Interior of the Grand Portage National Monument Heritage Center

Interior of the Grand Portage National Monument Heritage Center

Ojibwe wigwam interactive display inside of the Grand Portage National Monument Heritage Center. The opening of the site’s Heritage Center in 2017 shifted the site’s offices from Grand Marais to Grand Portage and provided a larger space for more inclusive interpretation. Photograph by Flickr user Ken Lund, August 14, 2018. CC BY-SA 2.0

The Great Hall and kitchen at Grand Portage National Monument

The Great Hall and kitchen at Grand Portage National Monument

The reconstructed Great Hall (right) and kitchen (left) at Grand Portage National Monument, August 6, 2019. The two structures are connected by a covered walkway. Photograph by Flickr user Sean Marshall. CC BY-NC 2.0

Canoe shed at Grand Portage

Canoe shed at Grand Portage

The canoe shed at Grand Portage, ca. 1975. The shed, located outside the main stockade and used as a warehouse, was reconstructed in 1973.

Great Hall at Grand Portage

Great Hall at Grand Portage

The second reconstructed Great Hall at Grand Portage, ca. 1975. This structure was built after lightning struck the 1930s reconstruction, burning it to the ground. The gatehouse behind the Great Hall (at right) was erected in 1966 as part of the reconstruction of the 1930s stockade. Archaeological work undertaken in the 1960s and early 1970s helped builders create more historically accurate structures. Photograph by Robert C. Wheeler.

Canoe in the Stockade Museum at Grand Portage

Canoe in the Stockade Museum at Grand Portage

The interior of the Great Hall at Grand Portage which was used as a museum, ca. 1940. The museum included small objects recovered as part of archaeological investigations of the site. Initially, the Great Hall also included a gift shop and cafe. Most of the museum’s contents were destroyed in a 1969 fire.

Great Hall, Grand Portage National Monument

Great Hall, Grand Portage National Monument

The reconstructed Great Hall and stockade at Grand Portage, ca. 1955.

Restored stockade at Grand Portage

Restored stockade at Grand Portage

The reconstructed stockade and Great Hall at Grand Portage, 1953. Both the stockade and Great Hall were rebuilt with greater historical accuracy in 1966 and 1974, respectively. At the time of this photo, the site had been named a National Historic Site by the Department of the Interior but had not yet been made a National Monument. Note how the interior of the stockade was used as a visitor parking lot.

Reconstructing the Great Hall at Grand Portage

Reconstructing the Great Hall at Grand Portage

Workers reconstructing the Great Hall at Grand Portage, December 1939. The workers pictured here are likely members of the CCC Indian Division (CCC-ID), which did much of the excavation and reconstruction work on the site in the 1930s. This iteration of the reconstructed Great Hall was destroyed by fire in 1969.

Excavation work at Grand Portage

Excavation work at Grand Portage

Archaeological excavations at the Grand Portage depot site. Photograph by Willoughby M. Babcock, 1937. The features in the trench may be part of the foundation walls, which were located during the 1930s excavations.

Grand Portage National Monument

The Grand Portage National Monument in far northeastern Minnesota was established in 1960, after the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe) ceded nearly 710 acres of their land to the US government. A unit of the National Park Service (NPS), it consists of the eight-and-a-half-mile Grand Portage trail and two trading depot sites—one on the shoreline of Lake Superior and one inland, at Pigeon River. A partially reconstructed depot sits at the Lake Superior site.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Architecture