williams lived here on the banks of the river with his wife. the foundation of the home still remains. for the >> it was a great location for william to spin his tales for travelers heading up and down the river, which was one of the main thoroughfares. through a chance encounter with a number of french officials and the reporters of the day, williams continued to push this story that he was the lost prince of france. thatazine ran a story purportedly doubled of their magazine,on to the that subsequently led to a book called "the lost prince." williams really lived off of his story. he was invited all the parties and receptions of the high society both here and on the

east coast. newspapers such as "the new york times" would announce his arrival to the city and publish his social calendar. he very effectively and successfully lifted off his stories for the rest of his life. williams died in new york in a cabin that was built to resemble a french château. to theains were returned area in 1949. at that time, there was some observation done on the remains, and it was determined he was of north american and probably native american can -- dissent, which is consistent with what we do know about his past. he was very successful in his day in promoting himself as the lost prince of france, probably more successful than most of the other fakes at the time. >> american history tv is joining our time warner cable

partners to showcase the history of green bay, wisconsin. to learn more about the cities on our tour, visit c-span.org/localcontent. this is american history tv on c-span3. >> [speaking french] must speak english to you because you don't understand french. welcome to heritage -- heritage hill. you've come here to understand a little bit more about the for trade -- fur trade. furs were involved in the trade. the otter, the bobcat, the muskrat.he fox, the beaver, and the

bear. the most important animal for the fur trade was the beaver. the beaver was important because of its underfur that made excellent felt or hats. hats were very popular in europe. the problem in europe was they were pretty much hunted out of existence. the fur trade had to go somewhere, and and -- and america ended up being a very good place. the first european influence in this area was john nicollet. he was an explorer sent by champlain to look for the northwest passage to the orient. that never was to be. he did run into the winnebago tribe. john nicollet already knew the value of a helped -- a pelt. he had already been working for a fur trade company earlier.

when he came to this area and met a winnebagos, they gave him a feast. said, sixst, they core beavers were in the feast. he knew there were a lot of beavers in the area. ,hen he got back and reported and people were interested in that said, here is a place we could go. only the native americans were doing the trapping. there were hardly any europeans at all doing the trapping. the french set up outposts right in the indians' backyard. the bird trade -- fur trade cabin was used as a business and a residence for the traders. the french called their traders the bhuj law. he would set up his life in this wilderness, and the indians would come to him in the spring

of the year to do the trading. thatwould bring their furs they had been trapping and hunting all winter long, bring them into the cabin, and this is where the trade would happen. they were giving the indians trade goods mostly coming from europe. it was technology not available to the indians. by this old trade, the indians went from stone age to iron age. now they were starting to do things with a lot better tools. for instance, they could now have it, hack -- a tomahawk or an ax blade made out of metal. it would be a whole lot that are than the stone and bone they were using before. beads involved are coming from europe, and they would be porcelain or glass. justolors available are not even available in nature.

also, the ornate glass beads were very desirable to the native americans. haveshowed that they could -- they could show that they had a successful year, because not only do they provide for themselves and the things they really needed, but a bead was something they wanted. are howay, luxuries people who are prosperous show that they are prosperous. one of the trade goods that was very popular was vermilion. vermilion is a powder made from that therom minerals native americans would mix with grease and make their warpaint. in that respect, the fur trade isn't really changing the way that the native americans live, but it is just making it more convenient, more easy.

vermillion made them look a lot more fierce when they put the paint on. roadss time in history, were nonexistent. to get around, you had to go by water. green bay is right on the bay of green bay, which connects to like michigan, and we are also on the foxx river -- fox river. transportation was easy north and south. areaendezvous, the actual where things were transferred back was all the way up over here in mackinac. during the same time, in the spring of the year, all of the trade goods are coming from off the map here in montréal, but across this area where there are s, prettyportage

difficult travel, all the way across, and then into lake h uron. all the large bones are going to take the furs back and get back on time before it gets too cold. all of the trade goods are going to come in the smaller canoes back with a traitor and his voyageurs back to green bay to be treated with the native americans. fur trade the -- the fur trade was active for nearly 200 years. it was prosperous for all nationalities involved, the french, british, and the americans. the way that the french ran the fur trade was probably the best way that anybody could run the fur trade. they really understood the indians. at least as far as the indians

thought, they really cared about them. they took on their customs. there was a really great cultural exchange. they intermarried with the native americans and started a whole other group of people. those were the people involved in the fur trade even coming into the british period, people of indian and french dissent. -- descent. britain came into play right after the french and indian war, because they wanted. the french were still involved in the fur trade as far as being traders. the people who were still dealing with the native americans were the french, but now they had to answer to the british as far as what was fair trade and where they received their licenses. john jacob astor started the american for traded company. -- fur trade company.

working with the local traders here, he was charging them more for goods, and he was giving them less money for their furs. because of that, they have to borrow money from him year after year, and because of that borrowing of money, they get in debt to him to the point where now they basically have to send -- sell their land to him. the land that they sold and him became the town of astor, and that became a large part of what was to later become green bay. the fur trade really started declining in the middle part of the 1800s. the decline of the fur trade happened in a couple different ways. on the supply s w