Savanna Portage State Park preserves the historic Savanna Portage, a difficult 6-mile crossing between the Mississippi River watershed and the Lake Superior basin on a low, wet glacial plain in northern Minnesota. Used for centuries by Native Americans and later by explorers, missionaries, fur traders, voyageurs, and tourists, it became a key link between the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi Valley despite bogs, mosquitoes, and frequent overland carrying. Its use peaked in the 1820s and 1830s, then declined after the railroad reached nearby McGregor in 1870. Established in 1961, the park now protects the trail, surrounding marshes and forests, and much of the route as a hiking trail.