American Fur Company Store
This plaque commemorates a Michigan Historical Site on Mackinac Island, between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. In 1822, a French-Canadian voyageur was accidentally shot in the American Fur Company Store. Although the victim eventually recovered, a permanent opening was left into his stomach that enabled groundbreaking medical discoveries on the digestive process.
Transcription:
“Michigan Registered Historical Site
AMERICAN FUR COMPANY STORE
On June 6, 1822, Alexis St. Martin (1804-1880), a French Canadian voyageur, was accidentally shot in the American Fur Company Store located on this site. Dr. William Beaumont (1786-1853), the Fort Mackinac post surgeon, nursed St. Martin back to health. St. Martin’s wound healed leaving a permanent opening into his stomach. Through this opening Beaumont compared the digestibility of foods, recorded the temperature of the stomach under different conditions, and extracted and analyzed gastric juice. Beaumont conducted the first of 250 experiments with St. Martin in 1825 in the Officers’ Stone Quarters at Fort Mackinac. Eight years later he published a groundbreaking book on his discovery of the digestive process.”