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| The furthest point upriver on the Brule River where the portage to the St. Croix River begins |
The 2.3-mile long Brule-St. Croix Portage trail is a section of the North Country National Scenic Trail in Solon Springs Wisconsin. The most expeditious water route between the Mississippi River and Lake Superior is via the St. Croix and Bois Brule River, and the only overland impediment on this voyage is the historic portage established by Daniel Greysolon Sieur Dulhut in 1680.
Today hikers can enjoy hiking in the footsteps of Wisconsin's earliest explorers and fur traders who are memorialized with eight stones marking the length of the trail. Three spur trails lead out from the mainline to destinations that include: the headwaters of the St. Croix River which flows south into the Mississippi River, the headwaters of the Bois Brule River which flows north into Lake Superior, and to the point on the Brule River where voyageurs took out their canoes and portaged them to Lake St. Croix.
The trail is a single-track footpath with some brief inclines that require a moderate level of fitness. An out-n-back on this trail is approximately 4 miles.
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| A stone commemorating the portage of Greyson Dulhut in 1680 |
While the British were busy establishing colonies on the Atlantic coast the French were working towards establishing one of the most economically important transportation networks of human civilization, a water route looping from the North Atlantic on the St Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.
Along this loop into the heart of the American continent, the only enduring impediment to water transportation is the 2-mile portage route between the Bois Brule and the St. Croix Rivers at Solon Springs. This portage route was opened on an expedition led by Daniel Greysolon Sieur Dulhut in 1680. For historical reference, Philadelphia was first established in 1681.
The trade-critical portage trail cut by Sieur Dulhut was maintained by the French Empire through periodic expeditions of New World explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and military ... some of whom are honored with dedication stones along the trail today.
Perhaps, what is most remarkable given the extraordinary economic wealth that has been generated by the Mississippi River Basin and St. Lawrence Seaway is that this 2-mile portage remains today as a dirt footpath unchanged in the 330+ years it took to establish the United States as the world's primary power; a power which would not be but for the voyageurs who are remembered today with monumental stones placed along the trail route.
The last portageur to use this trail as a trade route was Joseph Lucius in 1886. By that time railroads had connected the Mississippi River with the ports at Superior and Duluth (Incidentally, Duluth MN is named for Sieur Dulhut). Major canals had also been cut at the Grand Portage between the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers as well as on the Illinois. A canal had been considered between the St. Croix and Bois Brule, but for it to be successful the Brule would have had to be straightened.
For a 50 year period, the trail was mostly abandoned. In 1933, with the assistance of Joseph Lucius, the Daughters of the American Revolution reopened the trail for recreation and it was listed on Wisconsin's register of Historic Places. The trail was marked with 8 stones dedicated to its most important expeditions.
In the 1990's this historic portage was among the first routes certified as a length of the North Country National Scenic Trail - a trail which will become America's longest continuous hiking path. Long distance hikers enter the Brule-St. Croix Portage from either of the adjacent Brule River State Forest or Brule Bog sections. Day hikers will begin this trail at a boat launch on Upper Lake St. Croix and experience it as a 4-mile out-n-back.
The boat launch features a large parking lot, park, restrooms, and artesian well where you can fill your water bottle before heading out on the trail. From the lot, a white-blazed trail connects to a Wisconsin Historic Marker and the trailhead for the portage trail. Across the highway, a well-worn trail climbs an initial steep grade and the climb continues to rise at a slower rate to the first marker dedicated to Nicholas and Joseph Lucius.
