Three of the sixteen buildings that once made up the summertime headquarters of the North West Company survive inside the Historic Depot. This depot was not a fort but a secure transshipment point for valuable furs and trade goods. The North West Company was dominant there, though other companies also operated from the site. From Grand Portage, goods from Europe and the Far East went to interior posts, where they were traded for beaver and other furs trapped by Native Americans. Native Americans also traded food, pitch, canoes, and birch bark, all essential to company operations in the Northwest, in exchange for items that made life easier or gave advantages with rivals, including wool blankets, tools, kettles, and guns.