The southeast terminus of the two-and-a-half-mile portage that linked the St. Croix and Chippewa River systems remains visible here. Indians, explorers, missionaries, and fur traders used this carrying place to move their birch bark canoes between the two great water routes connecting Lake Superior and the Mississippi. In 1784 Michel Cadotte established a fur-trading post at the northwest end of the portage to control trade at this pivotal point. From interior locations such as Lac Court Oreilles, the Chippewa Indians crossed here on trips south and west to gather rice and berries and on war excursions against the Sioux.