Used by Indians (notably the Ojibwa), explorers, and fur traders, including voyageurs, the portage represented the end of travel on the Great Lakes and the beginning of the continent’s northwestern interior river and lake route. It was the site of a British North West Company trading post built in 1778 (a reconstructed stockade, great hall, kitchen, and canoe warehouse now occupy the site), but the portage declined after the company departed in 1803. The portage trail now bisects the reservation of the Grand Portage tribe of the Minnesota Chippewa Indians. During the summer, excursion boats ply between Grand Portage and nearby Isle Royale National Park, which is to the east in Lake Superior.