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:''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 US State of Minnesota and the Canadian province of Ontario, 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 became a preindustrial thoroughfare giving the voyageurs access to the fur trading posts in western Canada. For many years the portage was an important route from Lower Canada to the interior of the North American continent, and became part of the boundary between British North America and the United States following the American Revolution and treaties delineating the border. It is a Minnesota State Historic Site.^[2] 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.

Contents

Geography

History

References

Geography

The portage, 80 rods (about 400 m) long, crosses a low saddle between North Lake and South Lake.^[3] South Lake is the source of the Arrow River which is tributary to the Pigeon River, flowing 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. Fur Trade Routes of Canada, , Eric, Morse, NorthWord Press, , 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. St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes 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. Minnesota's Boundary with Canada, , William E., Lass, Minnesota Historical Society, , ISBN 0-8735-1153-0 BWCA Glossary "S" BWCA Glossary "W"

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. Portage Trails in Minnesota, 1630s-1870s
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. The Unfortified Boundary: A Diary of the first survey of the Canadian Boundary Line from St. Regis to the Lake of the Woods, , Joseph, Delafield, , ,
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. Baptizing Novices: Ritual Moments among French Canadian Voyageurs in the Montreal Fur Trade, 1780-1821, , Carolyn, Podruchny, Canadian Historical Review, The Voyageur, , Grace Lee, Nute, Minnesota Historical Society, , ISBN 0-8735-1012-7
This was not the only route across the height of land. During the era of exploration three routes were used to cross 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, ''St. Louis–Vermilion'' route, which went from the 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 to Pike River and Lake Vermilion, then down the Vermilion River to the Grand Portage route. The portage across the divide on this route also bears the name ''Height of Land Portage''.
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. 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. Webster-Ashburton Treaty, Art. 2 Since then it has remained part of the border, and continues in its historic use as a footpath for the portaging of canoes over the divide separating the Great Lakes Basin from the Canadian northwest.

References

1. National Register Information System
2. Minnesota Statute § 138.57, subd. 13
3. Topographical Map