Grand Portage Historical Monument welcomes increased community involvement

The Grand Portage National Monument is a unique site on the North Shore — part living history, part museum, and part of the National Park Service. It is the longest-running national park with a co-management agreement with a tribal nation.

Yet, most of the monument’s volunteer staff comes from outside Cook County, with participants traveling from Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Montana. Far fewer have come from within the county itself.

“Grand Portage National Monument has a vibrant interpretive program that relies heavily upon the contributions of generous volunteers from across the country who come and spend a summer on the North Shore and share the park’s story with the public. Amazingly, we have only had a handful of Cook County residents engage with us through this program over the past 25 years,” Lead Park Ranger, Stephen Veit told WTIP.

The Grand Portage Band has co-managed the monument since 1999. According to Veit, the community of Grand Portage has always welcomed park volunteers, and the Park Service works to remain integrated into the community.

The co-management includes band members staffing operations and helping guide how history is presented.

“It’s sort of expressing that tangible government-to-government relationship between the tribe and the Park Service,” Veit said, “it all stems from recognizing that the tribe’s going to be more efficient stewards of their own resources and land than the federal government, in terms of this is their land and they know the area, and we have a more efficient way of running the park with their assistance and aid.”

The monument strives to present an authentic version of the fort’s history, using primary source material and journals from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Its garden contains heirloom seeds from that period. Even the doors and windowsills are painted to match historical records.

“If you have an interest in baking bread in a clay bake oven or cooking over an open fire, harvesting the materials necessary for and building a birchbark canoe, woodworking with old tools, tending an heirloom garden, or just sharing the multitude of incredible stories from Grand Portage’s past and present, we’d love to provide you with some additional details of what an exciting volunteer opportunity might look like for you,” Veit said.

The monument also relies on archaeologists and the co-management partnership to ensure historical accuracy. While Veit acknowledges the darker sides of the fur trade, including smallpox and alcohol, he said that is not what the monument is known for.

“What’s so unique about this spot — what we really try to emphasize — was the partnership that occurred between the Northwest Company and the Ojibwe people,” Veit said. “I think that gets reflected today in the partnership between the Park Service and the band.”

Those interested in volunteering at the Grand Portage Monument can call (218) 475-0123 or email Stephen Veit directly at Stephen_Veit@nps.gov.

This article was updated to provide additional context to a quote provided by Stephen Veit.

WTIP spoke with Stephen Veit about the history of the Grand Portage Monument and the efforts to authetically represent history.  The audio of that conversation can be found below.

Josh Hinke September 16, 2025