- - - ·--~- --~ ~- -·- --·-The crewsOfthe fishing-boats exchanged whatev- er items they could spare for furs that the Indians Chequamegon had acquired and were using for their own purpos es. The Indians were, of course, hunters of animals for their furs, hides, meat, and bone. The beaver was particularly important to them Bay played because it was large and easy to locate and kill, and for its edible meat and its fur, which they made into robes. The Indian method of processing the beaver furs a role in state's for robes made the robes particularly valuable to . the French. Gradually, the fur trade ceased to be incidental to fishing, as the Indians began hunting animals for furs to trade, and French merchants fur trading or their agents came to the Gulf ·with goods for the ' c ~ }212:1h~ . same purpose. ithin the broad sweep of Wisconsin An important center of this early trade was · history, Chequamegon Bay played out Tadoussac, to which the Indians brought their furs its own unique history in the fur trade. down the Saguenay and other rivers from the in W terior. But this trade could not meet the increased From 1659, when it was discovered by Europeans, to as late as 1840, the fur trade remained the chief demand for furs, so the French began to push up occupation around Chequamegon Bay, even after the St. Lawrence and its tributaries and westward the trade had died out in the rest of the state and into the Great Lakes and beyond to tap the vast fur the southern region was developing its agricultural resources of the interior. and industrial resources. It was largely through the pursuit of the fur ' It was only after the Civil War that the mineral trade by the French, then the British, and finally and timber resources of the Chequamegon Bay re the Americans that the territory that was to be gion began to be exploited, and the region became come Wisconsin was explored and settled. There more or less integrated with the southern region were other factors, including missionary work, the by rail and by the settlement ofthe intervening ter search for a passage to the Indies, relations with ritory -"more or less" because much of the north the Indians, conflict among the Indian tribes them country remained quite r----:-----,._,. se~ves, and larger political and military consider different from the agri ations. But shaping and energizing these factors cultural, industrialized, to a significant extent, was the fur trade. ' · and urbanized south, as The Chequamegon Bay region, rich in fur bear it does even today. ing animals and populated by Indians attracted The fur trade origi there by plentiful fish and game, was an obvious nated from the increas place for a fur trading post as the trade moved ing demand of the westward. middle classes of Eng ~n addition to a large supply of fur-bearing . land and the continent ammals and a 'population of Indians to hunt them for luxury goods among the bay was at the center of a water transportatio~ which were fur and fur network that connected the posts and administra trimmed garments, par tive centers to the east with the northern interior ticularly beaver hats. regions, The harvesting of From the Brule River in the west, to the Montre animal furs was an Lars al River in the east, a network of rivers streams ancient practice in and lakes provided access to the northe~n half of Europe, but the stocks Larson the Wisconsin territory, while easy portages con of fur bearing animals n~d to the Wisconsin, St. Croix, and Mississippi began to decline and • has been a guest colum Rivers. could not satisfy this nist for The County Journal Within the bay itself, Chequamegon Point con new level of demand. for many years. nected Madeline Island to the protected travel In North America route :along the south shore of Lake Superior from conditions for satisfying Mackinac and Sault Ste. Marie, while the island this new market existed: an unlimited (or at least was protected against the vagaries of weather on so it seemed) supply of beaver and other fur bear the big lake and was an ideal location for defense ing animals; a low cost system for collecting the against hostile Indians. furs, that is, trade with the Indians; and an exten Ultimately, however, the importance of Chequa sive network of rivers and lakes that facilitated ac meg~n B~~ and _La Pointe for the fur trade depend cess ()f men and trade goods to the vast interior and ed on political circumstances and the economies of __ the. transport of furs to the coastal-collection -pointS. the trade, and for these reasons La Pointe was all By the beginning of the 17th century there' was but abandoned on several occasions while at other already limited trade in furs between the FrenCh times it was a key center for the fur trade in the who came to the Gulf of St. Lawrence tO fish and northwest. the Indians, who came to the coastal areas f~r the same purpose.