Grand Portage National Monument      

Contact Information:
Grand Portage National Monument
P.O. Box 426
170 Mile Creek Road
Grand Portage, MN 55605
218-475-0123
http://www.nps.gov/grpo/

Size: 710 acres

Location: Grand Portage National Monument is located on the northwestern shore of Lake Superior, 7 miles south of the United States-Canada border and 36 miles north of Grand Marias, Minnesota. Park entrance is one mile from MN 61.

Description: This 9-mile portage was a vital link on one of the principal routes for Indians, explorers, missionaries, and fur traders heading for the Northwest. The Grand Portage post of the North West Company has been reconstructed at the eastern terminus of the Grand Portage on Lake Superior.

Activities: Visitors can explore the reconstructed Grand Portage post, which includes areas dedicated to trade goods (such as furs of beaver, muskrat, red and cross fox, arctic and timber wolf and bison), Ojibwe artisans of Grand Portage, furnishings and maps of explorers and traders Peter Pond, David Thompson and Alexander MacKenzie, and historic videos and books for sale. From the porch of the Great Hall, visitors can look out over Grand Portage Bay, which is still pristine and remarkably unchanged since the eighteenth century. Housed just outside the stockade in the canoe warehouse, are beautiful examples of Maitre, du Nord freight and Anishinaabe wild rice harvesting canoes constructed from birchbark, cedar and spruce raw materials. The Mount Rose Trail offers picturesque views of the historic depot, Grand Portage Bay, Isle Royale National Park and the Grand Portage footpath.

Operating Hours: From Saturday of Memorial weekend through Monday of Columbus Holiday, Grand Portage National Monument is open daily 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The park headquarters, located in the old coast guard building in Grand Marais, is open year round from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. The Grand Portage, Mount Rose Trail and trails outside the stockade are open year round from dawn until dusk. The annual Rendezvous Days and Pow Wow, the height of the season at Grand Portage National Monument, is always the second full weekend in August.

History: Designated as a national historic site on September 15, 1951; changed to national monument by act of Congress on September 2, 1958.  

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