History
Historical Sites
Canadian National Depot
121 Main Av NE
Warroad, MN 56763
 In
April 1980 Governor Quie signed a bill making the Canadian National
Station a state historical site. In December 1981, Marvin families
donated $25,000 to purchase the building in memory of George and
Almina Marvin. Restoration began November 1983. The depot was
dedicated and opened to the public on July 4, 1985. The oak doors,
window casings, and woodwork are restored from the original building,
as is the counter at the office window. The public washroom doors
are from the original building. The depot now serves as the Warroad
City Office center. The depot is also on the National Register
of Historical Places.
Harbor Park
River Street NE
 Harbor
Park was dedicated to the community of Warroad on July 4, 2004
in memory of George G. Marvin, founder of Marvin Lumber and Cedar
Co. In years past Harbor Park was the site of the Warroad water
tower. The waterfront side of Harbor Park was docking home to
many boats carrying local cargo, mail and passengers to the Northwest
Angle and Kenora, Ontario, Canada. The Harbor Park area was, and
remains today, an ideal spot for boat and bird watching, fishing
and relaxing near the water.
Indian Burial Grounds
Located at Highland Park in Warroad.
Highland Park is on Lake Street North and Jean’s Drive.
Marked graves: KakaGeesick, NayMayPock, Little Thunder, Laughing
Mary.
 Norris
Camp
Beltrami Island State Forest
Red Lake WMA
PO Box 100
Roosevelt, MN 56673
218-783-6861
Located within Beltrami Island State Forest, Norris Camp has
a rich history that spans over half a century. It has employed
and housed over 1000 people and is one of the last Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC) and Resettlement Administration (RA) camps in the
nation in operational condition. Norris Camp is on the National
Register of Historic Places.
Norris Camp has been headquarters for the Red Lake Wildlife Management
Area since 1935. The Red Lake WMA, known earlier as the Red Lake
Game Refuge, was established in 1932. Many research projects,
habitat improvement projects, and population surveys have been
completed there. This headquarters is also an excellent stop for
bird watchers along the Pine
to Prairie Birding Trail. Visit with management officials
and pick up a brochure with information on site locations within
the Beltrami Island State Forest.
St. Mary's
Church
202 Roberts Av NE
Warroad, MN 56763
St.
Mary’s Church is the largest all-weather log church in the
world. It was built as a memorial to Father Jean Pierre Aulneau,
a French missionary. Serving the northernmost Catholic parish
in the continental United States, St. Mary’s Church was
designed to fit into the north woods surroundings and portray
the ruggedness of the life of early voyageurs and Catholic missionaries.
In 1904 the original church of tamarack wood frame (40’
x 24’) was built on the south side of the river. The bell
tower and addition were added a few years later. The logs used
in construction were donated by the Indians at Pine Island and
were hauled the 90 miles by parishioners to be peeled and treated
on-site. The 70,000 cedar shakes from Middlebro, Manitoba which
were used for the roof were hand split, dipped and stained by
parishioners. The stained glass windows, originally made in Germany,
were bought from a parish in Red Lake Falls. Interior paneling
is California redwood. The 40-foot bell tower adjacent to the
church was designed as a replica of the cross and cairn of stones
used by Jesuits in 1905 one the island were Father Aulneau was
killed. The building was dedicated May 23, 1954 by Bishop Schenk.
 Veterans
Memorial
Corner of Elk St. and Hwy 11
This beautiful memorial commemorates our United States Armed
Forces. The memorial was dedicated in May 2004.
Historical Markers
 Fort St. Charles –
Marker location: Warroad Point Park, at the end of Lake St. NE
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye,
established Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods in 1732. A daring
soldier, fur trader and explorer, la Verendrye had the ambitious dream
of finding the fabled “western sea” and sought to establish French
outposts along the way. On Magnusson’s Island (then connected with the
mainland) he built a palisaded fort which he named in honor of Charles
de Beauharnois, governor of New France. Fort St. Charles became the
western capital of the French empire in the northwest. From it
expeditions were launched and supplies dispatched to newer posts around
Lake Winnipeg. Indians brought furs to trade for white men’s goods and
these pelts were sent by canoe to Montreal. The scarcity of food and
Indian warfare made life precarious. In 1736 la Verendrye’s oldest son
John Baptiste, 19 voyageurs, and Father Aulneau, a Jesuit priest, were
sent on an expedition to the east for supplies. They were massacred by
a Sioux war party on a nearby island.
Abandoned after 1760, the fort was rediscovered and
marked by a group of Jesuit fathers in 1908. The site was acquired and
the buildings reconstructed by the Minnesota 4th Degree
Nights of Columbus some 40 years later.
Warroad – Marker
location: Lake Street NE, just west of 1st Avenue
The name Warroad bespeaks the Indian heritage of
this town, once one of the largest Chippewa villages on Lake of the
Woods. The Chippewa fought a long and fierce war against the Sioux for
the lake's rice fields. Occupying the prairies of the Red River Valley,
the Sioux would frequently invade the territory by way of the Red and
Roseau Rivers a route which ended at the mouth of the Warroad River.
This was the old “war road” from which the river and village derived
their name.
Warroad Fur Post –
Marker location: Lake Street and Hwy 11
One miles east of this point just north of the
mouth of the Warroad River stood a post of the American Fur Company
built around 1820. The French explorer la Verendrye and his party
probably visited this region in 1732 en route to build Fort St. Charles
in the present Northwest Angle.
See Museums
 |
