Duluth, MN news and local guide

European demand for beaver hats, and the trapping out of beaver along the lower St. Lawrence by the late 1630s, sent French traders west. Etienne Brule is credited with reaching Lake Superior before 1620. Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Medard des Groseilliers explored the Duluth area, Fond du Lac, "bottom of the lake," in 1654 and 1660. The French explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, whose name was anglicized as Duluth, explored the St. Louis River in 1679, and the city is named for him. After 1792 the North West Company built posts on Minnesota rivers and lakes. The first, Fort St. Louis, where Superior, Wisconsin, later grew, became headquarters of its Fond du Lac Department, with stockade walls, two 40-foot houses, a warehouse and a canoe yard. John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company began trading at the Head of the Lakes in 1809 and in 1817 built a new headquarters at present Fond du Lac on the St. Louis River. Native and European American settlers gathered near the posts, and a town gradually took shape. Sources Wikipedia: Duluth, Minnesota