Grand Portage National Monument

Grand Portage National Monument on Lake Superior in northern Minnesota marks an outpost and 9-mile section of trail that thousands of Native American Indians, missionaries, explorers, and French Canadian fur traders used on their way to the Northwest. The travelers carried canoes, goods, and supplies on their backs and stopped at the trading post, the western headquarters of the North West Company, to exchange goods and to rest. The 710-acre monument contains a reconstructed trading post, where the trading company maintained its Great Hall and 15 other buildings and held its annual meetings.