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About Forts Folle Avoine Historical Park
Forts Folle Avoine Historical Park is an
eighty-acre, county-owned site operated by The Burnett County
Historical Society. It was the voyageurs who named the area "Folle Avoine" (faal a-vwon). The "crazy oats" they found was actually wild rice!
Forts Folle Avoine is the original site of two British fur trade
companies that built cabins on the shores of Yellow River in 1802. The North West Company arrived first and built a trading post, two
cabins, and a palisade fence. They established trading relations with
the nearby Ojibwe.
Later that year a competing company, the XY Company, arrived at this same location and erected
a single trading post building. Facing the threat of attack from the Dakota, the companies banded together and resided within a stockaded fort.
In 1805 the fur traders left the site and no evidence remains to suggest they ever returned.
In 1969 the forts site along the Yellow River was rediscovered. Wisconsin archeologists worked on the site in the late
1970's and early 1980's. Based on their
archeological research, reconstruction of the fur trade posts and cabins was undertaken by the Burnett County Historical Society.
Forts Folle Avoine Historical Park opened to the public in 1989. From late May to the end of September tours of the historical site and its representation of
a Woodland Indian Village are led by period-dressed guides.
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