Height of Land Portage

Infobox_nrhp | name =Height of Land Portage
nrhp_type =


caption = The portage adjoins the cleared boundary vista, the faint vertical line crossing the isthmus between the lakes.
nearest_city= Grand Marais, Minnesota
area =
architect=
architecture=
added = October 18, 1974
governing_body = U.S. Forest Service
mpsub=
refnum=74001012cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-05-13|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service Search in "MN" for "Height of Land"; this is the one located in Cook County.] :"There is another Height of Land Portage in Embarrass, Minnesota."Height of Land Portage is a portage along the historic Boundary Waters route between Canada and the United States. Located at the border of the Canadian province of Ontario and the US State of Minnesota, the path is a relatively easy crossing of the Laurentian Divide separating the watersheds of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. It was used for centuries for canoe travel by the First Nations, and the historic route of which it was a part became a preindustrial thoroughfare giving the voyageurs access to the fur trading posts in western Canada. For many years the portage was part of an important route from Lower Canada to the interior of the North American continent. It became part of the boundary between British North America and the United States following the American Revolution and treaties delineating the border. In recognition of this history, the portage is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and is a Minnesota State Historic Site. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Minnesota Statute § 138.57, subd. 13
work =
publisher = Minnesota Revisor of Statutes
date =
url = http://ros.leg.mn/bin/getpub.php?pubtype=STAT_CHAP_SEC&year=current&section=138.57&image.x=39&image.y=11
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-05-13 ]

Located in La Verendrye Provincial Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in the unspoiled country along the international boundary, the portage retains its traditional use, but for recreational canoe trips rather than commerce.

Geography

The portage, 80 rods (about 400 m) long, crosses a low saddle between North Lake and South Lake. [cite web
last = U.S. Geological Survey
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Topographical Map
work =
publisher = Microsoft TerraServer
date =
url = http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=2&S=12&Z=15&X=851&Y=6662&W=1
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-05-13 ] It adjoins the boundary vista, a cleared strip which marks the Canada – United States border between those lakes. [Citation
first = Proescholdt
last = Kevin
title = Wilderness Between the Cracks: Where Motor Use and other Wilderness Violations have Degraded the Eastern Part of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
date = March 2007
pages = 4, 5
publisher = Friends of the Boundary Waters
url = http://www.friends-bwca.org/pdfs/Wilderness%20Between%20the%20Cracks.pdf
accessdate = 2007-02-26 . Photographs of boundary vista and illegal snowmobile use of adjacent portage trail, from report prepared for Izaak Walton League of America, Sierra Club North Star Chapter, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, and Wilderness Watch.] South Lake is the source of the Arrow River, tributary to the Pigeon River, which flows east to Lake Superior, other Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean. North Lake is in the watershed of the Rainy River, which drains by way of the Winnipeg and Nelson Rivers to Hudson Bay.cite book
last = Morse
first = Eric
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Fur Trade Routes of Canada
publisher = NorthWord Press
date = 1979
location = Minoqua, WI
pages = 71-75
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 1-5597-1045-4]

According to the Canada/US International Boundary Commission Ontario's boundaries with the United States run 2700 kilometers on water and only about one kilometer on land.cite web
last = Canada/United States International Boundary Commission
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes
work = Presentation at 2006 IBRU Conference, p. 21
publisher = Durham University
date = 2006
url = http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/ibru/conferences/thailand/canada.pdf
format = pdf | doi =
accessdate = 2008-05-13] The 80-rod Height of Land Portage is a significant part of the land border; the remainder is along two other portages, "Watap Portage" (100 rods) a short distance to its east, and "Swamp" (or "Monument") "Portage" (~ 72–80 rods) to the west in the BWCA and Quetico Provincial Park.cite book
last = Lass
first = William E.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Minnesota's Boundary with Canada
publisher = Minnesota Historical Society
date = 1980
location = St. Paul, Minnesota
pages = 111
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 0-8735-1153-0 ] cite web
last = Rook
first = Earl S.J.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = BWCA Glossary "S"
work = A Boundary Waters Compendium
publisher = www.rook.org
date = 2004
url = http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/lists/glossary/s.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-05-13 ] cite web
last = Rook
first = Earl S. J.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = BWCA Glossary "W"
work = A Boundary Waters Compendium
publisher = www.rook.org
date = 2004
url = http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/lists/glossary/w.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-05-13 ]

