A roadside marker on Highway 35 south of Stockholm marks the site of Fort Saint Antoine, a French trading post founded in 1686 by explorer and fur trader Nicholas Perrot. The location on Lake Pepin was chosen for its strategic value on the river — Perrot used it as a base for trade with the Dakota and for pressing French territorial claims deep into the continent's interior.
The fort is long gone, but the marker is worth stopping at for the view alone: the lake opens wide in both directions and the bluffs frame the scene exactly as they would have for Perrot's expedition three centuries ago. Interpretive signage tells the story of French exploration in the upper Mississippi.