09/22/2026
The tree most people know as the Witch Tree actually has a real name, Manidoo-giizhikens, which translates to Spirit Little Cedar Tree, and it holds deep spiritual significance for the Ojibwe people of Grand Portage on Minnesota's North Shore. It grows out of bare granite rock on Hat Point, right along Lake Superior, and it's believed to be somewhere between 300 and 400 years old, making it one of the oldest living landmarks in the entire state.
The tree's first written record comes from French Canadian explorer Sieur de la Vérendrye, who noted it as already a mature cedar back in 1731, which pushes its likely age even further back than that first sighting. Its twisted, gnarled shape isn't decorative, it's survival. Growing directly out of a crack in the rock, the tree has weathered centuries of lake gales, ice floes, and blizzards, and at some point an event, possibly a lightning strike, damaged its original crown, leading a new root sprout to grow up and entwine around the older trunk still alive beneath it.
For the Ojibwe, the tree has never been treated as just an old cedar. It sits on sacred ground, and for generations, both Ojibwe travelers and later French voyageurs left offerings of to***co in its branches before setting out onto Lake Superior, seeking safe passage and successful fishing on a lake known for turning dangerous with little warning. Some accounts tie the tradition to Mishipizheu, an underwater spirit believed to live in the lake's depths, with the offerings meant to keep that spirit calmed rather than angered.
The Witch Tree name itself has nothing to do with Ojibwe tradition at all. According to Grand Portage tribal member Travis Novitsky, that name traces back to a non-Native painter named Dewey Albinson, who painted the tree sometime in the 1920s through 1940s and simply titled the piece The Witch Tree. The name caught on with outsiders and stuck for decades, even though many Ojibwe consider it a disrespectful mischaracterization of a tree that was never associated with witchcraft in their own tradition.
The tree nearly didn't survive long enough to see its own protection. Sitting on privately owned land for years, it suffered from vandalism and souvenir hunters chipping away pieces of it. In response, Grand Portage band members formed a group called Friends of the Witch Tree, raising 85,000 dollars to purchase the land outright, with the final payment made in May 1990. Today the site is governed by the Grand Portage Reservation Tribal Council, and visitors can only see the tree accompanied by a tribal guide, a small but firm way of making sure a centuries old spiritual landmark stays protected rather than becoming just another roadside curiosity.
