Grand Portage

I've always loved history. Even as a kid I knew history wasn't about memorizing dates and dusty old facts---it was about stories! Grand Portage National Monument near the Minnesota-Canadian border is a great place to hear the stories of our past. Not only will you hear them, you'll get a chance to taste, smell, touch, grow and wear them.

More than 200 years ago, Grand Portage, on Lake Superior's shore, was the site of an annual summer rendezvous. Winter furs, trapped as far away as the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, were transported along the waterways and trails to the North West Company stockade where they were loaded into big canoes and paddled by voyageurs to Montreal.

Today you can explore the reconstructed stockade, encampment and Ojibwe village. You can taste food picked from the historic heirloom garden or gathered from the forest. You can learn how it was dried on racks, cooked on the hearth or baked in a wood burning oven. You can try on period clothing, listen to a piper playing and singing songs from the past. You can see shelters and canoes being built and even walk along the ancient portage trail. You'll hear the stories and will catch more than a glimpse of the past.