 | |
| Established | 1741 -1742 |
|---|---|
| Location | near The Pas, Manitoba, Canada |
| Type | historic site |
Fort Paskoya (or Paskoyac or Pasquia) was a French fort and trading post on the lower Saskatchewan River above Cedar Lake.
It was named after a Cree word for 'narrows', or after the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, whom the explorers encountered. "Paskoyac" was also an old name for the Saskatchewan River. There is also a Pasquia River at The Pas.
Around 1740, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye built four forts to control the chain of lakes west of Lake Winnipeg. These were Fort Pascoya, Fort Bourbon, Fort Dauphin, and Fort La Reine. Their purpose was to trade in furs and to divert to Montreal furs that had previously gone to the English on Hudson Bay. Pascoya had a good location because most of the furs from the west and northwest came down the Saskatchewan. The forts were also part of a quest for a river that led to the western sea, which Verendrye now thought was the Saskatchewan.
First Paskoya: In 1740 Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye mapped the west side of Cedar Lake. During the winter of 1741-42, the elder La Vérendrye decided to build a fort on a small island where the river discharges into Cedar Lake. This post soon became a minor outpost of the first Fort Bourbon. The second Fort Bourbon was probably built nearby.
Second Paskoya: The second Fort Paskoya was built upstream at what is now The Pas. Morton [1] believes it was built in 1750 and first occupied by Joseph-Claude Boucher, Chevalier de Niverville. [2] In 1753 or 1754, it was strengthened by Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne. In 1754, it was visited by Anthony Henday who described it as a "hogstye". Henday's visit is the only recorded visit by a British explorer or trader to any French fort west of Lake Superior, up to the close of French rule in Canada. [3]
It was closed in 1759 during the fall of New France.
In 1775, Alexander Henry the elder was blocked near here by a chief called The Pelican who demanded tribute to continue up the river. About the same time the Frobishers had a single trader on the site. The North West Company seems to have had a post here that was taken over by the Hudson's Bay Company.
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.
The Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada. It stretches about 550 kilometres (340 mi) from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan River and South Saskatchewan River just east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, to Lake Winnipeg. It flows roughly eastward across Saskatchewan and Manitoba to empty into Lake Winnipeg. Through its tributaries the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan, its watershed encompasses much of the prairie regions of Canada, stretching westward to the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and north-western Montana in the United States.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne was a Canadian-born military officer and merchant. He was born at Fort Frontenac in what is now Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and began his career in the colonial regular troops as a second ensign in 1722 and was made full ensign five years later. He married in 1728 and began investing heavily in the commerce of the fur trade while continuing his military career. This was a common practice of the time. In the next few years both careers flourished. He received promotions to lieutenant and then captain six years later.
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 La Jonquière was a French fort built along the Saskatchewan River in the spring of 1751. It was purported to have been the furthest west outpost of New France. The fort was named after the Governor General of New France at the time, Jacques-Pierre de Taffanel de la Jonquière, Marquis de la Jonquière, by Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, western commander of the French (1750-1753). There is no surviving record of its exact location, nor physical evidence, but it was most likely located near Nipawin, Saskatchewan.
Fort de la Corne was one of the two French forts established on the Saskatchewan River in the 20 years between the end of La Vérendrye's push west from Lake Superior in 1731–1743 and the fall of New France in 1763.
Luc de la Corne was a Canadian-born military officer, merchant, interpreter and politician.
Carrot River is a river in north-eastern Saskatchewan, and north-western Manitoba. Its headwaters originate in the Cudworth and Tiger Hill Plains near the town of Wakaw, Saskatchewan. The outlet of Wakaw Lake marks the beginning of the Carrot River and, from there, it flows north-east through Melfort and Red Earth First Nation until it joins into the Saskatchewan River west of The Pas, Manitoba. The river parallels the course of the South Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Rivers and is about 300 kilometres (190 mi) in length. It serves as the main watershed for north-eastern Saskatchewan.
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.
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.
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.
Joseph Smith was a British fur trader and explorer working for the Hudson's Bay Company. He was one of the first Europeans to explore the interior of what later became Canada from Hudson Bay. Smith died June 1765 en route to York Factory from the Saskatchewan River country. Smith's explorations played an important role in opening up the interior of western Canada to European trade, and his journals provide one of the earliest accounts of Cree life.
53°30′25″N100°39′04″W / 53.507°N 100.651°W
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