Tettegouche State Park

About Tettegouche State Park

Come to Tettegouche to experience a 60-metre waterfall and the historic "Tette gouchet" camp where visitors can stay overnight.

The Palisade Valley Unit offers sweeping views, coupled with a variety of versatile four-year trails. There are paths that lead to an inland lake, which is only accessible on foot, as well as hiking, biking and canoeing trails.

Two more trout lakes complement the fishing possibilities in the rest of the park, and nature lovers love this park. The Tettegouche State Park was founded in 1979 and was created to preserve the natural beauty and resources of its surroundings. The 9,346 hectare park includes rugged terrain, waterfalls and waterfalls, as well as a variety of hiking, biking and canoeing trails. It is also known for its bird watching in spring, summer and especially in autumn.

The Baptism River trail features many waterfalls and cascades, including the Tettegouche Falls, the largest waterfall in Quebec and Canada's second largest. There are also some challenging trails through the park, such as the north of the Baptisms River and the south of the stream.

The birch and aspen forests of the coast have been replaced inland by the pine forests and pines, as well as the wild flowers and shrubs of the Tettegouche Park.

The landscape owes its character to the erosion of rocks by the drainage of water from the glaciers. On the north shore of Lake Superior is the Tettegouche Glacier, the largest glacier in North America and the second largest in the world. Glacier activity has led to ruins on the lake, and along the northern shore there is a drainage pattern as well as the formation of lakes and rivers.

Today's features, however, are the result of a much older geological process and are the result of many ancient geological processes.

North America began to separate from the Pacific, beginning with a rift that stretched from what is now Lake Superior to Kansas. Deep basaltic lava flowing into the trench formed virtually all of the rock along the north coast. A spectacular example of this lava flow is Palisade Head at Shovel Point, and the current was tipped southeast of Lake Duluth and southward of the Great Lakes when it tipped the current.

The diverse plant communities of the park support more than 40 species of mammals, and the most common species are bison, elk, elk, wolf, coyote, fox, otter, bear, raccoon, pheasant and wolf.

Occasionally we see a few birds of prey such as coyotes, foxes, bears, raccoons, owls, squirrels and other wildlife.

In Tettegouche, the lakes offer a variety of bird species, and northeastern Minnesota is recognized as one of the best places to find rare birds in North America, especially in the Great Lakes region.

In total, 140 species have been identified in Tettegouche State Park, most of them native to northeastern Minnesota. In summer spruce nests in swamps and coniferous forests, in winter and spring the black-eyed sparrows.

Winter is an excellent time to see owls, woodpeckers, finches and unusual waterfowl. Peregrine falcons live in the park, as do many other species of birds of prey, such as black-eyed sparrows, jays, falcons, peregrine falcons, eagles, bald eagles, kestrels and other birds.

In 1898, the Alger-Smith Lumber Company began clearing the pristine pine forests of northeastern Minnesota for use as a timber storage facility for their timber company. The camp was on a lake that loggers called Lake Tettegouche, which was given the Algonquin name for the New Brunswick landmark. Native American name for the lake and its tributary, Lake St. Croix, and it was taken from the name of a nearby lake in the same area of the Minnesota State Park system. After removing most of his white pine trees in 1910, he sold the camp and surrounding land to a Duluth businessman who used the area for fishing camps and retreats.

One member, Clement Quinn, bought the other in 1921 and kept the region in his family until 1971, when Quinn sold Tettegouche to the deLaittres family. A few years later, they continued Quinn's land-management tradition and began negotiations for conservation as a state park. The Minnesota State Park System, a private organization dedicated to protecting the land, has played a critical role in negotiating with Quinn and other individuals and groups concerned about the future of the state's largest and most important natural area. In 1972, the 1,500-acre area in the northeastern part of the Minnesota Twin Cities region was declared a state park, and in 1973, in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The park is located about 60 miles northeast of Duluth and its entrance is at the intersection of Interstate 35 and Interstate 94 in the town of Tettegouche, Minnesota, south of St. Paul.