On the side of U.S. Highway 61 near Frontenac State Park sits a limestone historical marker surrounded by prairie grasses on the edge of an old oak forest. The marker is a tribute to Fort Beauharnois, established in September 1727 and considered to be the last French fort in operation along the Mississippi River. As the historical marker indicates, “a party of French soldiers and traders under the leadership of Rene Boucher Sieur de la Perriere built a fortified post on Lake Pepin from which they traded for two years with the Dakota (Sioux) Indians.” “They were there,” it adds, “to secure an alliance with the Dakota in order to gain access to the fur and possible mineral wealth of the area and to eventually press westward in search of the ‘great western sea.’”
Man is on a quest to unearth Minnesota’s first Catholic chapel – The Catholic Sun
Man is on a quest to unearth Minnesota’s first Catholic chapel – The Catholic Sun
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