Buckingham House (fur-trade post)

Last updated

Buckingham House (HBC) and Fort George (NWC) were two trading posts on the North Saskatchewan River near Elk Point, Alberta, from 1792 to 1800. Buckingham House belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company and Fort George to the North West Company.

Contents

Both posts were on a wooded north bank of the North Saskatchewan River. A gully and a few hundred yards separated them. From 1993 there was an interpretive center. To the north were the posts on the upper Beaver River (Canada).

Fort George

Faced with a declining supply of beaver and the increasing unrest of plains tribes [1] at Pine Island Fort, the North West Company moved 120 miles upriver and established Fort George. [2] It was one of several places also known as Fort des Prairies. Angus Shaw, who came south from Moose Lake, was in charge for most of its history. Two of his clerks were Duncan McGillivray and John McDonald of Garth. Sixty to eighty men and an almost equal number of women and children inhabited Fort George. When news of the massacre at South Branch House reached Fort George, the inhabitants stayed inside the fort for six weeks and the inhabitants of Buckingham House joined them. In 1794-96 Fort George produced 325 bales of fur and 325 bags of pemmican. David Thompson spent the winter of 1799 at the post and found it dilapidated. By 1800 the local beaver had declined so much that it was abandoned in favor of Fort de l'Isle 20 miles upriver. In 1809 Alexander Henry the younger salvaged what he could and took it downriver to Fort Vermilion.

Buckingham House

Following Angus Shaw, William Tomison of the Hudson's Bay Company arrived with 28 men in October 1792. The post, originally called Moose Hills, was set up to directly compete with Fort George of the North West Company. Until 1795, it was the HBC's furthest post upstream on the Saskatchewan River. [3]

At various times Peter Fidler, George Sutherland, James Pruden, and Henry Hallet were in charge. Buckingham House always had fewer men and trade goods than its rival, Fort George. Relations between the two posts were usually difficult but correct. During a drought the leadership of Buckingham House tried to deny the inhabitants of Fort George access to the Buckingham House well. Access was restored when John McDonald of Garth told William Tomison that one or the other of them would visit the bottom of the well unless access was restored. Buckingham House was abandoned in 1800. By that time, Fort Edmonton and other forts had been built upriver from that site.

See also

Related Research Articles

Fort Edmonton was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1795 to 1914, all of which were located on the north banks of the North Saskatchewan River in what is now central Alberta, Canada. It was one of the last points on the Carlton Trail, the main overland route for Metis freighters between the Red River Colony and the points west and was an important stop on the York Factory Express route between London, via Hudson Bay, and Fort Vancouver in the Columbia District. It also was a connection to the Great Northland, as it was situated relatively close to the Athabasca River whose waters flow into the Mackenzie River and the Arctic Ocean. Located on the farthest north of the major rivers flowing to the Hudson Bay and the HBC's shipping posts there, Edmonton was for a time the southernmost of the HBC's forts.

Anthony Henday was one of the first Europeans to explore the interior of what would eventually become western Canada. He ventured farther westward than any white man had before him. As an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, he travelled across the prairies in the 1750s, journeyed into what is now central Alberta, and possibly arrived at the present site of Red Deer. He camped along the North Saskatchewan River, perhaps on the present site of Rocky Mountain House or Edmonton, and is said to have been the first European to see the Rocky Mountains, if only from a distance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rocky Mountain House</span> Town in Alberta, Canada

Rocky Mountain House is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is approximately 77 km (48 mi) west of Red Deer at the confluence of the Clearwater and North Saskatchewan Rivers, and at the crossroads of Highway 22 and Highway 11. The surrounding Clearwater County's administration office is located in Rocky Mountain House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumberland House, Saskatchewan</span> Village in Saskatchewan, Canada

Cumberland House is a community in Census Division No. 18 in northeast Saskatchewan, Canada on the Saskatchewan River. It is the oldest community in Saskatchewan and has a population of about 2,000 people. Cumberland House Provincial Park, which provides tours of an 1890s powder house built by the Hudson's Bay Company, is located nearby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Espérance</span>

Fort Espérance was a North West Company trading post near Rocanville, Saskatchewan from CE.1787 until CE.1819. It was moved three times and was called Fort John from CE.1814 to CE.1816. There was a competing XY Company post from CE.1801 to CE.1805 and a Hudson's Bay post nearby from CE.1813 to CE.1816. It was on the Qu'Appelle River about 20 km from that river's junction with the Assiniboine River and about 7 km west of the Manitoba border. It was on the prairie in buffalo country and was mainly used as a source of pemmican which was sent down the river to Fort Bas de la Rivière at the mouth of the Winnipeg River.

Angus Shaw was a fur trader and political figure in Lower Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Peter Pruden</span> Pioneer of western Canada, fur trader, and writer.

