Portages in North America

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Portage by Winslow Homer, 1897

Portages in North America usually began as animal tracks and were improved by tramping or blazing. In a few places iron-plated wooden rails were laid to take a handcart. Heavily used routes sometimes evolved into roads when sledges, rollers or oxen were used, as at Methye Portage. Sometimes railways were built (Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad). The basic purpose of most canals is to avoid portages.[1]

Places where portaging occurred often became temporary and then permanent settlements (such as

have famous portage routes.

Numerous portages were upgraded to carriageways and railways due to their economic importance. The Niagara Portage had a gravity railway in the 1760s. The passage between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers (and so between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River systems) was through a short swamp portage which seasonally flooded and it is thought that a channel gradually developed unintentionally from the dragging of the boat bottoms.[2] The 1835 Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad connected the cities of New York and Montreal without needing to go through the Atlantic. The passage between Lake Superior and Lake Huron was by a portage dragway of greased rails with capstans until a railway was built in 1850 and a canal in 1855. The 5-mile-long Nosbonsing and Nipissing Railway was built just to carry logs between lakes on their way to the sawmill. Allegheny Portage Railroad and Morris Canal both used canal inclined planes to pass loaded boats through portages.

Settlements named for being on a portage

Sometimes the settlements were named for being on a portage. Some places in the United States and Canada so named are:

Names with portage appear on various other geographical features, including road and lakes, as in

Montréal on the Ottawa River
and one must portage around the Chaudière Rapids.

Marathon portage

The area of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness west of Grand Portage, Minnesota, carries rich history of canoeing and portaging. The city of Ely, Minnesota, one of the main entry areas to the wilderness, hosts the Ely Marathon each September that has a canoe portage category, making it the only marathon portage in the country.[3]

See also

Jay Cooke State Park

References

  1. ^ Eric W. Morse,'Fur Trade Canoe Route of Canada /Then and Now',1984
  2. ^ The Chicago Portage - Historical Synopsis Archived 2016-03-12 at the Wayback Machine, prepared by Wm. E. Rose and Associates, Inc., for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, June 1975
  3. ^ "Race Results - Ely Marathon Weekend - ITS YOUR RACE". elymarathon.itsyourrace.com.