People had lived along this bay long before later arrivals, with the Anishinabe present five centuries ago and the Ojibwa coming to the region about the time Columbus first visited the continent. The bay, now called Chequamegon from Jagawanica meaning "Soft beaver dam," carried both spiritual meaning and a story of Menabosho, the Algonquin demigod, building a dam toward what is now La Pointe on Madeline Island. The Ojibwa lived by seasonal rhythms, raising squash, beans, and corn, gathering maple sugar in spring and wild rice in early fall, and drawing on the bay's fish and the woods' game while honoring the creator and valuing kindness, peace, and a gentle way of life. Europeans entered this world in the summer of 1659 when Radisson and Groseilliers reached the bay, spent the fall and winter of 1660 there, and began relations with native people that introduced European trade goods and helped sow dependence on them. In 1665 Allouez established the Mission of the Holy Ghost near the mouth of Boyd Creek, and French Jesuits sought to Christianize and civilize native people, meeting mixed success and at times dividing tribes before Allouez left in 1667 and Marquette continued the work. Later, in the late 1700s, French-Canadian Voyageurs in birch bark canoes became central to the growing fur trade across the lakes and rivers of the north, leaving a lasting heritage tied to commerce, travel, and adventure in the bay region.