Duluth-Superior Harbor Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center is located on the shore of Lake Superior at one of the two entrances into Duluth-Superior Harbor. Features include accessible ship canal piers, the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge, three lighthouses, close views of commercial shipping and a public lakewalk. Visitor Center exhibits feature the Corps of Engineers role in harbor and connecting channel development. All aspects of commercial shipping are displayed using audio-visual equipment presentations. Ship artifacts, full-size cabin and pilothouse replicas, and scale ship models are also on display. The Visitor Center does extensive programming for school and community groups throughout the year, with special daily programming during the summer months. For more information contact the Boatwatchers Hotline at (218) 722-6489 during the shipping season, March 25-January 15. Admission is free.
Edge of the Wilderness Scenic Byway Leave the urban center of Grand Rapids and enter 47 miles of the natural wonders of upper Minnesota, including vistas of flat lowland meadows, swamps and lakes, rolling hills of hardwood forests, and remnants of glaciers long gone.
Fergus Falls WMD The Fergus Falls Wetland Management District encompasses Otter Tail, Grant, Douglas, Wilkin and Wadena Counties in west central Minnesota. Waterfowl Production Areas are managed for optimum waterfowl production using techniques such as upland cover, water and seasonal predator management. The WMD lies within the transitional zone between the flat glacial Red River Valley lake bottom to the west and the timbered areas to the east. Within the transitional zone lie glacial moraines that contain many wetlands. These wetlands range from small ephemeral basins to large lakes. The woodlands to the east gradually start as oak savannah phasing into oak-ash communities on the higher sites with willow-tamarack shrub swamps of the lower sites. Major rivers within the WMD include the Red River of the North, Otter Tail, Pelican, Mustinka and Rabbit which flow west of the continental divide into the Hudson Bay drainage and the Chippewa, Pomme de Terre, Long Prairie, Wing and Redeye Rivers which flow east into the Mississippi drainage. This area is rich in buffalo rings, Indian mounds, flintstones and arrowheads due to frequent clashes between the Ojibway and Sioux Indians.
Grand Portage National Monument Grand Portage National Monument was established to commemorate and preserve a premier site and route of the 18th century fur trade that led to pioneering international commerce and exploration in North America, as well as cultural contact between Ojibwe and other Native societies and the North West Company partners, clerks and canoe-men. The monument was also established to work with the Grand Portage Band of Minnesota Chippewa in preserving and interpreting the heritage and lifeways of the Ojibwe people.
Grand Portage National Monument is of international and regional significance because it was the central hub of a once flourishing fur trade. Here the bold economic strategy and exploration by the North West Company voyageurs and traders opened up a transcontinental trade route. Grand Portage was and remains a meeting ground of diverse cultures. The site is home ground for contemporary Grand Portage Ojibwe.
·Grand Portage National Monument contains the archeological remains of several fur trading posts instrumental in the exploration of the West and the economic history of the United States and Canada.
·The national monument contains the entire length of the portage that marked the entrance into the interior of western Canada.
·Grand Portage National Monument contains a reconstructed stockade, a great hall, a kitchen and a warehouse.
·It is home place of tribal and family history and cultural persistence.
Hamden Slough NWR The Refuge is located near Audubon, MN in a transition zone between flat, tallgrass prairie on the west and north, and a rolling hardwood forest - lake region to the east and south. It is in the migratory corridor of the Eastern prairie pothole population of Canada geese. The refuge began restoration of wetlands and uplands in 1991. When completed refuge acreage should encompass almost 6000 acres of prairie wetland ecosystem and will support 219 species of migratory and nesting birds. Prior to settlement, the area teamed with waterfowl, prairie chickens, bison, wolves and other prairie wildlife. The station's objective is to restore/enhance 3,000 acres of wetlands and 2,250 acres of upland grass.
Keweenaw Waterway At the upper and lower entrances of the Keweenaw Waterway Project on the Portage River in the Keweenaw Peninsula, Houghton County, Michigan, are two harbors of refuge. This waterway entrance for Great Lakes shipping is used as a shortcut and refuge from storms on Lake Superior. Recreational areas managed by State and local agencies at the upper entrance include boating, swimming, and picnic facilities. The lower entrance, Portage Entry, has a restroom facility and a boat launch.
