Where the River Roads Met
Posted by: 
meralgia
N 46° 46.460 W 093° 19.605
15T E 475054 N 5180138
this sign has a unique front and back with a myriad of information.
Waymark Code: WM4E17
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 08/10/2008
Views: 37
Where River Roads Met - To the native Anishinable (Ojibwe) and to the white fur traders who bartered with them in the late 1700s and early 1800s, no Minnesota Lake had a more strategic location than Big Sandy Lake, which stands at the intersection of two major trade routes. - On its east side, Big Sandy drains the West Savanna River, which leads to the Savanna Portage - the shortest route to Lake Superior. (The six-mile portage is now a state park.) Half a mile west of here, Big Sandy empties into the Mississippi, the interstate highway of the day. - The Anishinabe established a permanent village here in the 1740s. The Northwest Company built a large trading post here in 1794. This post, which was surrounded by a stockade, remained in use until after the War of 1812. The American Fur Company, successor to Northwest, built another post on the lake about 1830; it was used until the company ceased operations in 1847. (Trading post: An artist's depiction of the Northwest Company trading post, based on descriptions by early traders and explorers.) [on the opposite side: (The Savanna Portage - Between the watersheds of Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi River, early fur traders used their six-mile Savanna Portage, shown as a dotted line on the map.)] ~ text of marker
Additional history about this location can be found here:
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