Early people followed the retreating waters of Glacial Lake Agassiz and probably inhabited the area 4-8,000 years ago, leaving little evidence of their presence. The Laurel Culture (200 B.C.-800 A.D.) and Blackduck Culture (800-1400 A.D.) left a more visible record, and archaeological sites such as the Grand Mound east of Baudette have helped reveal the lifeways of these early residents. When the first fur traders and explorers entered Lake of the Woods, they met and traded with the Monsoni, Cree, Assiniboine, and Sioux Indians who lived here at various times, hunting, fishing the big waters, and maintaining vegetable gardens. The Ojibwe did not move into the area from farther east until the mid to late 1700s. By 1904 nearly two-thirds of what is now Zippel Bay State Park had been requested for homesteading, and early settlers earned income from fishing or logging while clearing enough land to build homes, raise family food, and grow hay for logging horses. They endured large swarms of mosquitoes and horseflies called bulldogs that drew blood on horses' and cows' legs. The Zippel town site and fisheries were far from other population centers around Lake of the Woods and inland, and because this area was then part of Beltrami County, with the county seat in Bemidji 200 miles away, residents depended on water and railroads for transportation. Early roads through marshy areas were often made from the dump from drainage ditches. Wilhelm Zippel is credited with building the first county road in what became Lake of the Woods County, a winter road through marshes and bogs used during frozen months to transport fish to Warroad, where trails and roads connected onward to Stephen and the Red River Valley market. He also built a corduroy road of horizontal logs crossing the marsh south from his fishery at the mouth of Zippel Bay, and its remains are still visible from the air during low water.