Dene residents from the surrounding area were camped at the portage in a tipi village of 150 people. The Hudson's Bay Company had 10 employees at the fort who maintained the transportation depots at each end of the portage and brought in horses, oxen and carts for the season. Petitot wrote "While there were no more than 400 people gathered at the time on the south side of the portage they gave us a little understanding of the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel. There were people from French Canada, Scotland, Orkney, England, Norway. There were Woodland Cree, Swampy Cree, Chippewa, Chipewyan, Beaver and Métis of all kinds. Grouard and I represented the French." (translation). Names were given to different locations on the Portage trail by the fur brigades. On the table starting from the south end are some of the names in French and their translation. These resting places were measured in paces wrote Sir John Richardson in 1848. From the Tail of La Loche to Little Old Man the distance was 2,557 paces. Another 3,171 paces led to Fountain of Sand and so on. The total number of paces from the Tail of La Loche to The Meadow is 24,593 or 1,294 paces per kilometre. Most of these resting places on the Portage have not yet been identified. Under ideal conditions is walked at an easy pace in about 4 hours. Along the Portage Trail there were marked graves from the fur trade era according to the following Oblate account written in 1933 by Father Louis Moraud. The Methye Portage was designated a National Historic Site in 1933 and the Clearwater River was designated a Canadian Heritage River in 1986. Today the Methye Portage and the Saskatchewan portion of the Clearwater River are within the Clearwater River Provincial Park. A bronze plaque is set in a stone cairn at the entrance to the portage. The dedication is written in French and English. The English version is quoted: