- Eras
- Strang era
- Concepts
- tradesettlementStrang era
- Within
- Saint James Harbor · Beaver Island
Summary
A Rochester North West Company trading house stood on the “back side” of Beaver Harbor by 1847, when the first Strangite explorers reached Beaver Island. James J. Strang’s 1854 account identifies Colonel Fisk as the company’s president. The structure’s precise site and construction date remain unknown.
Evidence and limits
Strang’s account distinguishes this house from Alva Cable’s trading house on Whiskey Point. The 1978 Historical Map’s single “Northwest Co. Trading Post” label should therefore not be used to merge the two businesses or to assign a surveyed footprint. Its phrase “one of the first buildings here” is reasonable local shorthand for a structure already present in 1847, not a documented construction sequence.
Open questions
- Who incorporated or financed the Rochester North West Company, and which “Colonel Fisk” was its president?
- Can deeds, harbor plats, or business correspondence locate the house and establish when it was built or abandoned?
See also
Sources
- Read directly. Strang says Alva Cable had a trading house on Whiskey Point and, separately, the Rochester North West Company, of which Colonel Fisk was president, had one “on the back side of the Harbor” when the explorers arrived in 1847.
- Described in this archive: Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision.Labels a “Northwest Co. Trading Post” as one of the first buildings. The map is a later uncited synthesis and is not used to sharpen Strang's imprecise location.
Added 7 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Rochester North West Company trading house”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/structures/rochester-north-west-company-trading-house/, accessed [date], citing James J. Strang, *Ancient and Modern Michilimackinac* (1854), account of the first Strangite exploration of Beaver Island in 1847. (and 1 further source listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-07. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
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