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Photograph of Height of Land Portage
Photograph by John Lorenzen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Height of Land

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

From the record

“Height of Land Portage is a portage along the historic Boundary Waters route between Canada and the United States. Located at the border of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, the path is a relatively easy crossing of the Laurentian Divide separating the Hudson Bay and Great Lakes-St.”

Wikipedia article Height of Land Portage, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 13 National Register listings published here for Cook County · listed in 1974 · category: Site.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 site as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. Between North and South Lake in Superior National Forest, Grand Marais, 55604
  • When was it listed? October 1974
  • Category. site
  • Unorganized territory. East Cook
  • National Register reference number. 74001012 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

15 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Height of Land between 1995 and 2018, burning about 10 acres in total. 4 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Recreation and ceremony5
Natural4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Debris and open burning1
Smoking1
Equipment and vehicle use1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2005Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreSuperior National ForestBIRCH LAKE
8 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSuperior National ForestPARTRIDGE 2
29 September 2001Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresSuperior National ForestSTUMP LAKE
2 September 2001Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreSuperior National ForestPICNIC LAKE
13 September 1998Naturalunder an acreSuperior National ForestLUM LAKE
12 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSuperior National ForestMEEDS LAKE
6 August 2014Naturalunder an acreSuperior National ForestPARTRIDGE
14 August 1995Natural3.0 acresSuperior National ForestPOPLAR LAKE

Every fire recorded in Cook County

Mines and quarries near this property

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Height of Land: 3 occurrences, 1 unknown, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Iron, Titanium, Metal, Titanium, Vanadium. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Iron Lake DepositIron, Titanium, MetalUnknownIlmenite, Magnetite
Tucker-Poplar Lake DepositTitanium, VanadiumProspect1880
Titaniferous Magnetite Pit No 1IronOccurrence
Titaniferous Magnetite Pit No 2IronOccurrence
Titaniferous Magnetite Pit No 3IronOccurrence

Every working recorded in Cook County

Storms near this property

11 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Grand Marais, the town this property stands in, in 11 storm reports between 1996 and 2006: 6 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 lightning. The reports record 1 death and 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 1996LightningGrand Marais1 killed, 1 hurtno account filed
May 2006HailGrand Marais-The hail fell at Sea Gull Lake.
April 2004Thunderstorm WindGrand Marais-Numerous trees were blown down three miles north of the Gunflint Lodge.
June 2004LightningGrand Marais-A lightning strike caused a cabin to catch fire.
July 2003HailGrand Marais-The hail fell at Sea Gull Lake.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindGrand Marais-Numerous trees and power lines were blown down. The wind speed is estimated.
August 2001Thunderstorm WindGrand Marais-no account filed
May 1998HailGrand Marais-no account filed
June 1996Thunderstorm WindGrand Marais-no account filed
June 1996Thunderstorm WindGrand Marais-no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindGrand Marais-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cook County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 74001012 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cook CountyAll 13 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.