Illinois Fur Brigade

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ILLINOIS FUR BRIGADE

ILLINOIS FUR BRIGADE, one of several trading expeditions sent out annually, between about 1816 and 1827, by the American Fur Company from its headquarters at Mackinac, at the confluence of Lakes Michigan and Huron, in Michigan Territory. The brigade, usually numbering ten or twelve bateaux loaded with trade goods, made its way down Lake Michigan and through the Chicago portage and Des Plaines River to the Illinois River. There it divided into small parties that spent the winter bartering with the Indians for furs. In the spring the brigade reassembled and returned by water to Mackinac. In 1828 the American Fur Company sold its Illinois interests to Gurdon S. Hubbard, the brigade's commander.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lavender, David. The Fist in the Wilderness. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1964.

Stevens, Wayne Edson. The Northwest Fur Trade: 1763–1800. University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, vol. 14, no. 3. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1928.

Paul M.Angle/t. d.

See alsoAmerican Fur Company ; Fur Trade and Trapping ; Indian Trade and Traders .

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