We join our friends at Voyageurs National Park as they proudly celebrate the park’s 50^th year with the National Park Service:  quite an impressive anniversary. Since 1975, this pristine site in northern Minnesota has been a sanctuary of natural beauty, cultural heritage, and outdoor recreation. Yet as notable an achievement as this is, the history of the park’s 281,000 acres goes back much farther – and we mean way back.

Voyageurs National Park is one of the few places in North America where you can touch rocks half the age of the Earth. The exposed rock that greets visitors today dates from the creation of the continent, representing the southern edge of the volcanic bedrock that forms the core of North America.  

As the glaciers receded, torrents of melted water filled low-lying areas, creating the numerous lakes, streams, and bogs of today’s landscape. Another byproduct of glaciation are rocks known as “glacial erratics” that were carried on sheets of ice. These displaced blocks – ranging in size from pebbles to blocks the size of automobiles – are evident throughout the park today, helping form its undulating topography. 

Although not nearly as old as the park’s geology, the first signs of humans’ arrival go back at least 10,000 years.  Evidence of Native Americans, fur-trading voyageurs,  European settlers and homesteaders, and of early logging, mining, and commercial fishing operations are scattered throughout the park.