Fort Saint Antoine

Their purpose was to establish alliances with the Ioway and Dakota Indians in order to expand French interests in the fur trade market.

Although Perrot's venture was not the first French excursion into the upper Mississippi Valley, his was the first attempt to establish a trading foothold among the Native American tribes in this region.

In the spring of 1686 the expedition abandoned the Trempealeau site for a more advantageous location along Lake Pepin, where Perrot built Fort Saint Antoine.

It was not until 1731, and the end of the Fox Indian Wars, that the French under the command of René Godefroy, sieur de Linctot returned to Trempealeau and established another trading post on the upper Mississippi.

After the French lost the Seven Years' War to the British in 1763, they ceded all land in North America east of the Mississippi to Britain.