A little south of downtown is the North House Folk School.  It is one of only a few places in the U.S. that is dedicated to preserving traditional arts and crafts. Of all the wonderful skills taught, we learned that one of the most popular courses is the Build Your Own Casket class.

In the canoe construction area, memories of Danny’s boat building days were triggered when one of the instructors said she had just purchased a 1974 Erikson 27 ft sail boat … he told her that he just might have made her rigging. In the mean time Sherry was busy in the gift shop admiring the Norwegian craft of rosemaling.

We missed seeing the sails up on the Schooner Hjørdis. It’s docked at the North House Folk School and is used to provide an introduction to the craft of sail, plus the ecology, geology, and history of Lake Superior.

Our visit to the Grand Portage National Monument was more enjoyable than we expected.  Although we have been fascinated by the history of the fur trade  (it always seemed so romantic, adventurous and exotic), we were surprised at how little we actually knew.

Two hundred years ago, Grand Portage was headquarters for the famous North West Company. Furs trapped between Lake Superior and the Rocky Mountains were channeled through a stockade on this spot. Every summer the stockade was the site of a great rendezvous of over a thousand voyageurs, Indians and company officials.

Outside the stockade is an Ojibwe encampment. Their homes were made of birch bark ... a lightweight, decay resistant and waterproof material. The Ojibwe obtained a rather high standard of living by trading for such goods as axes, cooking pots, firearms, traps, tobacco, wool blankets, fabric and glass beads from Venice.

Through archeological digs, four of the original 16 buildings have been rebuilt. The Ojibwes named this area "gitche onigaming" meaning great carrying place. Canoes and cargo were hauled over a trail to avoid the steep and dangerous falls on the Pigeon River. One can still walk the original 8.5 mile Grand Portage Trail.

Interpreters, who wore 18th century costumes, were extremely well informed and brought the nitty gritty operation of the fur trade to life. Here we were shown the two types of birch bark canoes used by the voyageurs … one for rivers and a larger one for lakes. The Lake canoes were about 40 ft long and carried 12 men and 8,000 pounds of cargo.

The Great Hall at Grand Portage

The biggest surprise was the Great Hall … it seemed so civilized with its linens, china and glassware. Here the company partners, clerks and Indians talked business by day and dined in the evening. Amazingly the annual partner meeting was held here. This required that most partners make an arduous 1500 mile journey by canoe from Montreal.

This was a real hands on experience … there was a table covered with furs and typical trade goods just ready to be touched and inspected. We were walked through the process of how 60 bulky beaver pelts were converted into compact 90 pound bales.

The Great Hall held the quarters of Alexander MacKenzie ... who did most of the negotiating with the Indians. MacKenzie is better remembered for reaching the Pacific Ocean 11 years before Lewis and Clark.

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