GRAND PORTAGE Grand Portage: A History of The Sites, People, and Fur Trade

Fort William replaced Grand Portage as the place of rendezvous at the head of Lake Superior. The following selected lists, although made almost twenty years after the abandonment of Grand Portage, are offered for the concept they give of a fur trading post of that general period. Unfortunately no similar inventories of Grand Portage have been located.¹

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1. Inventories of Fort William, 1820 and 1821, N. W. Co. Account Book, Hudson's Bay Co. Records, Public Archives, Ottawa. French terms are spelled as found in the inventories. Many of the English spellings have been retained.

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Gum Store (1820)

20	barrels Gum, 4,356 lbs.
4-1/2	barrel Pitch
3	barrel Tar
288	lbs. Shot Lead
1	large grindstone

Ship Carpenter (1820)

Cast steel handsaw

Foot rule with slide

Caulking irons

Auger

Chalk lines

Compasses

American ax

American adaze

Iron squares

Chisel, socket

Spoke shears

Hammers

Gimlets

Drawing knife

Files

Planes

Square, etc.

Cooper (1820)

Iron smoothing plane

Jointed irons

Cooper's ax, etc.

Mess House Cellar (1820)

9	wine decanters
6	glass tumblers
9	wine glasses
6	table cloths
3	brass candlesticks
13	knives
7	Japd. tumblers
14	Japd. half gill tumblers
5	glass salt shakers
1	pewter bason
1	pepper box
1	vinegar cruet
64	queensware plates
9	dishes
1	bread basket
2	wooden trays
3	soap spoons
1	cupboard
a large number of kegs
9	pr. water buckets
7	kegs white paint
2	kegs green paint
3	kegs Venetian red
1	large knife
13	forks
3	large forks
8	spoons
16	blue tea cups
2	tin wine coolers
3	Japd. quart mugs
5	kegs yellow paint
1	kegs patent paint
1	kegs black paint
138	lbs. putty
boiled linseed oil
raw linseed oil

Painter's Loft (1820)

oil cloths
painted oil cloths
boiled linseed oil
raw linseed oil
24	maple planks
9	walnut planks
10	walnut boards
3	cherry planks
1	marble and knife
4	paint brushes
24	lbs. patent yellow pa
4	lbs. corn. white paint
window glasses, large &
16	lbs. blue paint
11	room doors
7	large windows

Fort Utensils (1820)

1	fire engine
1	fort flag
1	bell
2	corn mills
3	jack screws
1	potash boiler
1	copper boiler
1	hay knife
2	crosscut saws
9	hand saws
5	screw augers
16	shell augers
broad axes
second hand axes
square hand axes
shingling axes
picks
common hoes
garden hoes
Kent hammers
locks
butt hinges
20	panes window glass scales
11	Fort William batteaux
4	Montreal batteaux
3	Sault batteaux the Exmouth, etc., etc.

Shops listed in Inventory (1820)

Carpenter

Cooper

Blacksmith

Tinsmith

Armourer

Kitchen

Taits Box (1821-McTaitt's Box)

Dairy

Tailor's board (1 goose, shears, scissors)

Agret store

Cattle (1820)

3	horses
4	mares
2	colts, 3 years old
2	colts, 2 years old
31	cows
16	steers & heifers, 2 years
4	calves, 1 year old
2	bulls
51	sheep
[7?]	young calves
28	lambs

Books (1820)

James Dispensary

Allston's Lectures

Holmes Experiments

Johnsons Essays

Beddois & Watt

Wallons Essays

Dickson's Essays

Nisbitts Medicines

Bells Surgery

Munro on Health

Collins [Practice?]

Duncan Lectures

Chymical Nomenclator (Chemical Nomenclature, 1821)

Ferdenand Lebes

Rush on Fevers

Analomcal Dialogues

Skinner on Poisons

Allans Medicines (Allen's

Synopsis Medicine, 1821)

Bell's [Treatise?]

Twelfers Pharmacopia

Douglass on Muscels

Pharmoca, London

Wotherbys Dictionary

Armory (1820)

48	English muskets & bayonets, with cartridge boxes and betts
59	American muskets & bayonets
13	iron guns
4	brass field pieces
3	blunder bushes [sic]
2	wall pieces
20	cutlasses
4	swords
60	haversacks
19	pr. fine pistols
17-1/2	pr. common pistols
3-1/2	pr. brass barrelled pistols
8	cannisters ea. 1/2 battle powder
400	pistol flints
5	lbs. battle powder
57	fusils
130	powder horns
1,000	gun flints
1	parcel fine lint
24	fine sabres
2	pr. gold epaulets

Beads

round white

round blue

round colored

seed assorted

enamelled

smalta

bright red

black pipe

china, large

seed

blue agate

mock garnet

barley corn

mock coral

Canoe Yard (1821)

1	squ. headed half axe
12	canoe awls
986	rolls bottom bark
1,730	rolls side bark
1	cast iron boiler
840	bourages
1,025	canoe bars
1	brace and bitt
2	old Montreal canoes
67	new North canoes, this year
16	new North canoes, last year
25	2d hand North canoes
5	old North canoes
1	new fishing canoe
2	good canoes
1	good small voyage canoe
3	old wooden canoes
36	Etraves [stems]
4	bundles of narangues for Montreal canoes
20	bundles of narangues for small canoes
1	gabaret for Mont. canoes (outline?)
1	gabaret for East.d canoes
1	gabaret for North canoes
1	gabaret for Bast.d 16 ps. canoes
1	gabaret for fish canoes
2	claw hammers
3	crooked knives
5	old tin kettles
126	bundles (scies?-saws)
1,173	faux maitres, p. sett of 6 [?]
13	pr. canoe maitres
346	planchets [planes?]
1	hand saw
2	troughs
142	bundles of narangues for North canoes[?]
372	bundles of wattays [?]

N. W. Office (1821)

blank memo books
note books
abstract books
2	ivory pounce boxes
5	pr. tin candlesticks
4	cassettes
1/6	doz. blk. ink powder
1/6	doz. red ink powder
5	pewter ink stands
6	tin ink stands
3	glass ink stands
3	ivory paper folders
drawing paper
folio poit paper, ruled
foolscap paper, ruled & plain
quarto paper, plain
folio paper, plain
blotting paper, plain
royal paper, plain
imperial paper, plain
2	watering pans
1/2	lb. pounce
1/2	fine quills
7	rulers
5	pr. snuffers
1	oil stone
1	silver seal, N. W. Co.
1	wafer seal
3	hair trunks
1	box wafers
12	sticks red sealing
1	sticks black sealing

Instruments (1821)

1	case amputating
1	case cupping
1	case teeth
1	case trepanning
2	silver catheters
2	silver trocars, silver canulas
2	silver lancet cases
1	set pocket instruments
8	fine lancets
24	new bougies [?]
4	doz. old bougies
7	ivory syringes
10	pewter syringes
1	electrifying machine