John Peter Pruden was an early pioneer of western Canada which at the time was known as Rupert's Land. During his many years of employment as a fur-trader with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), he had extensive interactions with such First Nations as the Cree and Blackfoot. He was known to have spoken Cree fluently, a fact which was confirmed by HBC administrator Sir George Simpson in his famous but "sometimes erratic" 1832 Character Book.

Fort de l'Isle is a site in Alberta, Canada, containing the remains of three trading posts that existed from 1799 to some time before 1808. The island the North Saskatchewan River on which the posts were located is about 47 miles west of the Saskatchewan border and about 7 miles north of Myrnam. The west end of the island can be seen from the Alberta Highway 881 bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian canoe routes</span> Canoe routes of early explorers of Canada

This article covers the water based Canadian canoe routes used by early explorers of Canada with special emphasis on the fur trade.

Henley House, the first inland post established by the Hudson's Bay Company, was located in what is now Kenora District, Ontario, Canada. It was strategically situated west of James Bay about 160 miles (257 km) up the east-flowing Albany River at the mouth of the Henley River, 8 miles (13 km) downstream of the confluence of the major north-flowing Kenogami River with the Albany. From the head of the Albany at Lake St. Joseph, a portage led west to Lac Seul from which the English River (Ontario) led to the Winnipeg River and westward. The Kenogami led south toward Wawa, Ontario, but that does not seem to have been a practical canoe route all the way to Lake Superior.

Louis Primeau or Primo was one of the first European fur traders on the Churchill River. Primeau Lake in northern Saskatchewan, Canada is named after him. Little is known of his youth. Morton says that he was born in Quebec of an English father and French mother, but the DCB does not repeat this.

South Branch House was the only significant fur trading post on the South Saskatchewan River. Most trade was on the North Saskatchewan River which was closer to the wooded beaver country. West of the Saskatchewan River Forks the two rivers run parallel to the northeast for about 100 miles. Between them there is a fair amount of forest.

Fort Sturgeon (1776–1780) was the first trading post on the North Saskatchewan River. It was located about 4 miles west of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. It and was also called Peter Pond Fort, Fort Pond, Fort la Prairie, Fort des Prairies, Lower Settlement and Fort Sturgeon River.

Pine Island Fort and Manchester House were trading posts on Pine Island, a small narrow island on the North Saskatchewan River in Saskatchewan, Canada, from 1786 to 1793. Pine Island Fort was a post of the North West Company while Manchester House was a post of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Paint Creek House and Fort Vermilion were a pair of fur-trading posts on the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta, Canada, approximately 13 km (8.1 mi) west of the Saskatchewan border. Paint Creek House belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and Fort Vermilion to the North West Company (NWC). For background see Saskatchewan River fur trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saskatchewan River fur trade</span>

Saskatchewan River fur trade The Saskatchewan River was one of the two main axes of Canadian expansion west of Lake Winnipeg. The other and more important one was northwest to the Athabasca Country. For background see Canadian canoe routes (early). The main trade route followed the North Saskatchewan River and Saskatchewan River, which were just south of the forested beaver country. The South Saskatchewan River was a prairie river with few furs.

Pedlar is a term used in Canadian history to refer to English-speaking independent fur traders from Montreal who competed with the Hudson's Bay Company in western Canada from about 1770 to 1803. After 1779 they were mostly absorbed by the North West Company. The name was first used by the Hudson's Bay Company to refer to French coureurs des bois, who travelled inland to trade with the Indians in their villages and camps. This was in contrast to the HBC policy of building posts on Hudson Bay, to where the Indians would bring furs to trade with them.

Fur trading on the Assiniboine River and the general area west of Lake Winnipeg, in what is now Manitoba, Canada, began as early as 1731.

Asleep by the frozen sea is a phrase coined by Joseph Robson to describe the policy of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from its foundation in 1670 until the establishment of its first inland post in 1774. Unlike the French who sent Coureurs des bois inland to trade, the HBC built posts on Hudson Bay and waited for the Indians to bring furs to them. The decision to abandon this policy and move inland gradually turned the HBC into an informal government for western Canada and led ultimately to the confederation of western and eastern Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Albany (Ontario)</span> 1679 Historical trading post near Fort Albany First Nation

Fort Albany was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post established in 1679 near the site of the present day Fort Albany First Nation. The fort was one of the oldest and most important of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts. It was also involved in Anglo-French tensions leading to the Battle of Fort Albany in 1688.

References

  1. Morton, Arthur (1973). A History of the Canadian West to 1870-71 (2nd. ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto press (published 1939). p. 456. ISBN   0-8020-4033-0.
  2. Voorhis, Ernest (1930). "Historic Forts and Trading posts of the French Regime and of the English Fur trading Companies". www.enhaut.ca/voor1/voorhis.html. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
  3. "Hudson's Bay Company: Buckingham House". pam.minisisinc.com. Archives of Manitoba - Keystone Archives Descriptive Database. Retrieved 20 August 2024.

Further reading

53°51′43″N110°45′25″W / 53.862°N 110.757°W / 53.862; -110.757