Fur Route

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This post is intentionally dated in the future so it appears first...

The HBCo posts that my father Mike (Paul Kelpin) managed are scattered along the oldest fur route into the Western Arctic - originally by canoe brigade following waterways rich with beaver pelts willingly harvested by Indian trappers. We first lived in Cumberland House, the first year-round inland post established by the HBCo. Then, after Mike attended fur school in Montreal, we were posted to Fort Wrigley for a year. The next summer we moved to Arctic Red River (Tsiigehtchic) 1° north of the arctic circle, then the following year to Fort Providence (Zhahti Koe) where we spent four years. For two summers Mike "relieved" post managers at Fort Norman (Tulít'a) and Fort Rae (Behchokǫ̀) having their biennial holidays, and then in 1958 we moved to Fort Chipewyan. Mike left the fur trade and the HBCo in 1967 after 18 years of service.

The following description of the canoe route used to transfer goods and fur west of Cumberland House is from Wikipedia:

From the depot at Cumberland House, Saskatchewan on the lower Saskatchewan River, north up the Sturgeon-Weir River, across Frog Portage to the east-flowing Churchill River which is mostly a chain of lakes, west up the Churchill past the depot on Lac Île-à-la-Crosse, through Peter Pond Lake to Lac La Loche and over the 12-mile Methye Portage to the Clearwater River whose waters reach the Arctic. The Methye Portage, which was first reached by Peter Pond in 1778 ranks with Grand Portage as the most difficult of the major portages. West down the Clearwater River to the Athabasca River at Fort McMurray, north down the Athabasca to the Peace-Athabasca Delta and the depot at Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, at the west end of Lake Athabasca. This was about as far as canoes could reach and return in one season and was the gathering place for furs from the rich Athabasca region and further west. One could continue into poorer country north down the Slave River to the Great Slave Lake and northwest down the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean.