In mid-summer 1929, the Mille Lacs Indian Boat Works was a two-story wooden building with large rooms and many windows, run by Trading Post owner Harry Ayer. From 1929 to 1939, a crew of Mille Lacs Band members built 200 boats there. Ayer rented many of the boats for fishing expeditions and sold others to resort owners, vacationers, and the U.S. Forestry Service. In 1939, Ayer sold the factory and tools to the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the land, held in trust for the Mille Lacs Band, was soon used for a new school building and playground. The last remains of the boat works are concrete footings from a large storage shed built next to the main factory building.