Where River Roads Met

Big Sandy Lake held a strategic location for the native Anishinabe (Ojibwe) and for white fur traders in the late 1700s and early 1800s because it stood at the intersection of two major trade routes. On its east side, the lake drains the West Savanna River, which leads to the Savanna Portage, the shortest route to Lake Superior. Half a mile west, Big Sandy empties into the Mississippi River, a major transportation corridor of the time. The Anishinabe established a permanent village there in the 1740s. The Northwest Company built a large trading post there in 1794, and the stockaded post remained in use until after the War of 1812. About 1830, the American Fur Company, successor to the Northwest Company, built another post on the lake, and it was used until the company ceased operations in 1847.

Minnesota · United States