The Portage Canal is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) for its significance in the area of Transportation. The historic importance of the Portage Canal lies in its close association with the old Portage trail, once traversed by Native Americans, French fur traders, and British soldiers. Fur traders noted the importance of the portage between the Wisconsin and Fox rivers as early as the late seventeenth century. The need for a canal was recognized during the early years of Euro-American settlement, and the Portage Canal was intended to be one of Wisconsin's major water routes, linking the American West to the Eastern markets and population centers. State, private, and federal agencies developed the waterway in the nineteenth century to construct a transportation corridor connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.

Since the federal government’s direct involvement in transportation improvements remained constitutionally contentious until the Civil War, state governments—and occasionally private enterprises—took the lead in waterway development. Between the 1820s and early 1850s, creating a waterway linking the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River was seen as the most efficient way to facilitate the movement of goods and settlers into the Upper Midwest. While the Army Corps of Engineers conducted feasibility studies on navigation projects, it generally avoided direct oversight of such endeavors until the mid-nineteenth century. After the Civil War, navigation became a federally recognized responsibility, marking a shift in policy. This transition is reflected in the development of the Portage Canal and the Fox Waterway as significant regional transport systems. The Portage Canal, an integral part of the Fox Waterway, operated as a functional facility from the late 1850s until 1951.