Voyageurs National Park was established in 1975, but the stories of people who lived in this place stretch much farther back in time.
People came into this region thousands of years ago-- after the last of the glaciers had melted away and left this low landscape of expansive lakes and wetlands.
Many people called this place home before the European demand for beaver pelts brought fur traders into the region. The French-Canadian canoe men, the voyageurs who paddled large birch bark canoes carrying trade goods and furs between the Canadian northwest and Montreal, continue to inspire the imagination of today's park visitors.
But this landscape was also home to people that sought to make their living off the land here through logging, mining, commercial fishing, and recreation.
MN Historical Society
The First People ...
The first people to occupy the lands now designated as Voyageurs National Park arrived nearly 10,000 years ago during the Paleo-Indian Period.
Groups entered the area as the waters of glacial Lake Agassiz receded. This ancient lake once covered 110,000 square miles of Minnesota, North Dakota, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan in Canada.
During the Archaic Period (8,000 B.C. - 100 B.C.) people followed a mobile, hunting and gathering lifestyle. Fishing was major source of food, although the gathering of plants continued to be important as well.
During the Woodland Period (100 A.D.- 900 A.D.) people increased their use of the wild rice that is native to this area. They began to use ceramics, and to fashion small, side-notched triangular projectile points.
Over 220 pre-contact archeological sites have been documented within the park, including sites that are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Please remember while exploring the park that all archeological and historic resources are protected by law. Do not destroy or collect any items that you find--enjoy them, and the experience of being in a place with a long and varied human history.
The Fur Trade
The earliest European exploration of this area is believed to have occurred about 1688 when French explorer Jacues de Noyon wintered along the Rainy River.
The European demand for beaver pelts brought fur traders into the region. The French-Canadian canoe men, the voyageurs, paddled large birch bark canoes carrying trade goods and furs between the Canadian northwest and Montreal.
The French were prompted by competition over the diminishing supply of furs in the east, and were the first Europeans to explore the northwest territory and to engage the indigenous peoples in the trade of furs on a commercial scale.
The Cree, Monsoni, and Assiniboin tribes were the primary inhabitants of the region at the time of initial European contact. However, by the mid-18th century they had largely abandoned the Rainy Lake area, leaving the region open for settlement by the Ojibwe.
By 1780 the Ojibwe had become the primary residents of the border lakes region, and they played a key role in commerce as suppliers of food, furs, and canoes. They were also guides during the fur trade, their intimate knowledge of the geography and resources was crucial to the European fur traders.
MN Historical Society
Logging
The depletion of the large stands of white pine in Michigan, Wisconsin and central Minnesota through logging brought the lumber industry north into the area now designated as Voyageurs National Park.
An initial logging frenzy occurred in the 1880s and 1890s, followed by the development of two major logging companies. The International Logging Company operated primarily in Koochiching County and transported timber to sawmills at International Falls and Fort Frances until 1937.
In order to meet the constant water supply needs of sawmills, dams were constructed at International Falls, Kettle Falls, and Squirrel Falls in the early 1900s.
The Virginia & Rainy Lake Lumber Company controlled much of the area to the east in St. Louis County, and conducted much of its operations until 1929 by rafting logs to Hoist Bay, which can still be visited by park visitors by boat.
Hoist Bay is named for the machinery that was used to hoist floating logs out of the lake and onto a waiting train. The tracks extended out over the water to facilitate loading. From Hoist Bay the logs were taken to sawmills located in the town of Virginia, Minnesota.
The extensive logging operations that occurred in the park area have altered the composition and structure of the park's forests. White and red pine is now a much smaller component of the park's forests, and there are fewer stands of large, mature trees.
MN Historical Society
The Rainy Lake "Gold Rush"
During the summer of 1893, a local prospector and timber cruiser, George Davis, was funded by Charles Moore to search for gold in the Rainy Lake area.
Moore was a businnesman with prior mining involvement in the Lake of the Woods area of Ontario. In late July of 1893, while camping on a small island near Black Bay Narrows, Davis discovered a gold-bearing quartz vein -- the "Little American" discovery. Given the good news and gold-bearing specimens, Charles Moore hired a former Black Hills miner named Jeff Hildreth to secure title to the island and arrange financing.
Development of the Little American Mine proceeded rapidly in the spring of 1894, along with the growth of the nearby settlement of Rainy Lake City to support the areas newfound exploration and mining activities. Rainy Lake City was incorporated on March 17, 1894, and by early summer was a bustling community of several hundred people with a school house, bank, general stores, hotels, restaurants, a newspaper, hardware store, butcher shop, and several saloons.
Following the development of the Little American Mine, several other prospects saw extensive activity during the summer of 1894, including the Lyle Mine north of Dryweed Island, the Big American Mine on Big American Island, the Bushyhead Mine on Bushyhead Island, the Soldier Mine on Dryweed Island.
Despite all of the numerous attempts to make gold-mining a profitable activity on Rainy Lake, the low production of the mines resulted in a gold-bust by 1898. The "Boom" was over, and the Rainy Lake City School and newspaper were closed down in 1898. By 1906 the city was a ghost town.
