I prepared the following summary for a NPS management document several years
ago, but there has been no additional field research of consequence since that
time (I did a small survey for an alternative housing/maintenace location on Mt.
Rose overlooking the depot last fall, but nothing turned up). Bound copies of
my two earlier reports (Noble 1989 and 1990) are still available in EXTREMELY
limited numbers, but we are happy to send them out while they last (I'll hold
one each for you, Paul). Some reports listed here are available from my office
on microfiche or from other sources. If something is of interest to anyone on
HISTARCH I will try to track down a copy for you, but please do keep your
requests within the bounds of reason (and send it directly to me rather than the
entire list).
By the way, the acknowledged authority on Grand Portage archaeology is Alan R.
Woolworth of the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul. He is not on e-mail
to my knowledge, but his street address is:
Minnesota Historical Society
345 West Kellogg Blvd.
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102
One could also try contacting the park directly about references they might have
on file. The superintedent, an ethnographer by training, can be reached via
e-mail at <[log in to unmask]>.
Hope this information proves useful.
[log in to unmask]
GRAND PORTAGE NATIONAL MONUMENT
The first archeological excavations at what is now Grand Portage National
Monument began in 1936 under auspices of the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS).
Directed by Ralph D. Brown (1937a, 1937b, 1937c), that initial project employed
exploratory trenches to delineate the depot stockade prior to its
reconstruction. Numerous internal structures also were defined using a
systematic grid system of excavation. Brown continued work in 1937,
specifically in search of deposits representing the Great Hall and several watch
towers at intervals along the stockade. Those features and others were indeed
discovered by that method and subsequently excavated (Woolworth 1963).
Research resumed nearly 25 years later when Eldon Johnson (1961) directed a
five-week field school for the University of Minnesota in 1961. Efforts
concentrated on the area east of Grand Portage Creek and north of County Road
17, where they excavated 47 test units. James Stoltman excavated a series of
exploratory trenches near the northeast monument boundary in August of that
year, and Alan Woolworth continued work in that same area during September, 1961
(Woolworth and Woolworth 1982). All the 1961 investigations sought to locate
archeological resources to assist National Park Service management. Most of the
deposits represented turn-of-the-century activities, though some fur trade
materials also came to light.
Woolworth returned in 1962 to explore for remains for the XY Company post east
of Grand Portage Creek and south of County Road 17 (Woolworth 1968). Although
seriously considered as a possible location for construction of a visitor
center, the discovery of several historic burials and other important structural
features eliminated the area from further consideration. In 1963 and 1964
Woolworth directed larger-scale excavations at the depot to provide additional
information to planners working on design of the reconstruction, including more
precise data on palisade and gate locations (Woolworth 1969). Woolworth again
worked within the enclosure in 1970 and 1971, excavating a separate kitchen
structure immediately behind the Great Hall, the Great Hall itself, several
drains, and an internal wall (Woolworth 1975). He then conducted minor
investigations in 1973 to assess the impacts of several new developments in or
around the Depot and in 1975 to search for "Boucher's Little Fort" east of the
creek (Woolworth and Woolworth 1982).
Since the mid-1970s there have been numerous small undertakings investigated by
personnel from the Midwest Archeological Center (MWAC), beginning in 1978 with
Mark Lynott's examination of a proposed maintenance enclosure location and a
place where the portage would be intersected by a new logging road (Lynott
1978). Archeologist Bruce Jones of MWAC surveyed a proposed primitive campground
north of Snow Creek in 1979 (Jones 1979a), as well as two alternative locations
for a water reservoir at the eastern end of the monument (Jones 1979b). Susan
Monk (MWAC) surveyed several proposed road alignments in 1984, as well as
alternate sites for facility developments (Monk 1984).
MWAC archeologists examined two more road alignments in 1985, as well as a
possible employee housing location (Jones 1985). Monk returned in 1986 for
investigations related to the stabilization of eroding creek banks east of the
reconstructed depot. In 1988, Midwest Regional Archeologist Lynott surveyed a
road alignment in cooperation with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, since the
alignment crossed both monument and reservation lands (Lynott 1988). Later that
same year, MWAC Archeologist Vergil Noble directed the survey of several
proposed development parcels within the monument (Noble 1989), and in 1989 he
returned to Grand Portage National Monument for limited evaluative testing and
construction monitoring in conjunction with the installation of a drainage
system within the Depot (Noble 1990).
