Portage

For other uses, see Portage (disambiguation)}}}.

Portaging Canoes in Algonquin Park

Portage refers to the practice of carrying a canoe or other boat over land to avoid an obstacle on the water route (such as rapids or a waterfall in a river), or between two bodies of water. Places where this carrying occurs are also called portage.

Over time, depending on the importance of the portages, they were sometimes upgraded to canals with locks, and even portage railways. Portaging generally required unloading the vessel and carrying vessel and contents across the portage in multiple trips. Voyageurs would often employ a tump line on their head to carry a load armfree on their back. Small canoes can be portaged by carrying them inverted over one's shoulders and the center thwart may be designed in the style of a yoke to facilitate this.

Portages can range in length from dozens of meters to many kilometers in length (the famous 19 km Methye Portage being a good example), and often cover hilly or difficult terrain. Most portages are the result of elevation changes, either changes in elevation from one body of water to another, or changes in elevation of the land in between. This results in most portages involving some measure of climbing or descending. However some, such as Mavis Grind in the Shetlands exist on an Isthmus where it is easier or safer to transport a boat over-land than round it. In these cases the climbing or descending required is often minimal.

Places where portaging occurred often became temporary and then permanent settlements (such as Hull, Quebec, Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario and Brae, Shetlands). Sometimes the settlements were named for being on a portage, particularly in North America. Some places so named are:

Cranberry Portage, Manitoba
Grand Portage, Minnesota
See Portage (disambiguation) for numerous places named simply "Portage".

There is also the settlement of Volokolamsk in Russia, whose name is derived from "portage" on Lama River.

Portage

See also