Archive Dive: The Fur Trade at Fond du Lac

This week’s dive into the archive takes us back to a time before Duluth existed, when Ojibwe dominated the Western Lake Superior region and they worked with the French, and then Americans, in the fur trade. In fact, Duluth’s Fond du Lac neighborhood was originally the site of an Ojibwe village and a post and stockade built by the American Fur Company, founded by opium dealer John Jacob Astor, considered the world’s first millionaire. Read Zenith City’s history of the fur trade at Fond du Lac, from our book Lost Duluth, HERE.

John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Post at Fond du Lac, as seen from the St. Louis River, painted in 1826 by James Otto Lewis. (Image: Zenith City Press)