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American Fur Company Store / American Fur Company Store

American Fur Company Store / American Fur Company Store is a Michigan historical marker in Mackinac Island, Mackinac County, dedicated 2004.

Corner of Fort & Market Sts., Mackinac Island

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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

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1778 · Il Paese de' Selvaggi Outagamiani, Mascoutensi, Illinesi e Parte delle VI. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1854 · A map of the surveyed part of Michigan / by John Farmer ; engraved by S. Stiles & Co. (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
1874 · Colton's Michigan (1874) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
Historic Michilimackinac, the Straits of Mackinac area .... Michigan / design and… (University of Michigan Library)

Colton's Michigan (1874), 1874, covering the location of American Fur Company Store / American Fur Company Store, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Colton's Michigan (1874), 1874, covering this location. Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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On the National Register nearby

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