Joseph Lucius traversed the Bois Brule with the expedition led by Captain Alex Mcdougall of Duluth. On the portage trail Lucius is quoted:
... ascended the Brulé and made the portage from its headwater over to Upper St. Croix Lake, virtually the source of St. Croix River. The upper part of the Brulé dwindles to a mere rivulet, thickly overarched with the bushes of the water birch. The land on both banks is boggy, and only with the utmost exertion did we push and squeeze through the cavernous passage, cutting boughs to allow the passage of our skiffs, and hewing our way through fallen logs, until we reached a small pool, scarcely a boat's-length in diameter. From this pool began the portage to the St. Croix.The trail levels off and then begins to descend to the stone commemorating George Stuntz who surveyed the Lake Superior shores and its waterways for the State of Wisconsin in 1852. He remarked in his matter-of-fact survey that, "the finest bodies of pine in the North-West is found on the Brule and Iron Rivers."
The next marker is dedicated to Henry Schoolcraft 1820, who was credited with the discovery of Lake Itasca as the headwaters of the Mississippi. He traveled the Brule-St Croix portage as part of the Lewis Cass Expedition. Schoolcraft led a party of this expedition from Fond du Lac overland to the American Fur Company's post at Sandy Lake. Schoolcraft published a book in 1821 in which he wrote of the Brule-St. Croix Portage:
August 3 d. )—We embarked at five o'clock. On descending the river six miles, we 321 passed the mouth of the river St. Croix, which enters on the east shore by a channel of one hundred yards in width. It is connected by a portage of two pauses, with the Bois Brule river of Lake Superior, and in its whole extent is not interrupted by a single fall or rapid. It is said to be the most practicable, easy, and expeditious water communication between the Mississippi river and Lake Superior.—About five hundred yards above its mouth, it expands into a lake, called Lake St. Croix, which is thirty-six miles long, and from one and a half to three in breadth. Sixty miles above the head of this lake, the southwest company have an establishment.
Narrative journal of travels from Detroit northwest through the great chain of American lakes to the sources of the Mississippi River in the year 1820 - Henry Schoolcraft
The Schoolcraft marker is followed by one for Jean Baptiste Cadotte II 1819 who along with his brother Michael ran the American Fur Company and helped to establish La Pointe on Madeline Island as a critical trade center. Jean Baptiste Cadotte II opened the Fond du Lac district of the North West Company. His father, Jean Baptiste Cadot led the first expedition to source the Mississippi River in 1792.
Michel Curot is dated to have passed the Brule-St. Croix Portage in 1803. He wrote of this experience in his journal which was later published. His journal is a captivating read and exposes the day to day details of searching for good fishing spots, capsized canoes, and the business dealings of fur trade.
Monday 5. About midday David came to meet us. Thinking he had returned from la folle avoine I Asked him how many fawn-skins [of rice]33 they had got. What was my surprise when he told me that had not been any Farther than the other end of the portage Where they had been waiting for me for 6 or 7 Days to get some Gum and provisions, that they had to Fast, and could not procure any Gum To mend their Canoes which they had Broken. I gave him some Pork and flour, that he took to The other End of the Portage, to Smith. Savoiard and Boisvert were obliged to make two trips, after Unloading The Canoes in order to pass them along The channel without any damage, and Connor carried all The packages to the top of the Bluff.3
- A Fur Trader's Journal, 1803-1804 by Michel CurotThe 1783 Peace of Paris had brought the land that is now the State of Wisconsin into the territory of the United States. And so, the traders and explorers whose names grace the initial stone markers found along the portage trail were acting in the development of the American frontier.
Prior to the establishment of the United States, the area of northern Wisconsin was controlled by the British who had won it from France in the French Indian Wars which culminated in 1763. It was in 1768 when the Englishman Jonathan Carver first explored the Brule-St Croix Portage as he surveyed these newly English territories.
Before Carver, the area was New France. It was Daniel Greysolon Sieur Dulhut who originally opened the portage route in 1680. He was followed by the expedition of Pierre LeSueur in 1693. LeSueur was a Jesuit Missionary who later adapted to the fur trade. His expedition in 1693 was part of an effort to keep the Dulhut trading routes open.
An important part of the history of this trail is undocumented. When Sieur Dulhut first came on the trading route of the Bois Brule, St. Croix, and Mississippi Rivers it was not by accident. He was led to these water routes and the portage by American Indians who themselves had used these connected waterways for trade over some 10,000 years.
