Grand Portage National Monument
| Grand Portage National Monument | |||
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| Location: | Minnesota , United States | ||
| Specialty: | Important traffic route on the Great Lakes and fur trading base | ||
| Next city: | Duluth | ||
| Surface: | 2.9 km² | ||
| Founding: | January 27, 1960 | ||
| Visitors: | 53,443 (2006) | ||
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Grand Portage National Monument is a memorial of the type of a National Monument on Lake Superior in Cook County in the far northeast of the US state of Minnesota . It preserves a place on the Great Lakes with a significant transport history and an important base for the fur trade with the interior of today 's Canada .
The memorial was partially reconstructed in the 1930s, dedicated as a National Monument in 1960 and is administered by the National Park Service .
description
Grand Portage is named after a portage , a section in which canoes have to be carried, on the Pigeon River , which flows a little east into the Upper Lake. The river is part of a link across the Laurentine watershed to Lake of the Woods and on to Lake Winnipeg in interior Canada. Its lower course is not accessible for canoes due to several waterfalls . The canoes and all goods had to be carried over about 14 km from the lake shore until the usable river was reached.
history
The Anishina Indians of the region knew and used the route since ancient times, as did the neighboring peoples. In 1679 a white fur trader of French descent reached the north-western shore of the Upper Lake for the first time. Shortly afterwards, Indians showed the whites their route into the interior of the country. The fur trade was shaped by the competition between the French pioneers and the English of the Hudson's Bay Company , which was only founded in 1670 but was very financially strong. In 1713, according to the Treaty of Utrecht, the French had to withdraw from the north-east around Hudson Bay and concentrated more on the Great Lakes. Grand Portage was first mentioned in writing in 1722 by a French officer. The traders set up small stores at both ends of the carrying route.
After the French and Indian War France lost all possessions in the northeast to Great Britain in 1763, the French fur traders either went to New Orleans and the colony of Louisiana or operated as independent traders under the British government from Montreal . It was not until 1783 that mainly French-born traders founded the North West Company , which, in competition with the Hudson's Bay Company, wanted to open up and use the northwest of what is now known as Canada. Almost all of their business was carried out via Lake Superior and the Portage of the Pigeon River, and their base was expanded.
Fortified warehouses were built at both ends of the portage. On the lakeshore a large area enclosed by palisades with several buildings, on the river the small Fort Caroline . From 1787 onwards, the North West Company moved its headquarters from Montreal to its base on Lake Superior every summer and built the Great Hall as the administrative center for this purpose. From here, Alexander MacKenzie advanced on behalf of the Company to the Fort Chipewyan outpost when he was the first white man to cross the North American continent and reach the Pacific Ocean in 1793 .
As part of the American War of Independence , the British had to withdraw their military in 1779, the part of the Upper Lake came under American influence. In 1803 the borders between the United States and British Canada were established and Grand Portage was now American. The North West Company moved its post about 50 km north to Fort William (now part of Thunder Bay ) at a portage at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River . From 1804 the buildings in Grand Portage fell into disrepair.
Shortly before 1840, opened American Fur Company of John Jacob Astor again a short-lived trade and supply post at the Grand Portage, but withdrew in the final decline of the fur trade in 1843 back.
1922 started the Minnesota Historical Society , a history of scientific professional society, with the study of the history of Grand Portage as part of their employment with the fur trade. As part of the New Deal , workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps were used from 1936 to 1940 to reconstruct the base.
The National Monument
The memorial includes the bank area on Lake Superior with the palisade, the buildings in the enclosed area and a warehouse outside, the approximately 14 km long, narrow footpath and the former location of Fort Caroline on the Pigeon River. It forms an enclave in the Grand Portage Indian Reservation of Anishinabe. The course of the river and the waterfalls are located in Grand Portage State Park , which is the only state park not owned by the state of Minnesota, but leased by the Indians in 1989.
In 1969, the Great Hall , which was reconstructed in 1940, burned down; it was not until 1980 that funds were available to rebuild it more faithfully to the original according to more recent findings. The memorial also consists of the attached kitchen building, a gate tower and the palisades as well as a warehouse outside.
The main building is the visitor center of the memorial, the warehouse outside the palisade and the neighboring Heritage Center , which is run by the Indians, serve as museums on the history of the indigenous people and the fur traders. In the summer half of the year, a historical Indian village is reconstructed with tents. A garden with historical useful plants is also laid out within the palisade.
Visitors can hike the 14 km long portage to the Pigeon River, and in summer there are also living history demonstrations and tours in replica canoes.
Web links
- National Park Service: Grand Portage National Monument (official site; English)