Grand Portage National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)

QUICKLINKS:

Live History and Celebrate Heritage

Travel into the past to discover the present. Explore the Heritage Center with stories of the Anishinabe or Ojibwe people of Grand Portage and the North West Company of the North American fur trade. Follow pathways into a distant time. Take in the sights and smells of a bustling depot reconstructed over its original footprint. Listen for the echo of the drum over Grand Portage Bay.

		Take a Guided Walk Join a guide in historic dress for a talk about the natural history of the beaver, take a walking tour of the site or see the construction of a traditional fur trade canoe in the monument's Ojibwe village.

Kids watch our traditional birchbark canoe builder pop wild rice in a fry pan over the fire.

Become a Junior Ranger

Grand Portage National Monument is a great place to be a kid! Pick up your Junior Ranger booklet in the Heritage Center; answer the questions and when you finish, head back to the Heritage Center to receive your Junior Ranger badge and NWC. voyageur contract in French with an English translation.

Our historic gardener shows visitors the uses of a pre-European contact hoe made from a moose scapula.

Visit the Historic Gardens

Extensive gardens were found at every fur post. Traders and their families craved produce from the gardens and used different methods to preserve vegetables for winter use. Come see what the gardens have to offer this year and speak with our historic gardener.
more...

View from Grand Portage Bay (Lake Superior) of the Heritage Center at Grand Portage.

Grand Portage Heritage Center

Construction of the new Grand Portage Heritage Center is complete. Grand Opening and Dedication ceremonies took place on Friday, August 10, 2007. The 16,600 square foot building houses exhibit galleries about Ojibwe culture and the fur trade, a bookstore, multi-media programs, park offices and a classroom.
more...

Write to

P.O. Box 426
170 Mile Creek Road
Grand Portage, Minnesota 55605

E-mail Us

Phone

Heritage Center
(218) 475-0123

Monument Headquarters
(218) 475-0123

Fax

(218) 475-0174

Climate

Weather conditions change frequently, due to the site’s location on the north shore of Lake Superior. Cool onshore lake breezes are common in spring, summer and fall along with occasional showers. Summer inland temperatures can reach into the 80’s and 90’s but are usually 10 to 15 degrees cooler by Lake Superior. Winter weather can be very cold and windy, with consecutive days of sub-zero temperatures, followed by calm, sunny, moderate temperatures in the 20’s and 30’s.