Grand Portage, Minnesota facts for kids

Grand Portage is a special area in Cook County, Minnesota, United States. It's located right on the shore of Lake Superior, in the very northeastern part of the state. This area is close to the border with Ontario, Canada. In 2020, about 616 people lived here.

Within Grand Portage, you'll find the small community also called Grand Portage and the Grand Portage Indian Reservation. This reservation is home to the Ojibwe people.

Right next to the community is the Grand Portage National Monument. This monument was created in 1958. It's entirely inside the Grand Portage Ojibwe Indian Reservation. The monument has a rebuilt trading post that shows what life was like during the fur trade and how the Ojibwe people lived. A British company called the North West Company used Grand Portage as its main base until 1802.

Grand Portage is also where you can catch ferries. These boats take visitors from Minnesota to Isle Royale National Park. This park is actually part of the U.S. state of Michigan.

Exploring Grand Portage's Location

Grand Portage is a large area. It covers about 192 square miles (498 square kilometers) of land. But it also includes a lot of water, about 306 square miles (792 square kilometers) of Lake Superior!

Minnesota State Highway 61 is the main road that runs through this area.

The main community of Grand Portage is about 34 miles (55 kilometers) northeast of Grand Marais. It's also only about 6 miles (10 kilometers) southwest of the border with Canada.

Nearby Small Communities

Besides the main community of Grand Portage, there are a few other small, unincorporated communities within this area:

• Grand Portage
• Mineral Center
• Pigeon River

Grand Portage's Weather

Grand Portage has a humid continental climate. This means it has four distinct seasons. Summers are usually cooler here than in places further south. Winters can be quite cold and snowy. Most of the rain falls in the summer, but winter often brings a lot of snow.

A Look Back at Grand Portage's History

Grand Portage became a very important place for the fur trade starting in the 1600s. It was a key spot where voyageurs (French-Canadian fur traders) would leave the Great Lakes. They would start a long canoe route into the wilderness from here.

The name "Grand Portage" comes from a huge 9-mile (14.5-kilometer) portage. A portage is a place where people have to carry their canoes and supplies over land. This was done to get around waterfalls or difficult parts of a river.

The French first traded furs with the Native Americans here. But after the Seven Years' War in the 1700s, the British took over. The North West Company made Grand Portage its main base in the region. Soon, Grand Portage became one of Britain's four most important fur trading posts. The others were Niagara, Detroit, and Michilimackinac.

Even after the American Revolutionary War, the British kept trading here. But the Treaty of Paris in 1783 said that this land now belonged to the United States.

Finally, in 1796, the Jay Treaty set the northern border between Canada and the U.S. British traders then decided to leave Grand Portage. They wanted to avoid new taxes the U.S. was putting on their businesses. In 1802, they planned to move north to Canada and create a new trading center called Fort William.

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the U.S. gained even more land to the west. This made the British finally move their headquarters from Grand Portage to Fort William in Canada. Once the British fur traders left, the area's economy quickly slowed down. Later, in the 1800s, fishing and logging became important industries here.

Who Lives in Grand Portage?

In 2000, there were 557 people living in Grand Portage. The area had a mix of different people. About 35.7% of the residents were White, and about 57.8% were Native American. A small number of people were from other backgrounds or had mixed heritage.

The average age of people living in Grand Portage was 36 years old. About 27% of the population was under 18 years old.

See also

In Spanish: Grand Portage (Minnesota) para niños