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Gichi Bitobig, Grand Marais: Early Accounts of the Anishinaabeg and the North Shore Fur Trade
The journals of two clerks of the American Fur Company recall a lost moment in the history of the fur trade and the Anishinaabeg along Lake Superior’s North Shore
Long after the Anishinaabeg first inhabited and voyageurs plied Lake Superior’s North Shore in Minnesota, and well before the tide of Scandinavian immigrants swept in, Bela Chapman, a clerk of John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company, fetched up in Gichi Bitobig—a stony harbor now known as Grand Marais. Through the year that followed, Chapman recorded his efforts on behalf of Astor’s setting up a working post to compete with the Hudson Bay Company, establishing trading relationships with the local Anishinaabeg, and steering a crew of African-Anishinaabeg, Yankee, Virginian, and Métis boatmen. The young clerk’s journal, and another kept by his successor, George Johnston, provides a window into a story largely lost to history. Using these and other little known documents, Timothy Cochrane recreates the drama that played out in the cold weather months in Grand Marais between 1823 and 1825. In its portrayal of the changing fur trade on the great lake, Gichi Bitobig, Grand Marais offers a rare glimpse of the Anishinaabeg—especially the leader Espagnol—as astute and active trading partners, playing the upstart Americans for competitive advantage against their rivals, even as the company men contend with the harsh geographic realities of the North Shore. Through the words of long-ago witnesses, the book recovers both the too-often overlooked Anishinaabeg roots and corporate origins of Grand Marais, a history deeper and more complex than is often told. Gichi Bitobig, Grand Marais recalls a time in northern Minnesota when men of the American Fur Company and the Anishinaabeg navigated the shifting course of progress, negotiating the new perils and prospects of commerce’s westward drift.
Long after the Anishinaabeg first inhabited and voyageurs plied Lake Superior’s North Shore in Minnesota, and well before the tide of Scandinavian immigrants swept in, Bela Chapman, a clerk of John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company, fetched up in Gichi Bitobig—a stony harbor now known as Grand Marais. Through the year that followed, Chapman recorded his efforts on behalf of Astor’s setting up a working post to compete with the Hudson Bay Company, establishing trading relationships with the local Anishinaabeg, and steering a crew of African-Anishinaabeg, Yankee, Virginian, and Métis boatmen. The young clerk’s journal, and another kept by his successor, George Johnston, provides a window into a story largely lost to history. Using these and other little known documents, Timothy Cochrane recreates the drama that played out in the cold weather months in Grand Marais between 1823 and 1825. In its portrayal of the changing fur trade on the great lake, Gichi Bitobig, Grand Marais offers a rare glimpse of the Anishinaabeg—especially the leader Espagnol—as astute and active trading partners, playing the upstart Americans for competitive advantage against their rivals, even as the company men contend with the harsh geographic realities of the North Shore. Through the words of long-ago witnesses, the book recovers both the too-often overlooked Anishinaabeg roots and corporate origins of Grand Marais, a history deeper and more complex than is often told. Gichi Bitobig, Grand Marais recalls a time in northern Minnesota when men of the American Fur Company and the Anishinaabeg navigated the shifting course of progress, negotiating the new perils and prospects of commerce’s westward drift.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
216 pages, Paperback
Published November 13, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 1, 2021
A very, very well-researched and complete account of a fascinating sliver of time on the North Shore. The conflict between the trading companies and the border confusion between the USA and Canada make for a very interesting backdrop!
It's obvious the author is passionate about this subject and uncovered some really interesting facts in the preparation for this book. That said, in his excitement to share these, the narrative was lost. There's no story here, just a rabbit warren of details that ends up confusing and hard to follow. In every section the author starts off strong, introducing us to a character and placing him in a setting or situation, but then can't help reciting how this person was once married to the sister-in-law of this other person, who was once jailed in Michigan during the war with this other guy, and did you know the governor of Wisconsin was once... then we're off on a tangent for several pages. The author also bounces between English, French, and Anishinaab names for both people and places, and the spelling changes between uses, which adds to the confusion.
I think there's wonderful material here and stories that have yet to be told. Like another reviewer, I think by far the strongest and most fascinating character in this book is George Bonga, the respected Black man who worked at the fur trade posts and whose family had been in the area for generations. The way racial differences were handled (or simply ignored) in the upper Great Lakes region prior to the Civil War is fascinating. I'd love to see an entire book just focused on George.