Just as these important lands were contested by the French and English, so too were they contested by American Indians. The most recent nation to claim the route was the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of the Ojibwe. But These Ojibwe first migrated to the area from Sault Ste Marie with the aide of French technology. It was in 1745 when they finally defeated the Eastern Dakota who were forced out to the Great Plains where they became known as the Dakota Sioux. The route of the Portage trail today is not likely the route used by American Indians, rather it is the route that was chosen to be cleared by Sieur Dulhut.
To hike the same ground as these intrepid explorers is humbling. And to know the stories behind the names attached to the stones makes the hike all the more interesting. The day before I walked this route I read Michel Curot's journal and it opened up a new, and perhaps relatable, perspective.
The forest along this route is thick. At times I could not see for more than 10 feet into the forest beside the trail. And, the spring-fed streams that make the headwaters of the St. Croix and Brule Rivers are impossibly small to imagine navigating by canoe.
To think of portaging many pounds of fur and equipment along this trail and its steep inclines is exhausting. I walked away from the historic portage trail on to the Brule Bog Section of the NCT with a renewed respect for those voyageurs whose toil was the foundation of our current economic privilege. And, to an extent, I jealously wished to have been one of these early explorers ... to have been at the forefront of discovering something new and promising. What adventures and obstacles lay on the trail ahead were unknown. And it is this call of the unknown that stirs the soul.
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| The North Country Trail Historic Portage Trail |
North Country National Scenic Trail - Brule - St. Croix Portage Trail
COUNTY: Douglas
COMMUNITIES: Solon Springs
TOTAL MILES: 2.3 miles linear
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
NEXT NCT SEGMENT EASTBOUND: Brule River Segment
NEXT NCT SEGMENT WESTBOUND: Brule Bog Segment
CAMPING: Next site at Jersett Bluff on the Brule River section is approx 3 miles north of the end of the Historic Portage segment.
Directions and Trail Map
Click Map Image to load the full interactive map.
If viewing on a mobile device, open the trail map above to load into Google Maps App by touching the expand rectangle in the upper right corner.
Address for your GPS: 10614 S County Rd A Solon Springs, WI 54873
| coordinates: 46.379380, -91.778696 |
| From Milwaukee | 5.5 Hours |
| From Madison | 4.5 Hours |
| From Green Bay | 4.5 Hours |
| From Wausau | 3 Hours |
| From Minneapolis | 2.5 Hours |
| From Chicago | 6.5 Hours |
Photos
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| An artesian well at the boat launch to Lake St. Croix - the trailhead for the historic portage trail |
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| The trailhead for the historic portage trail |
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| Wisconsin Historical Marker for the Historic Portage |
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| Tail marker dedication of the trail |
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| Stone dedicated to the historic portage of Nicholas Jr & Joseph Lucius 1896 |
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| Stone dedicated to the historic portage of George R Stuntz 1853 |
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| Stone dedicated to the historic portage of Henry Schoolcraft 1820 |
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| Stone dedicated to the historic portage of Jean Baptiste Cadotte 1819 |
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| Stone dedicated to the historic portage of Michel Curot 1805 |
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| Stone dedicated to the historic portage of Jonathan Carver 1768 |
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| Stone dedicated to the historic portage of Pierre Le Sueur 1693 |
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| Dedication of the Upper Lake St. Croix End of Trail |
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| The North Country Trail Historic Portage Trail |
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| The North Country Trail Historic Portage Trail |
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| The North Country Trail Historic Portage Trail |
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| The North Country Trail Historic Portage Trail |
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| The North Country Trail Historic Portage Trail |
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| The rounded post signifies Brule River landing point and beginning of the Brule-St. Croix Portage |
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| Spring and Headwaters of the Brule River |
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| The North Country Trail Historic Portage Trail |
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| The North Country Trail Historic Portage Trail |