Mr. Rice, the delegate in congress, if I
mistake not, once had a branch store here with several men in his
employ. The principal traders at present are Mr. Abbee and Mr.
Beaulieu, who have large and well selected stocks of goods. The
present population of white persons probably numbers a hundred souls.
The place now has a more populous appearance on account of the
presence of a caravan of Red Lake Indians, who have come down about
four hundred miles to trade. They are encamped round about in tents or
birch bark lodges, as it may happen to be. In passing some of them, I
saw the squaws busily at work on the grass outside of the lodge in
manufacturing flag carpets. The former Indian residents are now
removed to their reservation in the fork of the Mississippi and Crow
Wing rivers, where their agency is now established.
The houses here are very respectable in size, and furnished in
metropolitan style and elegance. The farms are highly productive, and
the grazing for stock unequalled. There is a good ferry at the upper
end of the town, at a point where the river is quite narrow and deep.
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