American Fur Company Store / American Fur Company Store

On June 6, 1822, Alexis St. Martin (1804-1880), a French Canadian voyageur, was accidentally shot in the American Fur Company Store located on this site. Dr. William Beaumont (1786-1853), the Fort Mackinac post surgeon, nursed St. Martin´s wound healed leaving a permanent opening in to his stomach. Through this opening Beaumonth compared the digestibility of foods, recorded the temperature of the stomach under different conditions, and extracted and analyzed gastric juice. Beaumont conducted the first of 250 experiments with St. Martin in 1825 in the Officers´ Stone Quarters at Fort Mackinac. Eight years later he published a groundbreaking book on his discovery of the digestive process. same text as Front