Fur traders constructed their posts near Native villages for survival and convenience. This re-creation of a small village at the NWCo Depot exemplifies the economic partnership between the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) and the Northwest Company.
Archeological and historical data indicate that a large building stood here, probably a warehouse. It may have housed trade goods and supplies destined for Athabasca country in the far Northwest.
Old-growth white cedar trees persist despite fire, drought, and logging along this section of trail. Known simply at giizhikag (The Cedars), the oldest of this group of trees were saplings when North West Company men and others trudged this portage in the late 1700s.
The Depot at Grand Portage is the summer headquarters for the North West Company and the Great Hall is the meeting room. Here the owners of the company held their all important business meetings with their clerks in the far reaches of the continent.
Mount Rose is a forested hill behind the Heritage Center. Two steep trails with stairs and switchbacks ascend a half mile to the top where a half wall protects a commanding view of the historic depot, Grand Portage Bay, and distant Isle Royale. Mount Rose Trail and Loop can be hiked year-round.
The Grand Portage historic kitchen garden is located inside the palisade behind the kitchen. The North West Company operated its post here from 1778 to 1803. Many vegetable varieties grown in the garden now date back to the 1700s and early 1800s. Vegetable varieties from 200 years ago and earlier are still available today because Native American and early settler families saved seeds from their harvests to plant in the following year. The seeds saved were handed down.
Look around this historic state-of-the-art kitchen to see kitchenware of the time, and watch staff prepare food on the hearth or bake bread in an outdoor bread oven. While you’re there, learn what the voyageurs ate on their journey and see what Native goods made it on the menu.
During the 18th century fur trade, this was a grassy wetland. Today it is known as The Meadow. Many walked the trail in knee-deep mud, with only moccasins to protect their feet. Beaver activity in the area creates ponds and wet conditions, necessitating a boardwalk for contemporary portagers.
Midway parking for the Grand Portage. This 8.5-mile portage became a vital link in the 18th century water trade route from Montreal and the Great Lakes to the northwestern wilderness. First traveled by Indians, the Grand Portage bypassed a series of falls and rapids extending along the last 21 miles of the Pigeon River.
About 12,000 years ago, melting glaciers formed temporary lakes. The biggest, Glacial Lake Duluth, submerged most of the Grand Portage. Its shoreline was 738 feet (225 m) above today’s Lake Superior. The shoreline of Glacial Lake Beaver Bay was where you are standing, 243 feet (74 m) above Lake Superior.
The weathered outcrop above you is made of sedimentary rock, known as the Rove Formation, formed by layers of sands and clay deposited on an ancient sea floor nearly two billion years ago. There are at least two sedimentary rock types visible in the stratigraphy, or layering, you see before you: a dark sandstone known to geologists as graywacke; a fine-grained siltstone known as shale. Rivers carried these sediments to the sea, where they were deposited on the
Hard Rock Ridges You are standing on a ridge of hard, igneous rock with a 10-foot (3-m) crust of "baked" rock on top. How was this formed? Roughly 1.1 billion years ago, hot volcanic magma pushed up into cracks and faults in the existing rock bed, know as the Rove Formation, made of silt and a coarse rock called graywacke. The heat radiating from the magma baked the nearby rocks.
This Mount Rose Trail landing is along the uphill hike from the parking lot to the summit of Mount Rose and offers a spectacular view of Grand Portage Bay.
The Mount Rose Summit offers a view to the east overlooking the historic depot and Grand Portage Bay. To the west, a gap in the landscape indicates where the Grand Portage Trail passes through the landscape.
This bench, about halfway up the hill from the Depot trailhead, is a perfect spot to catch your breath in sun dappled shade with a view of Lake Superior through the trees.
This Mount Rose overlook is at a low rock wall along the trail. From this viewpoint you can see the historic depot and beyond to the dock in Grand Portage Bay.
Wayside with fur trade era quotations and an aerial view of the historic depot and Grand Portage Bay. A low stone wall keeps visitors back from the edge.
The Mount Rose Trailhead is the beginning of a half-mile, uphill hike to the summit of Mount Rose. From there is a spectacular view of Grand Portage Bay and distant Isle Royale to the east, and the gap in the land where the Grand Portage trail passes to the west.
The Mount Rose Trailhead is the beginning of a half-mile, uphill hike to the summit of Mount Rose. From there is a spectacular view of Grand Portage Bay and distant Isle Royale to the east, and the gap in the land where the Grand Portage trail passes to the west. This is also the best aerial view of the Historic Depot.
Picture in this location Fort Charlotte – once a North West Depot for North canoes laden with furs and now a backcountry campground. The fort no longer exists. In its place are two tent platforms. Many paddlers recreate the historic journey from what are now Voyageurs National Park or the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, stopping overnight at Fort Charlotte, then portaging to Lake Superior.
Because Grand Portage was a major hub of the fur trade, seeds and other items passed through en route to other posts. This planting style is thought to originate with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) and traveled west with the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe). The Anishinaabe Oodena at Grand Portage grows an example as a teaching tool.
Today's 8.5 mile (13.7km) portage trail corridor can be thought of in two parts: the eastern "half" that passes through gaps and valleys to avoid the high rocky ridges and the western "half" that passes over elevated terrain to avoid steep slopes and swamps. The parking area at Old Highway 61 approximately divides the halves so hikers can choose the "exploration into history" of their choice.
