Mike and Roxanne travel east

Grand Portage National Monument Aug 7, 2007

Aug 7, 2007

We have canceled our camp spot for tonight and will head south to the Duluth area. First however, we are headed north to Grand Portage and the Grand Portage National Monument.

Grand Portage is a historic site overlooking Lake Superior, and includes a stockade wall, a great hall and kitchen complex that have been reconstructed over their original archeological footprints. Nearby, a canoe warehouse protects vessels on exhibit, crafted from birch, cedar and spruce raw materials, which were so essential for travel along the east-west fur trade routes. The Grand Portage became a major gateway into the interior of North America for exploration, trade and commerce. It linked Lake Superior and Montreal with westward systems of lakes, rivers and interior trading posts which eventually reached the Arctic Beaufort Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

Grand Portage is also a Celebration of Heritage. The Ojibwe Indians used this area for over 400 years to tap maples every spring and in the summer harvest fish. Long before the U.S. and Canada were countries, the trading of furs, ideas and genes between the Ojibwe and French and English fur traders flourished. From 1778 until 1802, the North West Company located their headquarters and western supply depot here for business and a summer rendezvous involving Indian families, French voyageurs, Scottish clerks, and Montreal and London agents. Today, Grand Portage National Monument and Indian Reservation form a bridge between people, time and culture.

Re-enactors are present at each aspect of the site and act as interpreters for the buildings and objects displayed.

In the area of the Ojibwe Indians camp is a Three Sisters Garden. The Three Sisters garden bed is located outside the palisade by the Ojibwe Village and shows a traditional Native American style of planting. The Three Sisters balance and nourish each other. Corn is planted in hills and feeds heavily on the soil. Beans send their runners up the corn stalks and add nitrogen to the soil. Squash is planted at the ends of corn fields and also between corn plots in a field. Squash sends its long, prickly runners through the small rows discouraging both small animals and weeds as well as helping to hold moisture in the ground. Gardening was a traditional summer activity of the Ojibwe women.

Our next stop was the warehouse and the canoe maker. It would normally take and Ojibwe family 3 weeks to complete a canoe designed to hold 6-8 people but now takes about 4 years. Of course, most of the work is done by only 1 person who also spends time talking about what he does. He has learned the trade from other experts and been doing this for 14 years. He still used the same methods as the Ojibwe, birch bark for the outer covering, cedar for the cross pieces and frame and pine pitch and bear grease for oakum.

We learn about the fur trade from another re-enactor and the entire kitchen from yet another. The site is getting ready for their annual rendezvous and pow-wow to be held this weekend. They are expecting close to 200 re-actors.

We return to the rig, hook-up and pull out at 11:55 a.m 46362

The scenery along the coast is spectacular. This is a large iron ore and taconite mining area. We stop in Two Harbors and refuel. $2.95 a gallon and we put in 46 gallons. We have gotten just over 9 miles to the gallon on this tank.

We are spending at least the next two nights at the Northland RV Park in Superior, Wisconsin, just across the bridge from Duluth. We have WiFi so I spend the afternoon getting everything caught up. Tomorrow we hit Duluth and take in all the sights.