On returning from Green Bay, I gave my attention, with renewed interest, to the means of expediting the completion of the Agency buildings, and occupying the lot and grounds.  I have alluded to the success of my reference of this subject to the Secretary of War, in 1825.  A site was selected on a handsomely elevated bank of the river, covered with elms, about half a mile east of the fort, where the foundation of a spacious building and office were laid in the autumn of 1826, and the frame raised as early in the ensuing spring as the snow left the ground.

Few sites command a more varied or magnificient view.  The broad and limpid St. Mary, nearly a mile wide, runs in front of the grounds.  The Falls, whose murmuring sound falls pleasantly on the ear, are in plain view.  The wide vista of waters is perpetually filled by canoes and boats passing across to the opposite settlement on the British shore.  The picturesque Indian costume gives an oriental cast to the moving panorama.  The azure mountains of Lake Superior rise in the distance.  Sailing vessels and steamboats from Detroit, Cleaveland, and Buffalo, occasionally glide by, and to this wide and magnificent view, as seen by daylight, by sunset, and by moonlight, the frequent displays of aurora borealis give an attraction of no ordinary force.

In selecting this spot, I had left standing a large part of the fine elms, maples, mountain ash, and other native forest trees, and the building was, in fact, embowered by tall clumps of the richest foliage.  I indulged an early taste in horticulture, and planting trees to add to the natural attractions of the spot, which, from the chief trees upon it, was named “Elmwood,” and every flowering plant and fruit that would thrive in the climate, was tried.  Part of the grounds were laid down in grass.  Portions of them on the water’s edge that were low and quaggy, were sowed with the redtop, which will thrive in very moist soil, and gives it firmness.  The building was ample, containing fifteen rooms, including the office, and was executed, in all respects, in the best modern style.

In addition to these arrangements for insuring domestic comfort and official respect, my agency abroad among the tribes was now well established, to the utmost sources of the Mississippi.  The name and power of “Chimoqemon” (American) among the northern tribes, was no longer a term of derision, or uncertainty of character.  The military post established at these ancient falls, where the power of France was first revealed as early as 1652; the numerous journeys I had made into the interior, often in company with the highest civil and military functionaries; the presents annually issued; the firm basis of a commissariat for all visiting and indigent Indians; the mechanics employed for their benefit; the control exercised over the fur traders, and the general effects of American opinions and manners; had placed the agency in the very highest point of view.  It was a frontier agency, in immediate juxtaposition with Canada and Hudson’s Bay, fifteen hundred miles of whose boundary closed upon them, separated only by the chain of lakes and rivers.  Questions of national policy frequently came up, and tended much to augment the interest, which grew out of the national intercourse.