Qualla: Grand Portage National Monument

Grand Portage National Monument: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0. In mid-July 1802, the partners of the North West Company gathered inside their Grand Hall on the shore of Lake Superior. They voted to tear down every building -- all 18 structures, the 2,000 cedar pickets surrounding them, the squared spruce and pine and birch timbers -- load it all onto schooners, and sail north to Canada. The most successful fur trade company in North America was abandoning what had been its inland headquarters. Grand Portage National Monument preserves the site of that headquarters and the ancient trail that made it matter: a footpath the Ojibwe called Gichi-onigaming, the Great Carrying Place, which for at least 2,000 years served as the critical link between Lake Superior and the vast interior of the continent.

Image: Chris Light | CC BY-SA 4.0

Grand Portage National Monument: The Great Carrying Place

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Erwin N. Thompson, Public domain. The monument takes its name from a footpath that exists because the Pigeon River, in its final stretch before reaching Lake Superior, drops through waterfalls and rapids that no loaded canoe could navigate. The portage bypasses those cascades -- a trail connecting Grand Portage B...

Image: Erwin N. Thompson | Public domain

Grand Portage National Monument: A Map Drawn by Firelight

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eastman Johnson, Public domain. In 1729, a Cree guide named Auchagah drew a map for Pierre Gaultier de La Verendrye, one of the first French fur traders to push west from the Great Lakes. The map showed the water route from Lake Superior through Grand Portage to the western sea of Lake Winnipeg. That single pie...

Image: Eastman Johnson | Public domain

Grand Portage National Monument: Canoe Brigades and Beaver Pelts

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0. The logistics were staggering. Voyageurs from Rupert's Land paddled their canoes laden with bundles of beaver, marten, and muskrat pelts to Fort Charlotte on the Pigeon River. From there, they carried the bales over the portage trail to Grand Portage Bay. Meanwhile, brigades from...

Image: Chris Light | CC BY-SA 4.0

Grand Portage National Monument: From Abandonment to Monument

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Quozl (talk), Public domain. After the Jay Treaty of 1795 and the gradual assertion of American sovereignty, the North West Company chose economics over loyalty. Rather than pay American taxes, the partners voted in 1802 to relocate north to the mouth of the Kaministiquia River, where they built Fort William...

Image: Quozl (talk) | Public domain

Grand Portage National Monument: Living History on the Lakeshore

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NPS, Public domain. The reconstructed depot brings the fur trade era back to life. Volunteers and park staff in period attire occupy the Kitchen, Great Hall, Canoe Warehouse, Ojibwe Village, and Voyageur Encampment, interpreting daily life at the turn of the 18th century. The four corner rooms of th...

Image: NPS | Public domain