Editor's Note:
The trading post where Doty would spend the next few days had been built in 1794 by the Northwest Company. It was situated, according to Schoolcraft, "on a sandy point, on the south shore of the lake, near its outlet, and consists of a stockade one hundred feet square, with bastions at the southeast, and northwest angles, pierced for musketry. The pickets are of pitch pine, thirteen feet above the ground, and a foot square, and pinned together with stout plates of the same wood. There are three gates, the principal one facing the north, which are shut whenever liquor is dealt out to the Indians.
"The stockade incloses two ranges of buildings containing the provision store, workshop, ware house, rooms for the clerks, and accommodations for the men. On the west and northwest angles of the fort there are four acres of ground inclosed with pickets, devoted to the culture of potatoes. No garden vegetables, or grain, are attempted to be raised."
Location: Big Sandy Lake Reservoir, Aitkin Co. Minn.
View Doty's handwritten manuscript of this page
View page in the 1895 printed edition
View this page in Schoolcraft's 1821 Narrative
This morning Mr. S., Lt. M., & Mr. C. left for the portage to meet the residue of the party. I was well enough pleased to remain in a house among half civilized beings and gain a little rest.