History

The Height of Land Portage may have had its origin as a route for foraging or migrating animals. Historians believe that many portages started as animal tracks, and were later used by the early inhabitants of the area. Prior to the "Contact Period" (when peoples of the First Nations first encountered European explorers), those natives had long used birchbark canoes as the principal means of travel in the thick boreal forest of the Quetico-Superior area. The Height of Land Portage likely was used by those peoples.cite web
last = Vogel
first = Robert C.
authorlink =
coauthors = David G. Stanley
title = Portage Trails in Minnesota, 1630s-1870s
work = Multiple Property Documentation Form
publisher = US Dept. of the Interior, Nat'l Park Service
date = 1992
url = http://www.nr.nps.gov/multiples/64500288.pdf
format = pdf
doi =
accessdate = 2008-05-13]

The search for the Northwest Passage, the fur trade, and missionary activity brought European travelers to the area. La Verendrye had "discovered" this native route in 1732, when he used it to reach Rainy Lake. In the latter part of the Eighteenth Century it was used by "voyageurs" of the French-Canadian fur brigades as their main route from Grand Portage on Lake Superior to the "pays d'en haut", the "upper country" beyond the height of land separating the Great Lakes from the fur country in the Northwest. At one time there was a refitting station on the west end of the portage where canoes were repaired.cite book
last = Delafield
first = Joseph
authorlink =
coauthors = (Robert McElroy and Thomas Riggs, ed.)
title = The Unfortified Boundary: A Diary of the first survey of the Canadian Boundary Line from St. Regis to the Lake of the Woods
publisher =
date = 1943
location = New York
pages = 408
url =
doi =
id = ]

Voyageurs coming to for the first time to the "pays d'en haut" were initiated after crossing the portage. Each newcomer would be sprinkled with a cedar bough dipped in water, and be made to swear that he would never kiss another voyageur's wife without her consent and would not allow another novice to pass that way without undergoing similar rites. Concluding the ceremony with a gunfire salute and drinks of "high wine" (a type of rum), the new "Nor'wester" and his company would resume their journey.cite journal
last = Podruchny
first = Carolyn
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Baptizing Novices: Ritual Moments among French Canadian Voyageurs in the Montreal Fur Trade, 1780-1821
journal = Canadian Historical Review
volume = 83
issue = 2
pages = 165–95
publisher = University of Toronto Press, Journals Division
date = June 2002
url = http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/d76210w17116g065/fulltext.pdf
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2008-05-13 ] cite book
last = Nute
first = Grace Lee
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Voyageur
publisher = Minnesota Historical Society
date = 1955
location = St. Paul
pages = 66-67
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 0-8735-1012-7]

Inclusion in international border

Following the American Revolution the Treaty of Paris set the international boundary between British North America and the United States along the line of water communication between Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods. During the era of exploration there were three principal routes used by canoe brigades to connect these two lakes, all of which crossed the divide separating western Lake Superior from the Hudson Bay watershed:
* the "Grand Portage" route to Rainy Lake, which used the portage described in this article;
* to the east, the "Kam–Dog–Maligne" route used by early French explorer Jacques de Noyon in 1688, which headed north from the lake at the site of Fort William, Ontario up the Kaministiquia and Dog Rivers to Cold Water Lake, crossed the divide by Prairie Portage to Height of Land Lake, then went west by way of the Savanne, Pickerel, and Maligne Rivers to Lake La Croix where it joined the Grand Portage route; and
* to the west, the "St. Louis–Vermilion" route, which went from Lake Superior at "Fond du Lac" (the "head of the lake") near modern Duluth, Minnesota, up the St. Louis and Embarrass Rivers, across the height of land (by a portage which also bears the name "Height of Land Portage") to Pike River and Lake Vermilion, then down the Vermilion River to the Grand Portage route.

Britain asserted that the westernmost St. Louis-Vermilion route was the usual line of water communications, while the United States advocated the easternmost Kam–Dog–Maligne Route. Following surveys in the early Nineteenth Century, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 fixed the route along the Pigeon River and the Height of Land Portage between North and South Lakes.cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Webster-Ashburton Treaty, Art. 2
work =
publisher = Yale Law School
date = 1842
url = http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/britain/br-1842.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-05-13 ]

Since then the portage has been recognized as part of the border. "Free and open to the use of the citizens and subjects of both countries", it continues in its historic use as a footpath for the overland transport of canoes across the divide separating the Great Lakes Basin from the Canadian northwest.

References