The latest work at Grand Portage, as of this writing, was Noble's 1995
examination of the final alternate for an employee housing initiative, which was
to be combined with a proposed maintenance facility site. Much of that area,
which lay at the eastern edge of the monument, however, had been previously
investigated as part of the 1988 surveys, and no new information was thereby
acquired (Noble 1995).
Dewey Albinson and Alvan Eastman (MHS) prepared a map in 1922 to document what
appeared at that time to be surface indications of features relating to Fort
Charlotte, which was the interior terminus of the Grand Portage (Albinson and
Eastman 1922). MWAC personnel carried out a proton magnetometer survey of the
site in 1978, which was extended by other team in 1979 (Huggins and Weymouth
1979). An effort also was made in that year to correlate features on the
Albinson map with prevailing conditions (Jones 1980). Although Archaeologist
Bruce Jones also addressed the remote sensing data through limited use of shovel
probes, ground truthing excavation of the magnetic anomalies has not yet been
undertaken. In fact, the site of Fort Charlotte is still virtually untouched,
either by illicit relic hunters or archeologists. It is also worth noting that
underwater research along the Pigeon River, though outside the park boundaries,
has yielded considerable fur trade materials associated with operations at Fort
Charlotte (Wheeler et al. 1975).
Alan and Nancy Woolworth in 1982 submitted a two-volume historical overview and
inventory of cultural resources at Grand Portage under contract to the National
Park Service (Woolworth and Woolworth 1982). That summary document briefly
describes all archeological field research carried out within the park through
the 1975 and provides historical context for those investigations. In addition,
Alan Woolworth (1993) produced a historical study of the Grand Portage with
particular attention to archeological implications for the discovery of cultural
features associated with the trail that linked the Lake Superior depot and Fort
Charlotte. It proposes likely locales for certain classes of documented
features, such as poses along the portage, but the project did not involve field
checks of those potential locations.
Prior to repatriation disassociated funerary objects from Grand Portage under
Minnesota state law, Supervisory Archeologist Noble of MWAC traveled to St. Paul
in 1994 to examine numerous artifacts transferred for eventual disposition to
Hamline University by the MHS, which had been curating them under terms of a
Cooperative Agreement with the NPS. The result was a special collections study
pertinent to Grand Portage archeology. Derived from the same four historic
burials that Woolworth and a team of Grand Portage band members excavated in
1962, the collection consisted of various trade goods and early historic
personal items (the skeletal remains were destroyed when the reconstructed Great
Hall in which they were stored was struck by lightning and burned to the ground
in 1969). Noble's examination of the materials confirmed that most of the
initial identifications had been correct and that all the burial furniture
previously reported was still present in the collection. The single problematic
class of artifacts was glass beads. Random checks of the nearly 11,000 seed
beads showed that they were sorted and described much too generally or, in some
instances, incorrectly (Noble 1994).
References
Albinson, E. Dewey, and Alvan C. Eastman
1922 Site of Fort Charlotte, August 10, 1922. Map on file, Minnesota Historical
Society Archives, St. Paul.
Birk, Douglas
1994 When Rivers Were Roads; Deciphehring the Role of Canoe Portages in the
Western Lake Superior Fur Trade. IN: The Fur Trade Revisited, edited by J.S.H.
Brown, W.J. Eccles, and D.P. Heldman, pp.359-376. Michigan State University
Press, East Lansing.
Brown, Ralph D.
1937a Journal of Grand Portage Excavations, 1937. Ms. on file, Minnesota
Historical Society Archives, St. Paul.
1937b Revised Report of the Archaeological Work on the Site of the North West
Company Post, 1936-1937. Ms. of file, Minnesota Historical Society Archives, St.
Paul.
1937c Archaeological Excavations at Grand Portage, Minnesota, 1936-1937. Map on
file, Minnesota Historical Society Archives, St. Paul.
Calabrese, F. A.
1981 1980 Center Archeological Investigations at the Fort Charlotte Complex,
Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota. Memorandum [H2215 (MWAC)] to
Superintendent, Grand Portage National Monument, dated September 22, 1981.
