 Fur Trade Posts1802-1805
Over 200 years ago...the North West Company and the XY Company journeyed to a place along the Yellow River. The North West Company was first to arrive in1802. Its men built a trading post, a cabin and a stockade. According to journal records, in November of the same year the XY Company traders also pulled their canoes onto this river bank.
The two posts were less than 100 feet apart--one of the rare places on the continent where competing fur trading companies were such close neighbors! Soon the men had cut trees and constructed a single structure combining trading post and living quarters. As winter advanced, the XY Company traders relocated inside the North West Company stockade--the men fearing attack from the Dakota tribe, an enemy of the area's Ojibwe.
Throughout the winter, the traders and the Indian population bartered for furs, primarily the beaver, which was prized in European markets. When spring arrived, the canoes were loaded with furs for the journey to Grand Portage, on Lake Superior's north shore. Traders came to Grand Portage from hundreds of miles in every direction--eagerly anticipating the summer rendezvous (an event Forts Folle Avoine recreates annually). At Rendezvous friends reunited, business flourished, and everyone enjoyed good times! Those furs from along the Yellow River were then carried on to Montreal and eventually to Europe.
After Rendezvous, the traders returned to Forts Folle Avoine, canoes loaded with provisions for winter and various goods to be traded with the Ojibwe. Records show these trading posts were active in 1803 and 1804. Through detailed journals of traders George Nelson and Michel Curot, we know the North West Company added a third cabin to its compound. It was after the 1805 trading season that the fur traders once again loaded their canoes, pushed off into the Yellow River--and never returned.
At an unknown time all the structures were burned. For some 165 years the forts stayed hidden! The journal of Nelson, the XY Company clerk, gave clues about the site. A Plattville State University professor, Harris Palmer, pursued studying the fur trade sites and was not convinced that the Yellow River site was merely "legendary". Local residents, Gene and Lafayette Conner (whose ancestor John Conner was part of the XY Company), joined with Harris and Frances Palmer in commencing a search. It was a local resident, Lester Hammerberg, who directed the searchers to a pile of rocks across the river--a significant find in an otherwise sandy country! A test "dig" was completed and, after those long years, the elusive fur trade site was found!
Charred remains enabled the accurate reconstruction of the North West and XY Company fur trade posts. Archeologists from the Wisconsin State Historical Society studied the site and retrieved artifacts during 1970-1980. The Burnett County Historical Society then completed Forts Folle Avoine. The Forts Folle Avoine Historical Park, listed on the National Register of Historical Places, opened to the public in 1989.
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