T heodore C atton . Rainy Lake House

Theodore Catton’s Rainy Lake House revolves around three men, John Tanner, Stephen H. Long, and Dr. John McLoughlin, whose lives became intertwined after they met at a Hudson’s Bay Company outpost in 1823. Tanner, a white Indian, was captured on the Kentucky frontier in 1790 and lived among the Odawa for the next thirty years. Long was on his second expedition as an officer in the U.S. Topographical Engineers, commissioned to explore the northern prairies from the Upper Mississippi to the 49th parallel. McLoughlin was a surgeon hired by the North West Company, and after its consolidation with the Hudson’s Bay Company, he became the chief factor at the company’s Rainy Lake House trading post. McLoughlin lived most of his adult life in the region west of Lake Superior at Fort William, but he was responsible in the summer months for furs gathered at Rainy Lake. The lives of these three different men intersected when Tanner arrived at Rainy Lake House after being ambushed and shot in the head. Tanner, who was looking for his missing daughters, became ill and deranged as a result of this attempt on his life. McLoughlin aided Tanner medically and attempted to help him recover his daughters. In the midst of Tanner’s crisis, Long arrived, having returned from the western prairies. He volunteered to take Tanner to Lake Superior, but Tanner later aborted the journey and returned to the Rainy Lake outpost.

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bay · Cartography · Frontier · Geography · Wet season · White (mutation) · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies