North West Co. fort at the east end of the Grand Portage route from lake Superior to Lake of the Woods. The grand portage or first portage from lake Superior to Pigeon river near Partridge Falls portage was nine miles long and terminated at Fort Charlotte. Grand Portage fort was first begun in 1778, although there was some sort of a fort there in 1775 when Alexander Henry passed on his way west, and the building was completed in 1784. It was a substantial fort surrounded by palisades 18 inches in diameter, enclosing sixteen buildings, of which six were storehouses, the stockade being 24 by 30 rods, about 400 by 500 feet. The fort was situated at the bottom of a shallow bay, 3 miles deep and 4&fract12; miles wide at the mouth, called Grand Portage bay, between Pointe aux Chapeaux and Pointe à la Framboise, the palisade being about 15 to 20 paces from the water's edge. A small island lay just opposite the fort, and immediately back of the fort was a lofty round sugar loaf mountain on the northwest now called Mt. Josephine.

Grand Portage fort was sometimes called Fort George. After the international boundary was defined, the fort being on American territory was abandoned 1800-1801 when the "New Fort" (i. e. Fort William) was built on the site of the old French fort Kaministiquia.

The X. Y. Co. also had a trading post erected 1797 about 200 rods distant from the North West Co. In 1802 the X. Y. Co. also moved to Kaministiquia where they established their base of supplies on lake Superior.