Site of Fort St. Antoine
1686
Nicholas Perrot was a daring adventurer, fur-trader and able diplomat. The handsome 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 sixty by forty-five feet, and stood about seventy feet back from the point of highest water mark on the lake shore".
Marker is on The Great River Road (State Highway 35) 1.2 miles south of County Highway JJ, on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
