Yes I believe those were active trading posts. Chicago and Milwaukee were once swampy areas where several rivers and streams converged and emptied into Lake Michigan. I Know that Chicago is an Algonquian word but I won't share its meaning over the internet we would get the Larrikan started and I would be flamed more than the Chicago Fire for sharing its meaning.
If any of you Rangernetters get around this area there is a town that has a huge public rendezvous. It is along the Missisippi and the Wisconsin rivers and is held on Fathers Day Weekend in June. It usually is not a cool weekend. It has lost a lot of its historic precedence but is a great place to trade. you can learn a lot about costuming except the men walk around in loin cloths. I read in the latest Buckskinning book by National Muzzleloader that this is not historically accurate dress. I wouldn't dare dress that way at a public rendezvous and especially wouldn't at a FCF function, even when it gets to be in the 90s at Battle Creek Michigan.
This town is called Prairie Du Chien and was one of the original trading posts of the Northwest Territory. Many of the major river ways were like the highways of trade. The Indians (in Wisconsin they were often the Chippewa, that have a very interesting culture) trapped and traded the furs for precious metal (usually shiny) mirrors, pots and pans and cloth and many other things.
Nearer to my area the Fox river was one of the shipping lanes but what would later be called Chicago was the closest trading post. It was probably a good route to the Milwaukee area which would be a good place for ships to moor and take on cargo. the headwaters of the Fox are fairly close to the Wisconsin River, a major trade route and it flows into the Mississippi where Lac Du Cheine Trading post was at and a route to where UP Michigan is at now.
It is a very interesting era and probably why the Abe Lincoln Chapter chose voyageurs as their theme. But the later history of Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin was interesting because very little is reported on it. It was a tragic era for the Indians and prosperous for a few settlers. Northeastern Illinois was a combination of tall grass prairie woodland savannas and wetland. It was considered unworkable until the steel plow was widespread and later the development of tiling farmland created a boom in farming and industry to support it.
I have spent way too much time right now but you struck a chord, now it will be hard to silence it. Living History is my favorite topic.
Onward In Gods Service
RAndall A Hermanson
Pioneer Commander
FCF 1998
OP#1 Woodstock Il
mark and teri hersee wrote:
Hi Randall,Yes I really love the educational possibilities of living history. I
worked two summers at Old Fort Niagara and did some interpretation of Rev
War Brit soldiers. I also worked a summer at Genesee Country Museum in
their blacksmith shop. I've never really tried first person
interpretation but I admire people that have the skills to do it well.I think it would be interesting to "recreate" the late 17thc and early
18th c French fur trade period that was very active in your area. I know
Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicage started as French trading posts.That
would be something unique to FCF.God Bless,
Mark Hersee
The Pathfinder
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