Hwy. 35, 3 mi. NW of Pepin, Pepin County 

Nicholas Perrot was a daring adventurer, fur trader, and able diplomat. The hand-some Frenchman built Fort St. Antoine on the shore of Lake Pepin near here in 1686. Alarmed by the aggressions of the English, the French government felt it was necessary to repeat their claims with sufficient pomp and ceremony to impress the Indians and to assure their allegiance. Accordingly, here at Fort St. Antoine on May 8, 1689, Perrot formally took possession of the entire region west of the Great Lakes "no matter how remote" in the name of Louis XIV. When A.W. Miller sur­veyed this area in 1855, he reported the fort site occupied "a space of about 60 by 45 feet, and stood about 70 feet back from the point of highest water mark on the lake shore."

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[Source: McBride, Sarah Davis. History Just Ahead (Madison:WHS, 1999).]