THE FUR TRADE IN THE MAUMEE-WABASH 
COUNTRY 
The Maumee and Wabash valleys, in the minds of the 
eighteenth century, possessed one value only; and that value 
was their wealth of furs and skins. Beavers and muskrats 
furnished the material for most of the hats worn in Europe 
and America, and from the streams of this region their pelts 
could be gathered in almost unlimited quantities. Deer skins 
were in heavy dem.and for the manufacture of leather, and 
the forests abounded in deer. Raccoons, mink, and otter were 
sought for the warmth and beauty of their furs, and here the 
Indians could trap them by thousands. These valleys held 
another value incidental to the fur trade: they were an im- 
portant route of travel and transportation between Lake Erie 
and the Ohio River. Thus it was that this country was an 
object of interest in the French and Indian Wars, and when 
final victory came to Great Britain she claimed it as part 
of her fur trade empire.^ 
For half a century before the collapse of Bourbon power 
in America, French traders had journeyed up and down the 
Maumee and Wabash, crossing from one river to another by 
the portage between the head of the Maumee and the upper 
waters of the Wabash.- In this country they had established 
three important centers of trade. At the head of the Maumee, 
where the St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s rivers unite, was the 
ancient trading place of the Miamis.^ The post was in ruins 
when it came into British possession, but the trade continued 
and was an important factor in building the city of Fort 
Wayne. On the Wabash near where the city of Lafayette now 
^ There is no general history of the British fur trade in America. Valuable material 
may be found in George Bryce, The Remarkable History of the Hudson Bay Company 
(London, 1900) ; Gordon C. Davidson, The Northtvest Company (Berkeley, Calif., 1918) ; 
Beckles Willson, The Great Company' (London, 1900). 
2 George Croghan who visited this portage in 1765 has left a good description of it. 
Croghan’s Journal, 1765, in Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed.). Early Westen-n Trowels 
(Cleveland, 1904), I, 149, 150. 
® There are several good histories of Fort Wayne and the Maumee Valley that give 
the history of this post. Logan Esarey, A History of Indiana from its Exploration to 
1850 (Indianapolis, 1915), 34, gives a brief sketch. See also note to Croghan’s Journal 
in Early Western Travels, I, 122. 
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