Effective immediately, the Grand Portage National Monument’s Heritage Center will be operating on adjusted hours. The changes are necessitated by visitation and staffing concerns.
The center will be open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and closed Saturday and Sunday. Hours of operation will be extended to again include weekends on May 23.
However the site, which includes the historic depot grounds, Mount Rose Trail, and the Grand Portage Trail will remain open for snowshoeing and skiing daily from dawn to dusk. There will be park brochures available on the front porch of the Heritage Center.
Grand Portage National Monument was established in 1958 to commemorate and preserve a premier site and route of the 18th century fur trade that led to pioneering international commerce and exploration in North America as well as cultural contact between Ojibwe and other native societies and the North West Company partners, clerks and canoe-men. The monument was also established to work with the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe) in preserving and interpreting the heritage and lifeways of the Ojibwe people.
The site is of international and regional significance because it was the central hub of a once flourishing fur trade and here the bold economic strategy and exploration by the North West Company voyageurs and traders opened up a transcontinental trade route. Grand Portage was and remains a meeting ground of diverse cultures.
For more information about the historic site or programming, call (218) 475-0123.
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