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Histories:  Trempealeau Co. Historical Accounts:

"History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917":

Chapter 7:

Louis and Augustine Grignon, Traders

-As transcribed from page 66

The occupancy of this region by the trappers is also attested by documentary evidence. As early as 1820 Louis Grignon had a fur trading camp at Trempealeau Mountain,3 and the following year Augustin Grignon had a camp near the mouth of Black River, to which point he moved from a camp four miles below the Zumbro, which had been burned by the Wabasha Indians at the instigation of Joseph Rolette, who worked for a British firm.4 In 1824 Trempealeau Mountain was recommended to the superintendent of Indian affairs as a suitable place for the location of an Indian agent. It was described as being desirable because there was plenty of firewood and because it was convenient to Wabasha's band of Dakota, as well as the place where all the Winnebago and Menominee stopped in ascending and descending the Mississippi.5

Trempealeau Bay thus became a prominent rendezvous for trappers and traders, and favorite stopping place for river voyagers.



Resources for the above information:

3 - Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Fur Trade in Wisconsin, 1812-1825, Wis. Hist. Colls., XX, 160-162, 241-242, 258-259.

4 - Ibid., 236.

5 - Ibid., 365.