3/5, would also love to see the threads of story here pulled out and developed more.
It's obvious the author is passionate about this subject and uncovered some really interesting facts in the preparation for this book. That said, in his excitement to share these, the narrative was lost. There's no story here, just a rabbit warren of details that ends up confusing and hard to follow. In every section the author starts off strong, introducing us to a character and placing him in a setting or situation, but then can't help reciting how this person was once married to the sister-in-law of this other person, who was once jailed in Michigan during the war with this other guy, and did you know the governor of Wisconsin was once... then we're off on a tangent for several pages. The author also bounces between English, French, and Anishinaab names for both people and places, and the spelling changes between uses, which adds to the confusion.
I think there's wonderful material here and stories that have yet to be told. Like another reviewer, I think by far the strongest and most fascinating character in this book is George Bonga, the respected Black man who worked at the fur trade posts and whose family had been in the area for generations. The way racial differences were handled (or simply ignored) in the upper Great Lakes region prior to the Civil War is fascinating. I'd love to see an entire book just focused on George.
3/5, would also love to see the threads of story here pulled out and developed more.
January 29, 2025
fine for what I'm using it for, just wasn't particularly interesting or well-written to me
December 31, 2018
In a well-researched volume, Timothy Cochrane brings to life the hardships and heartbreaks of the Anishinaabeg and their new neighbors from the American Fur Company as they navigate the changing landscape of the fur trade in Grand Marais from 1823-1825.
I was intrigued by his characterization of George Bonga, one of the two brothers who helped establish the American Fur Company post in Grand Marais, a man who defied racial categories, half Anishinaabeg and half black, first a clerk and then a trader, a skilled woodsman and Anishinaabemowin-English interpreter, and Bela Chapman's (the first American Fur Company clerk at Grand Marais) "go-to guy." Bungo was renowned for his strength, consider this passage: "He loaded himself, at the foot of the Porcupine Mountain, at the mouth of the Montreal River, with a pack of goods, and then bags of bullets, till the whole load amounted to eight hundred and twenty pounds, and carried them one thousand paces up the side of the mountain, and won a bet."
One would hope so.
Cochrane doesn't put a shine on life in Grand Marais. The Anishinaabeg were often starving by the end of the hard winters, and the traders were living on leeks alone, while John Astor, the founder of AFC became one of the wealthiest men in America partly by shifting the risk to the individual trader rather than assuming it himself.
I would recommend Timothy Cochraine's Gichi Bitobig, Grand Marais, to readers interested in early American history, Anisinaabeg culture, the fur trade, and Grand Marais.
I was intrigued by his characterization of George Bonga, one of the two brothers who helped establish the American Fur Company post in Grand Marais, a man who defied racial categories, half Anishinaabeg and half black, first a clerk and then a trader, a skilled woodsman and Anishinaabemowin-English interpreter, and Bela Chapman's (the first American Fur Company clerk at Grand Marais) "go-to guy." Bungo was renowned for his strength, consider this passage: "He loaded himself, at the foot of the Porcupine Mountain, at the mouth of the Montreal River, with a pack of goods, and then bags of bullets, till the whole load amounted to eight hundred and twenty pounds, and carried them one thousand paces up the side of the mountain, and won a bet."
One would hope so.
Cochrane doesn't put a shine on life in Grand Marais. The Anishinaabeg were often starving by the end of the hard winters, and the traders were living on leeks alone, while John Astor, the founder of AFC became one of the wealthiest men in America partly by shifting the risk to the individual trader rather than assuming it himself.
I would recommend Timothy Cochraine's Gichi Bitobig, Grand Marais, to readers interested in early American history, Anisinaabeg culture, the fur trade, and Grand Marais.
November 10, 2020
Honestly so dry. I got way more out of Carolyn Gilman's Grand Portage Story, which also filled in essential gaps in context that Cochrane didn't bother to cover: Gichi Bitobig discussed such minute details (repetitively so) I mistook it for being thorough. Nope, just dry and incomplete. I look forward to reading Walking the Old Road by Staci Drouillard next.
February 15, 2019
I love all things Isle Royale. Tim is extremely knowledgeable and he has documented his research so well. It makes me want to follow up on every note to find out more!
September 16, 2020
Fascinating historical walk thru of the early 1800’s in northwest Minnesota, focusing on the fur trade and all the various players involved.
January 8, 2025
After visiting Grand Marais again, my interest was piques in the history of the area. The author explores its early history through the fur trade.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews