Campau’s Trading House: The Log Post That Started a City

In this episode of End of the Road in Michigan, we follow fur trader Louis Campau as he builds the first permanent white settlement in the Saginaw Valley in 1815. From his log trading post on the Saginaw River, Campau traded with the Anishinaabe and helped shape the future of Michigan.

His post became the site of the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw, a deal that ceded over 6 million acres of Native land to the United States. Learn how one man, one building, and one treaty helped launch the city of Saginaw—and marked a turning point in Michigan’s early history.

Read more about this story at The Campau Trading Post – How One Fur Post Sparked the Founding of Saginaw.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
In the heart of Michigan's Saginaw Valley, long before Assamil's buzzed in railroads

(00:05):
crisscross the landscape, a small log building stood alone on the west bank of a winding river.
It was built of squared timbers, two stories tall with a view over the forest and water.
This was Campow's trading house, and in the years following the War of 1812,
it was the only sign of a permanent white settlement for miles.

(00:29):
This is end of the road in Michigan, where we explore the turning points, quiet places,
and nearly forgotten stories that shaped Michigan's past.
Today, we follow a fur trader, a treaty, and a log post that sparked the founding of a city.
It was 1815. The War of 1812 had just ended, and Michigan, still a territory, was on the edge of change.

(00:55):
A 25-year-old fur trader named Lewis Campow, traveled up from Detroit with a team of may-t workers.
His destination, the upper reaches of the Saginaw River, home to the Saginaw Ojibwe,
and a key route for fur trade. Campow wasn't just any trader. He came from a powerful
French-Canadian family with deep roots in Detroit commerce. His uncle Joseph Campow was one of the

(01:19):
wealthiest men in the state, but Louis wanted more than money. He wanted territory, trade, and influence.
And in the thick forests of the Saginaw Valley, he saw an opportunity.
He chose a high point on the riverbank near what's now downtown Saginaw, and built his post,
sturdy, defensible, and right in the middle of a Ojibwe territory.

(01:44):
For the next few years, Campow lived there year-round, trading with the Anishinabe for pelts,
offering goods in return, and slowly becoming the area's central point of contact between
indigenous communities and the outside world. Campow's trading house wasn't just a business.
It was a meeting ground, where native leaders, trappers, and traders came together in a fragile,

(02:10):
sometimes uneasy exchange. Fur was king, beaver, otter, fox, and muskrat. Campow traded calico,
kettles, knives, tobacco, even whiskey. And he treated the Saginaw Ojibwe with what many saw as
fairness, earning their trust. One of his closest allies. His own younger brother Antoine Campow,

(02:32):
known as Wabos, or rabbit. Antoine would later take over the post when Louis moved west
to establish Grand Rapids. But for now, the Campow's and the Ojibwe co-existed at the edge of a
growing American frontier. Their trading house became so well-known that it appeared on official maps.

(02:53):
Even more, it became the landmark used to describe the boundaries of land sessions that would come,
because in 1819, that's exactly what happened. In September 1819, Governor Louis Cass arrived in
Saginaw with a military escort, his mission, to negotiate a treaty with the Enishinaabe nations,

(03:15):
Ojibwe, Odoa, and Potawatomi, that would open millions of acres for white settlement.
Where did he set up camp? Right at Campow's trading house. For nearly two weeks, hundreds of
native men, women, and children camped in the woods around the post. They gathered for counsel,
feasts, and ultimately, a negotiation that would forever change Michigan's map. With Campow

(03:41):
interpreting, the U.S. government secured the Treaty of Saginaw, seating over six million acres
of indigenous land in central Michigan. From Saginaw to Flint, Lansing to Midland, the land passed
into U.S. control. In return, the tribes were promised annuities, small reservations, and continued
hunting rights. Promises that as history shows would not all be kept. After the treaty,

(04:08):
Louis Campow moved on to Grand Rapids, where he'd go on to build another post and another city.
But in Saginaw, his trading house stood for several more years, the army even built Fort Saginaw
on the same site in 1822. By the 1840s, the fur trade had faded, but the log post had already

(04:28):
done its work. It laid the foundation for the city of Saginaw, which would grow into a lumber
powerhouse before the centuries end. Campow's trading house is long gone, but the place where it stood,
on the banks of the Saginaw River, remains a symbolic starting point. It's where cultures met,

(04:50):
traded, clashed, and signed away futures. Today, as you walk the streets of downtown Saginaw, or
trace the curves of the river, you're walking through a story that began with a handful of logs,
a trapper's eye for opportunity, and a handshake that changed Michigan forever.
Campow's trading house reminds us that every town has a beginning, and every beginning, a cost.

(05:15):
This has been End of the Road in Michigan. If you enjoyed this story, please leave a review or
share it with someone who loves Michigan history. Thanks for listening.