The rocky gorge of the St. Louis River was not navigable to canoes, so Native Americans blazed a portage around it. Later, the voyageurs employed it too and dubbed it the "Grand Portage of the St. Louis." It was a rough trail of steep hills and swamps that began at the foot of the rapids above the present day Fond du Lac ("back of the lake") neighborhood and climbed some to the present-day city of Carlton. Above Carlton travelers proceeded upstream and continued on to Lake Vermilion and the Rainy River. Or they may have traveled southwest up the East Savanna River, portaged the grueling six mile long Savanna Portage (now a state park), and then paddled on to the Mississippi River.