Pigeon River (Minnesota–Ontario)

High Falls

Continental watersheds in North America. The Laurentinische watershed in green.

The Pigeon River forms a portion of the border between the United States and Canada Western of Lake Superior.

It runs in the U.S. state of Minnesota and in the Canadian province of Ontario. In vorindustrialisierten era the river was an important waterway for the transport and trade of pelts.

Geography

The Pigeon River leaves the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to the east and reaches 80 km Lake Superior. The Pigeon River is one of the larger tributaries of Lake Superior on its northern shore.

Headwaters

The Pigeon River originates in Mountain Lake. Among the tributaries of the Pigeon River is part of the Arrow River, which originates in South Lake. South Lake is separated only by a narrow isthmus from North Lake, which belongs to the catchment area of ​​the Rainy River. This isthmus is part of the Laurentian watershed and is crossed by the Height of Land Portage, which lies in the Rove Formation. Fur doer voyageurs and coureurs des bois crossed this pass and traveled down the river to Rainy River and Winnipeg River to Lake Winnipeg, from which conducted various trade routes in the Canadian Northwest.

Underflow

Below South Fowl Lake of the Pigeon River alternates between navigable sections and rapids and waterfalls. Near its mouth takes the slope gradually increases and reaches its climax in a spectacular gorge with two well-known waterfalls: High Falls, 37 m, the highest waterfall in Minnesota, as well as Middle Falls. The gorge is located within both the Grand Portage State Park in Cook County, Minnesota, as well as in the Pigeon River Provincial Park ( 9.49 km ²) across the border in Thunder Bay District of Ontario. The underflow also marks the northern boundary of the Grand Portage Indian Reservation.

The waterfalls were initially bypassed by Indians, then also of trappers and traders, on a 9 -mile portage from the river to the shore of Lake Superior. On the lake shore and the beginning of this as the Grand Portage route known laid fur companies to a base, the National Monument is a memorial as Grand Portage today.