50 Fun Facts About Voyageurs National Park

Voyageurs National Park is in which U.S. state?

It is the state's only national park, hard against the Canadian border.

The park is named after which historical group?

The word simply means 'travellers' in French; at their peak in the 1810s about three thousand of them worked the canoe routes.

In what year was the park established?

The state legislature had first asked for a national park back in 1891, nearly eighty years earlier.

Which president signed the 1971 law authorising the park?

Establishment followed four years later, once the land had been assembled.

How is the main body of the park reached in summer?

In winter you can drive, snowmobile, ski or snowshoe across the frozen lakes instead.

Which peninsula, with no road access, makes up most of the park's land area?

Its interior lakes, like those on the Locator Lakes trail, are the park's most popular small waters.

Which city is the largest near the park?

Its sawmills and paper mills, with those in Fort Frances across the river, ran on the region's timber until 1937.

Which is the largest of the park's four major lakes, 60 miles long with 929 miles of shoreline?

French explorer Jacques de Noyon wintered on the Rainy River in about 1688, the first European in the area.

Which of the four major lakes is the deepest, at 184 feet?

It is also the smallest of the four, just 8 miles long.

How many of the park's four major lakes straddle the U.S.-Canada border?

Only one of the four lies entirely on the American side.

Which famous canoe wilderness lies immediately east of the park?

Together they preserve the old canoe route that became the international border after the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

Which historic hotel, opened in 1913 and reachable only by water, is the only lodging inside the park?

It sits at the portage between Namakan and Rainy lakes and joined the National Register in 1976.

In 1918 the park's only hotel changed hands for $1,000 and what else?

The buyer, Bob Williams, later ran stills and a smuggling operation and was charged with selling illegal whiskey.

The Namakan–Rainy lakes portage is one of the few lower-48 spots where a visitor does what?

A quirk of the border, which dips south around the park's big peninsula.

Which timber baron built the north-south wing of the park's only hotel?

The National Park Service bought it from the Williams family in 1976 and renovated it in 1986-87.

Gold was found in 1893 on which island in the park's biggest lake, now reached by an accessible trail?

George Davis found the gold-bearing quartz vein; 13 abandoned mine sites remain in the park.

Which boom town, incorporated in March 1894, was gone by 1901 when the gold ran out?

A saloon still stands on the site, proposed as a shelter for exhibits.

In what year did the region's gold rush go bust because of low production?

The Lyle, Big American, Bushyhead and Soldier mines all left ruins visitors can still find.

What was the main product of the large commercial fisheries that began on the Rainy River in 1892?

Long distances and no refrigeration killed the industry by the 1930s; small family fishing camps replaced it.

Which large predator, the 'Great Lakes' subspecies, still roams the park?

A camera trap even caught a male cougar inside the park in October 2022.

Which iconic diving bird, the state bird, is common on the park's lakes?

Bald eagles and cormorants share the shorelines.

In 2020 the IDA gave Voyageurs which night-sky designation?

The Voyageurs Forest Overlook, Beaver Pond Overlook and the dam at the big portage are the favourite stargazing spots.

Roughly how many campsites does the park maintain, all of them reachable only by water?

Tenters may not use the houseboat sites, and overnight permits come from recreation.gov.

The Shoepack and Root lakes in the middle of the peninsula hold a distinctive strain of which fish?

Walleye, northern pike, smallmouth bass and crappie fill the big lakes; lake trout hide mostly in Cruiser Lake.

Which people were the primary residents of the border lakes by 1780, supplying traders?

The Cree, Monsoni and Assiniboine had been the first contacts but left the border lakes by the mid-18th century.

Which Ojibwe band lived in the Voyageurs park area from the 1760s until the Nett Lake reservation was set up?

Five bands lived from the west end of the big peninsula's lake to Crane Lake and the Moose River.

Which vast glacial meltwater lake's retreat let the first people into the area 10,000 years ago?

Its deposits are still visible in the park, along with glacial striations and erratic boulders.

The park sits on which ancient geological province, with rocks 1 to 3 billion years old?

They are among the oldest rocks on the continent, folded gneiss and granite scraped bare by Ice Age glaciers.

Which two early-1900s logging and paper-mill dams lie in or beside the park?

Logging changed the forest for good: white and red pine that once dominated are now minor players.

Hoist Bay on Namakan is named for what?

Trains then hauled the logs to sawmills in the town of Virginia until 1929; trestle piers still poke from the water.

Which sculpture garden on the north shore of the park's all-American lake is visited by boat tours?

Tours leave from the visitor centre on that lake's southern shore.

Which school ran a summer camp for civil-engineering students at Camp Marston from 1922 to 1940?

A cabin called 'Polaris', where the professors lived, still stands.

Roughly how many resorts existed inside the park boundary when it was created in 1975?

Owners could sell and stay for life or for 25 years; 20 historic properties will be kept.

Roughly how many visitors did the park host in 2018?

Many arrive in rented houseboats or on ranger-led boat tours.

Roughly how many miles of hiking trail does the park have?

Most cross the interior peninsula, including long-distance backcountry routes.

Which winter feature is plowed and marked across the park's biggest lake from the visitor centre?

Snowmobiles are limited to the frozen lakes and the Chain of Lakes Scenic Trail across the peninsula.

Voyageurs paddled and portaged roughly how far from Lake Superior to Lake Athabasca?

That waterway between Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods became the official border after the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

A voyageur was expected to carry how much across a portage, in two standard bundles of fur?

Some carried four or five 90-pound bundles at once, and hernias were a common cause of death.

Voyageurs who only worked the summer run from Montreal to Lake Superior were mockingly called what?

Mangeurs de lard hauled up to four tonnes of goods per canoe with crews of up to ten.

Which fur post at the western end of Lake Superior was the voyageurs' great rendezvous?

It is now a national monument, and the water route from there is the reason the park exists.

Anderson Bay's bluffs on the north side of the peninsula rise how high above the water?

It is the northern trailhead of the Cruiser Lake Trail system.

Which 1928 estate built by an Illinois philanthropist collapsed in 2014 from structural weakness and weather?

Its remains were put in storage in case it is ever rebuilt.

Which best-preserved commercial fishing site in the park dates from the 1950s?

Its house, ice house and fish-processing building still stand.

Which French explorer wintered along the Rainy River around 1688, beginning European exploration?

The Cree, Monsoni and Assiniboine were the first Native contacts; by 1780 the Ojibwe had become the border's main residents.

In which year did the Minnesota Legislature first propose a national park in the state?

Nearly eighty years passed before federal legislation authorising Voyageurs was signed in January 1971.

Which large predator was caught by a park camera trap in October 2022?

The park is otherwise home to Great Lakes wolves, black bears, moose and white-tailed deer, plus otters and snowshoe hares.

Where in the park are lake trout mainly found?

The major lakes hold walleye, northern pike, muskellunge, smallmouth bass and crappie; whitefish are netted in autumn as they spawn.

Commercial fishing was banned on which of the park's lakes in 1923?

By 1910 about 48 family fishing businesses sold their catch at auctions at Kettle Falls; only 10 licensed operations remained by 1942.

How long is the Rainy Lake winter trail from Black Bay to Kettle Falls?

It follows the north shore of the Kabetogama Peninsula inside the offshore islands, turning overland to avoid soft ice near the narrows.

Which 1783 agreement made the voyageurs' waterway west of Lake Superior an official border?

The same route carried the voyageurs 2,000 miles from Grand Portage to Lake Athabasca.