Huggins, Robert, and John W. Weymouth
1979 A Magnetic Survey of Fort Charlotte, Grand Portage National Monument. Ms.
on file, National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Johnson, Eldon
1961 Interim Report on Excavations a the Grand Portage National Monument, June
12-July 14, 1961. Ms. in possession of Alan R. Woolworth, Minnesota Historical
Society, St. Paul.
Jones, Bruce A.
1979a Travel to Fort Charlotte, Grand Portage National Monument, September
10-25, 1979. Memorandum [A26 (MWAC)] to Chief, Midwest Archeological Center,
dated October 3, 1979. On file, Midwest Archeoolgical Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1979b Archaeological Investigations at Locations of Proposed Water Reservoir,
Grand Portage National Monument. Memorandum to Chief, Midwest Archeological
Center, dated October 3, 1979. On file, Midwest Archeoolgical Center, Lincoln,
Nebraska.
1980 Historic Site Archeology at Fort Charlotte, Grand Portage National
Monument, Minnesota. Ms. on file, National Park Service, Midwest Archeological
Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1985 Archeological Survey and Shovel Testing at Grand Portage National Monument,
September 4-7, 1985. Memorandum [A26] to Chief, Midwest Archeological Center,
dated October 15, 1985. On file, Midwest Archeoolgical Center, Lincoln,
Nebraska.
Lynott, Mark
1978 Trip to Grand Portage National Monument, June 27-30, 1978. Memorandum [A26
-GRPO] to Chief, Midwest Archeological Center, dated July 11, 1978. On file,
Midwest Archeoolgical Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1988 Archeological Survey of a Proposed Toad Construction Locality at Grand
Portage, Minnesota. Ms. on file, National Park Service, Midwest Archeological
Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Monk, Susan M.
1984 Archeological Survey at Grand Portage NM. Memorandum to Mark Lynott,
Supervisory Archeologist, Midwest Archeological Center, dated November 5, 1984.
On file, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1986 A Summary of Archeological Monitoring at Grand Portage National Monument
during Creek Bank Stabilization, August 18-21. Ms. on file, National Park
Service, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Noble, Vergil E.
1989 An Archeological Survey of Development Projects within Grand Portage
National Monument, Cook County, Minnesota. Midwest Archeological Center Reports,
National Park Service, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1990 A Report of Archeological Investigations within the Grand Portage Depot
(21CK6), Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota: The Kitchen Drainage
Project. Midwest Archeological Center Reports, National Park Service, Lincoln,
Nebraska.
1994 Trip Report - November 8-9, 1994. Memorandum [A2624 (MWAC)] to Assistant
Regional Director, Archeology/Anthropology, Midwest Region, dated November 14,
1994. On file, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1995 Trip Report, Grand Portage, May 15-19, 1995. Memorandum [A2624 (MWAC)] to
Acting Manager, Midwest Archeological Center, dated May 23, 1995. On file,
Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Wheeler, R. C., W. A., Kenyon, A. R. Woolworth, and D. A. Birk
1975 Voices from the Rapids. Publications of the Minnesota Historical Society,
Minnesota Historical Archaeology Series, No. 3. Minneapolis.
Woolworth, Alan R.
1963 Archaeological Excavations at the Northwest Company's Fur Trade Post, Grand
Portage, Minnesota, in 1936-1937. Ms. on file, National Park Service, Midwest
Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1968 Archaeological Excavations at Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota,
1962 Field Season. Ms. on file, National Park Service, Midwest Archeological
Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1969 Archaeological Excavations at Grand Portage National Monument, 1963-1964
Field Seasons. Ms. on file, National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center,
Lincoln, Nebraska.
1975 Archaeological Excavations at Grand Portage National Monument in 1973. Ms.
on file, National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1993 An Historical Study of the Grand Portage, Grand Portage National Monument,
Minnesota. Ms. on file, National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center,
Lincoln, Nebraska.
Woolworth, Alan R., and Nancy L. Woolworth
1975 Archaeological Excavations at the North West Company's Depot, Grand
Portage, Minnesota, in 1970-1971. Ms. on file, National Park Service, Midwest
Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1982 Grand Portage National Monument: An Historical Overview and Inventory of
Its Cultural Resources. 2 vols. Ms. on file, National Park Service, Midwest
Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1993 An Historical Study of the Grand Portage, Grand Portage National Monument,
Minnesota. Ms. on file, National Park Service, Lincoln, Nebraska.
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