Archeologists in the 1960s discovered here the remains of a post-built structure used between 1785 and 1802, where artifacts matched bills of lading for bales, kegs, and cassettes canoed to wintering posts across what is now northwest Canada, where company men traded with Native American tribes for furs. In 1793 alone, more than 182,000 beaver pelts were shipped via the Grand Portage, a volume that was unsustainable and detrimental to the North American beaver population. In summer, a warehouse such as this stored goods and repacked them for shipment, and each North canoe in a brigade headed to the interior carried about 20 pieces weighing almost 2 tons, including trade goods, provisions, and supplies. Reconstructed in the 1970s, the warehouse today is used to demonstrate skills from the fur trade era and to display the Parks collection of birchbark canoes.