portage

This is the “portage” in Savanna Portage. Though it’s not a portage across a savanna but rather across a bog that separates the West Savanna River from the St. Louis River.

Along this restored portage trail are historical markers explaining how the Voyageurs, Ojibwe, and Dakota used the paths in their voyages from Canada to Duluth. Kelly mocked me for having to stop and read each one (while swatting at the monstrous flies that gave this park its alternate name “Camp Too-Buggy”); but those historical markers are the way we history buffs communicate to each other across the great gulf of time, our tribal drumbeat that says not only, “George Washington slept here” or “Frenchman lugged canoes over this spot”, but also, “Someone who loved history came through this place, and someone who will love history will come through again.”