The year 1837 was the last year of activity for the Grande Lisiere post. The muskrat market, always discouraging, declined further during the fall of that year. Pelts became almost valueless. Trade at Grande Lisiere post was almost entirely in muskrat pelts, and late in the year Sibley ordered Laframboise to quit the station, move his entire invoice of goods to the Little Rock post on the Minnesota River and serve the balance of his year's contract there. All but three posts, those on the Minnesota, were closed at this time by Sibley in a move to effect economies. "I have withdrawn prairie posts on account of rat prices," Sibley wrote to Crooks on July 2, 1838.
Even if rat prices had not declined in 1837, it is likely that Grande Lisiere post would have been abandoned at that time. Smallpox, always a fatal plague to the Indians, had appeared n the Village at Grande Lisiere, as it had in other villages of the plains. The redmen died in great numbers; in some villages more than half the population was swept away. Because of their diminished numbers, survivors of the plague at Grande Lisiere deemed it prudent to move nearer to the Minnesota River. They feared Sac and Fox warriors would attack their weakened village.
Commercial transactions of the county's first business institution ended on May 21, 1838, when an invoice of $3211.41 was transferred to the Red Rock post, and pelts to the value of 1,099.95 were credited upon the American Fur Company books.
Although a trading post was never again established in Murray County by the American Fur Company, representatives f the company continued to trade with the Indians when they made their villages in the area. The removal of the Sac and Fox tribes from Iowa in 1842 permitted Sioux bands to hunt on these prairies without fear of hostile attack, and once more smoke curled from lodges at Grande Lisiere. Laframboise, from a post on the Minnesota, visited the village at intervals. Writing from Little Rock, October 1, 1845, Laframboise advises Sibley to get a permit for Francois to winter at Grande Lisiere and try to make the Indians stay at that place if there are any means." On November 11, 1845, Laframboise wrote to Sibley, "I arrived from the Grande Lisiere last week. I made a very good trip. I came back with nine packets of rats." Rat pelts were made up
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in packs, one thousand pelts to the pack, so Laframboise's receipts for that trip were approximately nine thousand rats. In another letter to Sibley, dated July 30, 1846, Laframboise writes, "I wrote to you about putting Henry Auge at the Grande Lisiere and I am of your opinion. I have not much confidence in him."
Winterers, such as Laframboise advised Sibley to place at Grande Lisiere, did not have trading posts. They were trusted voyageurs sent to an Indian village only for the hunting seasons, and their duty was to keep the hunters industrious so that they would be able to liquidate their credits. Their small stock of goods was made up of necessities for hunting. The winterer lived in a lodge the same as the Indians, though at times a rough log shelter was built.
The Indian population at Grande Lisiere, during the years the trading post was operated there, fluctuated, but ordinarily three hundred and more Indians might be found in lodges in the timber. Wapekutas, Sissetons and Five Lodges, all Sioux Bands, made up the village. Trade at the post was not confined to this village. Indians, who hunted at Lake Shetek, Lake Benton and near the Pipestone Quarry, and in all the territory west to the Big Sioux River, received credits from Laframboise. The trader at the post did not attempt to follow these Indians in their wanderings other than to pay them periodic visits and check the progress of their hunts. Voyageurs attached to the post would at times "assist" the savages in bringing in furs. All business was transacted at the post. Credits extended during the summer and fall were expected to be paid by the end of the spring hunts.
Profits of the Grande Lisiere post contributed to build up the great fortune of the Astor family in New York. In fairness, it must be said that intoxicants were not used at this post to make profits. At some posts of the company whiskey was used to enslave the redmen, but there is no evidence that Joseph Laframboise ever dispensed a drop. Not until the arrival in the late 'fifties of the county's first settlers—the men, a curious combination of farmer-trapper-trader—were Indians in Murray County debauched with liquor.
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