The Great Carrying Place

“There is no life so happy as a voyageur’s life.” 

 

A model of a French Canadian 'voyageur' 
carrying a 90-pound pack by a head strap
 Grand Portage National Monument Heritage Center

 

Voyageur is the French word for traveler and the words above are attributed to a voyageur who retired after 41 years of this hard work.  While David and I consider ourselves travelers we could never think of ourselves in the same league with the French Canadian voyageurs that traded in furs and supplies for most of the 1700s.

 

Grand Portage Bay and the North West Company Headquarters

 

Grand Portage, Minnesota about 5 miles south of the Canadian Border is the place where much of the fur trading centered from about 1731 until 1803.  We spent 4 days near “The Great Carrying Place,” Grand Portage in French or “Kitchi Onigaming,” as the Ojibwe peoples called it.  There is both a national monument and a state park within a few miles of each other to explore and learn the fascinating history of this place and actually walk a piece of history, the Grand Portage itself.

 

David and Maya on the actual Grand Portage trail

 

The voyageurs carried their loads along this route and through the 'notch' in 
the mountains about 8.5 miles to Fort Charlotte on the Pigeon River

 

The Great Carrying Place was known for hundreds of years only to the Indian people inhabiting the region.  This approximately 8.5-mile land trail connected Lake Superior to the Pigeon River and a vast inland system of lakes and rivers in the continent’s interior. So with all those rivers and lakes about, why was this ‘great carry’ necessary?  The reason was twenty miles of rapids, cascades and waterfalls finally ending in the High Falls, a thundering drop of nearly 120 feet on the lower portion of the Pigeon River just before reaching Lake Superior.  

 

High Falls on the Pigeon River

 

Indian birch bark canoes were the means of transportation and although they were swift, they were also fragile.  Even excluding the High Falls, the birch bark canoes could not navigate this portion of the river.  (Today’s metal or fiberglass canoes and kayaks can not manage this section of the Pigeon River either.)  So the Ojibwe and other Indian peoples carried their canoes, baskets, fish from Lake Superior, wild rice, flint and other trade goods over the portage to meet and trade with other tribes.

 

North West Company Great Hall and Lookout Tower

Furs in the storage room

 

 

By the time the French and English fur trade began, this carrying route was well established.  The bay at Grand Portage on Lake Superior became headquarters of the North West Company, owned by the Highland Scots.  It was a convenient meeting place for the voyageurs to trade. 

One group called the ‘north men,’ would winter in the northwest trading supplies of blankets, seeds, metal cookpots and other goods with the Indians.  When the ice broke up in the early summer, the north men would journey to Grand Portage laden with furs from the Indians.  Here they would meet other voyageurs from Montreal, called ‘pork-eaters.’  The north men would trade their furs for supplies from the pork-eaters to take back to trade with the Indians.  Deals were struck at this 'Great Rendezvous' and voyageurs, Europeans and Indians alike celebrated the trading with fun, food and raucous entertainment.

 

Sleeping quarters for North West Company officials

Indian accommodations
Many of the voyageurs slept underneath their canoes

 

 

The National Monument is a restoration of the North West Company’s headquarters and stockade grounds.  We explored the great hall, store rooms and the living quarters and watched demonstrations of bread making in the company kitchen.  After wandering the grounds and seeing a demonstration garden, the company warehouse and Indian birch bark shelters, we ventured off on the Grand Portage Trail.  If you walk the whole 8.5 miles, it is possible to spend the night at Fort Charlotte, the North West Company’s smaller storage depot on the Pigeon River where the canoes were loaded with trade goods and launched to the northwest.

 

Daisy lined trail to Mt. Rose above the North West Company Headquarters

 

The hardy voyageurs had a reputation for working energetically without complaint and chanting nostalgic French songs as they paddled.  When it came time for the portage, the trade goods were loaded into 90-pound bundles.  The bundles were attached to a head strap and then carried by the voyageurs.  Furs were carried to the North Company headquarters and trade goods were carried back to Ft. Charlotte for the journey to the north.   Many of the men would carry two of the bundles for a load of 180 pounds.  It is said they made the round trip in six hours!

 

View of Grand Portage Bay from the Mt. Rose Trail

 

David and I agree with the voyageur’s sentiments about traveling being a happy life but there is no way that includes carrying a 90-pound pack or two for a 17-mile round trip.  And there is no way I could even think about singing…

 

David’s Stats:

Days Hiked:  2  
Total Miles Hiked:  12.54   
Ave. Miles per Day:  6.27   
Total Elevation Gain:   1,811 
Ave. Elevation Gain per day:  906 

Sunset on Lake Superior from Marina Campground in Grand Portage

Lake Superior Overlook