Fort Maurepas | |
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On the Red River, St. Andrews RM, north of Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada | |
Type | Fur trade |
Site history | |
Built | 1734 |
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Fort Maurepas was the name of two forts, or one fort in two locations, built by the French in the Lake Winnipeg area in the 1730s:
They were both named after Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas (from the city of Maurepas) who, as Minister of Marine, was in charge of French colonies and chief adviser to King Louis XVI.
In 1734, two explorers returned from Lake Winnipeg to Fort Saint Charles on Lake of the Woods and reported that they had found a good site for a fort near the mouth of Red River of the North, or Maurepas River as they called it. While returning to Montreal, La Vérendrye sent from Fort Kaministiquia Sieur Cartier, a merchant, with 12 men in 3 canoes to build a fort on the river. When he reached Fort Michilimackinac he ordered La Jemeraye to relieve his son Pierre at Fort Saint Charles so that Pierre assist at the new post. Since his son Jean-Baptiste had returned from the Indians, Jean-Baptiste went instead. The fort was five leagues up the Red River on high ground where the marshes end. The site has not been identified. Morton believes it was on Netley Creek which was called Riviére Aux Morts from a massacre of Saulteurs by the Sioux. [1]
They explored the river from Lake Winnipeg almost to Pembina, North Dakota and opened a route from the Red River to Lake of the Woods via the Roseau River (Manitoba-Minnesota) and the Portage de la Savanne. In 1735 the fort produced 600 packages of furs. La Vérendrye himself arrived in February 1737 after travelling overland and held council with the Indians. In May 1737 it was reported that all the Indians at the fort had died of pox. In 1738 La Vérendrye returned, passing the fort on his way to found Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine River. By 1739 the fort was abandoned in favor of Fort Rouge upriver (south) at the present site of Winnipeg.
The Second Fort Maurepas (Winnipeg River) is poorly documented. One source [2] says that the fort was moved from the Red River to the Winnipeg River in 1739, but other sources do not repeat this. It was on a high round knoll on the right bank of the Winnipeg River about six miles above its mouth across from the modern Powerview-Pine Falls, Manitoba. In the winter of 1749-50 it was rebuilt by Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye after it had been burnt by the Indians. By 1793 nothing was visible but the clearing. On the opposite side of the river at Otter Point the North West Company had a storehouse. About two miles downriver was Fort Bas de la Rivière and further downriver was the later Fort Alexander, Manitoba. The region was known as Bas de la Rivière.
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye was a French Canadian military officer, fur trader, and explorer. In the 1730s, he and his four sons explored the area west of Lake Superior and established trading posts there. They were part of a process that added Western Canada to the original New France territory that was centred along the Saint Lawrence basin.
Events from the year 1738 in Canada.
Winnipeg River is a Canadian river that flows roughly northwest from Lake of the Woods in the province of Ontario to Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. This river is 235 kilometres (146 mi) long from the Norman Dam in Kenora to its mouth at Lake Winnipeg. Its watershed is 106,500 square kilometres (41,100 sq mi) in area, mainly in Canada. About 29,000 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi) of the watershed is in northern Minnesota, United States.
The Sagkeeng First Nation is a Treaty-1 First Nation in the Eastman Region of Manitoba, Canada, that is composed of the Anishinaabe people indigenous to the area at or near the Fort Alexander Indian Reserve #3 located along the Winnipeg River and Traverse Bay. Today, Sagkeeng holds territory in the southern part of Lake Winnipeg, 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of the city of Winnipeg, and on the mainland.
Jean-Pierre Aulneau de la Touche was a Jesuit missionary priest from La Vendée and a pioneering linguist of the Assiniboine and Cree languages.
Fort Saint Charles (1732) on Lake of the Woods was the second post built by La Vérendrye during his expansion of trade and exploration west of Lake Superior. It was located on Magnuson's Island on the Northwest Angle of Minnesota, 3.5 miles east of Angle Inlet, Minnesota and one mile southwest of Penasse, Minnesota, the most northerly point in that state. The site of the modern reconstruction may be somewhat different since the lake levels were raised by control structures on the Winnipeg River. For related forts, see Winnipeg River.
Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye was a French Canadian fur trader and explorer. He, his three brothers, and his father Pierre La Vérendrye pushed trade and exploration west from the Great Lakes. He, his brother, and two colleagues are thought to be the first Europeans to have crossed the northern Great Plains and seen the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming.
Jean-Baptiste Gaultier de la Vérendrye was the eldest son of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye and Marie-Anne Dandonneau Du Sablé. He was born on Île Dupas near Sorel, New France
Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye de Boumois was the second son of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye. An explorer and fur trader who served many years under the command of his father, he was born on Île aux Vaches, near Sorel, New France.
François de La Vérendrye was a Canadian explorer. He was the third son of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye. He was born at Sorel, New France in 1715 and was active in his father's trade activities from Fort Kaministiquia to the North Saskatchewan River.
Christopher Dufrost de La Jemeraye ,(b. December 6, 1708 – d. May 10, 1736), was the lieutenant and nephew of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye in the exploratory party that headed west from Fort Kaministiquia, Ontario, Canada, in 1731. He and Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye established Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods in 1732. In the spring of 1733, he and Jean Baptiste headed down the Winnipeg River to set up a post in the Lake Winnipeg area. Ice stopped them and La Jemeraye returned to Fort St. Charles while his cousin established a small temporary fort named La Barrière.
Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre was a Canadian colonial military commander and explorer who held posts throughout North America in the 18th century, just before and during the French and Indian War.
Fort Bourbon was one of the forts built by La Vérendrye during his expansion of trade and exploration west from Lake Superior. Besides providing support for the important fur trade in what is now Manitoba, La Vérendrye wanted to conduct exploration of potential routes for what he believed was an interior western sea.
Fort La Reine was built in 1738 and is one of the forts of the western expansion directed by Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye, first military commander in the west of what is now known as Canada. Located on the Assiniboine River where present day Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, stands, the fort served as a fur trading post. It was also the base of operations for much exploration north and west. From Fort La Reine, explorers made their way to Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis, Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan River.
Fort Paskoya was a French fort and trading post on the lower Saskatchewan River above Cedar Lake.
Fort Rouge was a fort located on the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, Canada, on the site of what is now the city of Winnipeg. Its exact location is unknown. Its name in English means "red fort".
Verendrye National Monument was a federally protected area in the U.S. state of North Dakota from 1917 to 1956. In the latter year it was withdrawn as a national monument. It is located in southwestern Mountrail County, west of the city of New Town. It lies within the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
Jacques de Noyon was a French Canadian explorer and coureur des bois. He is the first known European to visit the Boundary Waters region west of Lake Superior.
Joseph La France,, was a Métis fur trader in Canada, and an explorer of the inland route from Montreal to Hudson Bay.
Bas de la Rivière is a geographical area on both sides of the Winnipeg River at and near the mouth where it empties into Lake Winnipeg. It had a storied historical period in the opening of the west and the subsequent fur trade and settlement.