Where River Roads Met

Where River Roads Met. . , To the native Anishinabe (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 River, 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 18 12. The American Fur Company, successor to the 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's outpost, based on descriptions by early traders and explorers., The Savanna Portage , Between the watersheds of Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi River, early fur traders used the six-mile Savanna Portage, shown as a dotted line on the map.