Page 65 - USA ROAD TRIP SUMMER of 2000

North West Company after they moved from Grand Portage. The

fort walls were not to keep anyone out. It was not a military
fortress. The walls were to keep the animal out of the stores and

to help protect against floods.

The present fort is extremely well done – a living museum. The

personnel are mostly college students working for the summer
months. They are in costume and stay in character of the roles

they would have played in the daily life of this fort in 1815. There
are 42 outbuildings and a complete farm. A small Indian

settlement is outside the fort as well.

When this fort was the center of beaver trade from the Pacific

Ocean to England, there were over 1000 men here through the
summer. 10’s of thousands of beaver pelts were brought from the

far northwest for their transfer to England to be made into men’s
felt hats by the “mad hatters”. Tons of supplies were brought here

from Montreal to trade with the Indians who were trapping the
beavers. The only reason the beaver survived was the change in

men’s fashions to silk hats. The beaver trade collapsed.

At its height, the beaver trade to supply men’s hats employed

thousands of people on two continents. All for HATS – nothing
else.

Watched President Clinton’s speech at the convention and to bed

after midnight.

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