Kettle Falls Historic District

Kettle Falls Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Kettle Falls Dam Keeper's Cabin
Nearest city	Island View, Minnesota
Coordinates
Area	29 acres (12 ha)
Built	1910
NRHP Reference #	78000376
Added to NRHP	July 17, 1978

The Kettle Falls Historic District encompasses a portage site on the United States-Canadian border in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota. Kettle Falls is a drainage channel between Namakan Lake and Rainy Lake on the United States side of the border on the eastern end of the Kabetogama peninsula. A stone and concrete dam was built at the site between 1910 and 1914 by the Minnesota and Ontario Power Company. Two buildings associated with the construction of the dam remain, including the dam keeper's cabin. Another seventeen other buildings, including the Kettle Falls Hotel, comprise the remainder of the district. The hotel is separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district preserves the portage, the dam and the Kettle Falls Hotel's historic context.

The portage, known at first as the Portage de Chaudière or the Portage Neuf, was frequented by fur traders (voyageurs) at first, following an established trail that later became the trace of the U.S.-Canadian border. An 1890s gold rush brought miners through the area. It was later used by fishermen and lumbermen, with commercial fish camps operating 1913-1920. Illegal liquor was smuggled over the border from Canada starting about 1910 In the 1930s lumbering operations were the chief activity. The dam is about 20 feet (6.1 m) high, with four sluiceways, divided into a section called the American Dam and another on the Canadian channel called the International Dam. It featured fishways, which were never considered very effective.

The district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 1978.

External links

• Kettle Falls at Voyageurs National Park
• A Brief History of the Kettle Falls Area