We are Mistercolor, The Fox River Valley Trading Post, and we are located in the Dundee area at the heart of Illinois' beautiful Fox River Valley. Tom Hanks visited us when he filmed "The Road to Perdition."  We welcome you with the same Midwestern hospitality with which we welcomed Tom. We believe that we should treat others in the same way that we want to be treated ourselves. This is the way that Mistercolor & The Fox River Valley Trading Post treats our friends and customers.

Please let us know if there is any way that we can be of greater service to you!

Trade in the Fox River Valley

Economic systems for producing, obtaining, distributing, and consuming material goods and services are important because they allow people to adapt to their natural environment and produce what they need to survive as well as enjoy the blessings that God has given to them. This area was the home to the Illinois or Illiniwek and the Miami Native American Indians who participated in an extensive trading network. In exchange for hides, furs, and other goods, the tribes of the Fox Valley traded with the French for European goods. As time passed, traders and missionaries began to settle among the Illinois tribes and thrived in trade with their French allies.

History of the Fox River Valley - the birth of area trade

In the 1600s, when Native American Indians first came into contact with Europeans in the Great Lakes region, two Native American ethnic groups inhabited the land that would eventually become the State of Illinois. The first group--known to French explorers and missionaries as the Illinois or Illiniwek and the Miami Native American  Indians--were a collection of twelve tribes that occupied a large section of the Fox River Valley area, most of what is today Illinois.

During the 1700s and early 1800s, other tribes moved into Illinois. Some of the newly arrived tribes included the Fox (Mesquakie), Ioway, Kickapoo, Mascouten, Piankashaw, Potawatomi, Sauk, Shawnee, Wea, and Winnebago.

The common thread was trade.  In the fine historical tradition of this area, Mistercolor through the Fox River Valley Trading Post continues this rich historical heritage through both in person and online trade.

But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.         Isaiah 40:31