For thousands of years, people traversed this region, including American Indians, explorers, French and American fur traders, settlers, and travelers to the West. Before roads, rivers and lakes were the quickest routes for travel and for transporting heavy loads, but because bodies of water did not connect like a modern transportation network, early travelers had to carry, or portage, their boats, gear, and goods across land gaps to reach linked river systems. Local American Indians used this portage site in dugout canoes for hunting, trapping, trading, and making war, and they shared their knowledge with the first European explorers.
