In 1802, the partnership of Registre Loisel and Hugh Heney established a fur post on Cedar Island, about 5 miles downstream and within sight of this area. Loisel was called Little Beaver by the Indians. The site was in Louisiana, which Spain retroceded to France in 1800 and France ceded to the United States in 1803. On September 22, 1804, Lewis and Clark stopped at the post and described a log palisade 13½ feet high with sentry boxes at the corners, measuring 65 by 75, and a four-room house inside with storage, trade space, a common hall, and a family house. Trade continued there until 1810, when the post burned down while it was the property of the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company. After his upriver post, Ft. Manuel, was burned by British-actuated Yanctonaise in March 1813, Manuel Lisa came down to this area, established a refuge for the old and infirm River Sioux, and by wiles and stratagem kept the Eastern Sioux, allies of the British, on tenterhooks so they were of little value to the British. Many historians consider Lisa's role highly significant in the War of 1812.