Grand Portage National Monument
Posted by: 
lmcgisme
N 47° 57.610 W 089° 41.208
16T E 299430 N 5315366
Grand Portage NM contains the reconstructed headquarters of the North West Company, the most profitable fur trade operation on the Great Lakes from 1784 - 1803. It also includes the Grand Portage itself, a 8.5 mile trail between the east and west.
Waymark Code: WM28FQ
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 09/22/2007
Views: 32
Fur traders came by canoe from the east through the Great Lakes to Grand Portage, meeting here for a great rendezvous. Crossing the Grand Portage to the Pigeon River to the west gave the traders access to the vast Canadian interior. Hiking the trail today can give you the feeling of toil and drudgery French-Canadian voyageurs experienced carrying two 90 pound or more loads up and down this challenging footpath.
North West Company’s (NWCo.) probably held their first rendezvous here in the early 1780s. Scope of operations at Grand Portage continuously grew so by 1789 the NWCo. had constructed a stockade with 16 to 18 log buildings with cedar or birchbark shingles and some had copper or tin roofs. Today, you can visit the stockade area with four log buildings: great hall, kitchen, canoe warehouse and a gatehouse. Each building is staffed by employees dressed in clothing of the late 1700s performing activities - canoe building, carpentry, making bread, working with flintlock muskets, gardening, crafting baskets and carving paddles.
Address:
Grand Portage, MN US
NPS Web Page for this Station: [Web Link]
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