Voyageurs National Park

Park Information

• Date Established: April 8, 1975
• Location: Minnesota
• Area: 218,054 acres

Overview

Nearly 40 percent of Voyageurs National Park is made up of lakes dotted with more than nine hundred islands. Located near the border between the United States and Canada, the park attracts people who enjoy water sports, such as fishing and boating, and offers more than thirty lakes and connecting waterways. While its primary purpose is now recreation, the area where the park sits was once part of an important fur-trading route.

The many lakes in Voyageurs National Park are glacial basins, carved into the earth millennia ago and filled with runoff and rainwater over the centuries. The oldest rocks in the park date back nearly three billion years. Now protected by the area’s natural park status, the waterways and landscape of the area allow visitors to experience a glimpse of what the country looked like in the time before European settlers added large cities and roads.

History

Voyageurs National Park is named after the earliest Europeans who made their mark in the area. French hunters and fur traders used the lakes and waterways in the area as part of their Great Northwest trade route in the eighteenth century. They were called travelers, or voyageurs in their native French.

The voyageurs encountered Native Americans in the area. Archaeological evidence indicates that indigenous people have lived, hunted, and fished in the area for at least ten thousand years. More than two hundred archaeological sites throughout the park show that people were present soon after the ancient glacial lake Agassiz shrank and receded. Over the next several thousand years, hunters and gatherers frequented the area. They fished and gathered some of the many plants in the area for food, including wild rice they found growing there. Eventually, these ancient people began using mud to make ceramics and shaping rocks into pointed projectile weapons such as arrows and spears.

In the decades following the arrival of the French fur traders, other Europeans came to the area. They left behind traces of their lives and livelihoods in the park. These include homesteading in log homes, lumber cutting and milling, and commercial fishing operations.

Following the gold rush that began in the mid-1860s when gold was found in other parts of the western half of America, prospectors found pure gold near Rainy Lake in what is now Voyageurs National Park. The Little American Mining Company was established on Little American Island in the early 1890s. The miners had to constantly pump water out of the horizontal mine shafts and only discovered what amounted to a few thousand dollars’ worth of gold in contemporary money. The operation was abandoned, but remnants of the Minnesota gold rush can still be seen within the park.

Within a few decades, residents in nearby areas became concerned about the effects of mining and logging on the area in what is now Voyageurs National Park. An unsuccessful first attempt to protect the area with special government status came in 1891. A new effort was introduced in 1965 by environmentalists and nearby residents. By 1975, they were successful in having the area declared a national park. Many residents sold or gave their property to the National Park Service at this time. However, some private property continues to exist within the bounds of Voyageurs National Park.

Geology and Ecology

While much of Voyageurs National Park is covered with water, the rocks that are above this water are among the oldest anywhere on Earth. The exposed rock visible throughout the park is part of Earth’s bedrock. It was heaved to the surface millennia ago and exposed by the action of glaciers and erosion.

This left behind ancient forms of rock, including granite, migmatite, biotite schist, and greenstone, some of which is streaked with the gold that enticed prospectors in the 1890s. This action of the earth, along with the passage of glaciers, also left behind bowl-shaped depressions and low-lying areas that formed the basis of the lakes, rivers, and waterways in the park.

A boat is needed to reach many areas of the park. Some of this water is deep and clear, suitable for boating, swimming, fishing, and other aquatic activities. Other areas are thick with plant life. These bogs, marshes, and swamps provide habitats for different forms of plant and animal life.

The park straddles a line between areas that are more likely to have boreal forests of conifers and evergreen trees and those that have deciduous trees that lose their leaves in cooler weather. As a result, the park is home to a wide variety of trees, including pine, spruce, fir, maple, birch, and aspen. Shrubbery that grows well in the area includes many low fruiting bushes such as blueberries and raspberries, as well as hazelnuts.

This diversity of plant life is one of the reasons the park area was so popular with ancient people and the European voyageurs and others who traveled through; it provides a variety of plants that offer useful substances, such as birch bark used for canoes and other sources of food. Other dry areas of the park are covered with a large variety of wildflowers and grasses, mosses, and ferns. Altogether, the park is home to nearly seven hundred different species of plants.

With such a diversity of plants, many animal species are also able to thrive in the park. This includes iconic American animals such as the bald eagle and the wolf, which are more likely to be seen and heard in Voyageurs National Park than any other national park in the continental United States. Deer, moose, beavers, loons, and other species are also very common.

Although the park is protected, it is still subject to damage from wind and fire. There is also concern that its eighty-four thousand acres of water and the wildlife that depends on it could be negatively affected by sulfide mining operations in nearby areas. Beaver dam building also threatens to alter the ecosystems within the park.

Bibliography

Barnes, Susan B. “Voyageurs National Park: 10 Tips for Your Visit.” USA Today, 18 Apr. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/america/national-parks/2018/04/18/voyageurs-national-park-tips-visiting/525991002/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“How to Visit Voyageurs National Park.” National Geographic, 16 May 2023, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/voyageurs-national-park/?user.testname=lazyloading:c. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Voyageurs National Park.” National Park Foundation, www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/voyageurs-national-park. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Voyageurs National Park.” National Park Service, www.nps.gov/voya/index.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Voyageurs National Park.” Oh Ranger, www.ohranger.com/voyageurs/history. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.