Fort Saint Charles Fort Saint Charles ( 1732 ) on Lake of the Woods was the second post built by La Vérendrye during his expansion of trade and exploration west of Lake Superior . It was located on Magnusens Island on the Northwest Angle of Minnesota , 3 . 5 miles east of Angle Inlet , Minnesota and one mile southwest of Penasse , Minnesota , the most northerly point in that state . The site of the modern reconstruction may be somewhat different since the lake levels were raised by control structures on the Winnipeg River . For related forts see the over at Winnipeg River . La Vérendrye reached the north shore of Lake Superior in late 1731 and sent men ahead to build Fort St . Pierre on Rainy Lake . In July or August 1732 he , his eldest son Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye , his nephew Christopher Dufrost de La Jemeraye , Father Charles - Michel Mesaiger and 50 canoes of Indians left Fort Saint Pierre and built Fort Saint Charles on Lake of the Woods . The fort was 60 by 100 feet with two gates and a double row of 15 - foot palisades and four bastions and a watch tower . The internal buildings were roofed with bark . There was abundant fishing , hunting and wild rice , an important matter since it was difficult to haul food from Montreal or Fort Michilimackinac . Next spring he sent Jean Baptiste and La Jameraye down the Winnipeg . They got to within 15 or 20 leagues of the lake when they were blocked by ice . The English on Hudson Bay reported increased activity of Coureurs des bois west of the fort , but La Vérendrye said nothing about them in his reports . On the first of January 1734 a group of Assiniboines reached the fort and brought the Europeans there first news of the Mandans . Some time after this two of his men returned from Lake Winnipeg and the first Fort Maurepas ( Canada ) was built soon after . In 1735 La Jameraye ' s men returned to the Lake from the Red River of the North via the Roseau River ( Manitoba - Minnesota ) , Portage de la Savanne and Reed River . On June 6 , 1736 an expedition departed from Fort Saint Charles , consisting of Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye ( the eldest son ) with the Jesuit missionary priest Father Jean - Pierre Aulneau and nineteen French - Canadian " voyageurs " . They were headed for Fort Michilimackinac . They had traveled only a few kilometres from the fort when they were attacked by Sioux , who killed all the party . The Sioux were retaliating against La Vérendrye " père " , whom they believed was trading guns to their traditional enemies , the Cree and Assiniboine . The expedition members were killed on a small island . Historians have not been unable to reach consensus on its identity . After the massacre was discovered , La Vérendrye " père " directed that the bodies of his son and the priest , and the heads of the 19 " voyageurs " , be brought back for burial at Fort Saint Charles . The remains of his son and the priest were buried under the altar stone of the chapel , and the " voyageurs " were buried outside . The fort was abandoned in 1749 . Reconstruction . Long after the fort had been abandoned and disappeared , newly discovered historic documents helped people find its location . In 1890 Father Aulneau ' s letters sent to family in Vendee , France were discovered . They were translated and published in 1893 by A . S . Jones , s . j . , archivist of St . Mary ’ s College in Montreal , as " The Aulneau Collection " . They contributed to the work of R . G . Thwaites on compilation and publication of the " Jesuit Relations " , the accounts of missionary Jesuits in New France . Academics at St . Boniface College in Winnipeg read " The Aulneau Collection " , which inspired a number of expeditions to discover the old sites . By 1908 the old fort location and probable location of Massacre Island had been established In 1911 L . A . Prud ’ homme recounted the conclusions of such expeditions in the " Bulletin of the Historical Society of St . Boniface " In 1912 a Jesuit team excavated at the site of the fort , where they identified remains as those of La Vérendrye and Aulneau of the 1736 expedition by artifacts , including Aulneau ' s rosary and the hook to his cassock , buried with him under the altar . To celebrate the Golden Anniversary of the Catholic Knights of Columbus in Minnesota , they and co - religionists in Manitoba raised funds to buy the property of the fort and reconstruct it , including a shrine to Fr . Aulneau . ( This may be a distortion of the history , as the fort was for commercial purposes . ) Begun in 1949 , they completed the project in 1950 . The Fort is situated on Magnussen ' s Island , at the site of the old fort , at the mouth of Angle Inlet . Local NW Angle pioneer residents ( in particular Norman Carlson and Joe Risser ) were instrumental in the reconstruction of Fort St Charles . They provided invaluable machinery and knowledge of the area , and without their assistance the Knights of Columbus would have fallen on hard times in their quest for the restoration . For more see > Graham A . MacDonald , Review of Robert M . Tegeder , " Rediscovery & Restoration Fort St . Charles " ,