A giant statue of a voyageur stands on the side of the road in Ranier, Minnesota. The 25-foot-tall fiberglass statue, which is known as “Big Vic,” was created in the 1980s. It was meant as a protest against the U.S. government using eminent domain to seize private land for the creation of nearby Voyageurs National Park.

Voyageurs were boatsmen who transported goods, mostly furs, at the peak of the North American fur trade in the 18th and 19th centuries.