By 1776, Henry had a series of posts spread all along the water route from Amisk Lake to Isle a La Crosse, effectively corralling the fur trade from the HBC. The HBC responded by constructing their own posts adjacent to Henry's, setting a pattern that would see HBC and NWC constructing competing posts until they eventually reached the BC coast.

With the NWC's presence well-secured, the Frobishers returned to their Montreal headquarters, leaving Henry to tend to the various posts until his retirement in 1791 when he returned to Montreal. In Dr. Bruce's geology report of 1915 he commented on the existence of both Fort Henry and one of the winter campsites, but he failed to pinpoint their exact location on Amisk Lake. Then in the 1950's, Harry Moody, an amateur archaeologist, and Tom Welsh went on a search.

On the north side of Amisk, they found in the water, steel-bladed barber scissors and some copper or bronze handles. Moody believed he had evidence of Frobishers' winter camp. He developed the theory that the Frobishers, in 1774, had traveled up the east side of the lake where they were blind-ended. When they turned west they ran into some ice and were forced to land where the terrain was suitable. This placed them on the north end of Amisk Lake.

Later, Moody was to make another discovery with the help of George Custer, which would lead him to the actual site of Fort Alexander Henry. Half-way up Amisk Lake, they beached their boat. Custer showed Moody a large poplar tree growing out of a chimney. "We removed the earth and found it was a U-shaped fireplace built with flat rocks and all with clay like plasters," wrote Moody.

In 1954, with the assistance of Rod McDermott, Moody was able to excavate the site where he believed the old fort to be. He photographed six fireplaces, which had indeed belonged to the fort. They also found a flask, scissors, homemade rivets, sheet iron and cooking vessels. (In the intervening years following Moody's discovery, the fort's actual location was again "lost", and only rediscovered in 1994 during an archaeological survey).

Amisk Lake was also part of the route Sir John Franklin took in his two arctic overland expeditions. The first expedition was in 1819 and the second in 1827. Franklin and his expedition journeyed to the Arctic Coast via Cumberland House, across the Methye Portage and up to Great Slave Lake. This route took him across Amisk, where it is believed he over-wintered. Franklin's orders were, "to explore the Northern coast of America, from the mouth of the Coppermine River to the Eastward".

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