When we arrived at Fort Chipewyan in 1958 we immediately noticed two large log buildings keeping a silent vigil from their prominent location over the town. They were all that remained of the largest HBCo fur trade establishment west of Fort William. In the following years we kids often played near them - tobogganing, fishing, rock climbing, war games, cowboys, watching for the first boat in the spring, etc., but the buildings were invisible to us, just background. Lester and I explored the dark interior of the larger one once, even crawling into the cellar, but didn't find anything interesting. Then the smaller building was taken down in 1961, the chief factor's house in 1964, and there was nothing remaining of the fort but a sundial and the cairn at the top of Monument Hill. Remembering the loss, and with my curiosity piqued, I started saving historical photos from online searches. This post of The North contains pictures of HBCo structures in Fort Chipewyan from 1891 to 1964, as well as my version of the history of the forts prior to this last one on Monument Hill.
The two log structures there in the 1960's were the remnants of a significant rebuilding of the fort under the leadership of Factor Roderick McFarlane in 1871-1874. In accordance with archaeologist Roderick J . Heitzmann, I refer to this new fort as Fort Chipewyan IV. At the time of the rebuild the HBCo was flush with cash at having just received £300,000 ($1,500,000) for the sale of Rupert's Land and the company's Northwest holdings to Canada. The long-established residents of this immense territory (comprising one twelfth of the earth's land surface) were neither consulted nor informed of a transaction that would change their home lands forever! Although the transfer ended the HBCo's monopoly of the fur trade, there was still significant profit to be made if it could dominate the trade in the Mackenzie Basin while the fur supply was still plentiful. Fort Chipewyan, located at the confluence of the Peace, Athabasca, Slave and Fond du Lac river systems, and with its supply of labour from local freemen families, was ideally suited for a central depot supporting an efficient business operation. Furthermore, most of the the previous generation of buildings were badly deteriorating, making the time right for new investment. The English governors of the company may have been convinced that such capital was secure with Canada having demonstrated such effective control of the resistance in Red River two years earlier (1). The construction of the fort buildings was a huge effort, and must have created a local labour boom. Foundations were of rocks, walls were of logs that were squared, fit, notched and sometimes dovetailed, trim-work was locally fabricated, roofs were wood shingles, whitewash from local limestone, softwood floors. The rocky hills around Fort Chipewyan don't provide for large trees, so logs may have been transported some distance, possibly from the Peace River delta. All other materials, such as nails, metal sheeting, glass, etc. would have been shipped from Athabasca Landing by York boat. During the rebuilding of the fort the company also donated land and assistance to the Church of England to build a mission house, a schoolhouse and the church of St. Paul the Apostle west of the fort. The latter two are the only buildings remaining of Fort Chipewyan IV.
I encourage readers to leave comments at the end of the post regarding any observations, corrections, or additional information you may want to share.
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| This is the last building from the HBCo fort on Monument Hill. The building was dismantled in August, 1964. Known as the chief factor's house, the bourgeois' house, or simply by the name of whoever was living in it at the time, it stood on the crest of the hill overlooking the townsite for 93 years. It is the only HBCo building from the 1870's that used dove-tail corners - others at the time used post-on-sill techniques, with much smaller logs morticed into corner and in-wall posts. The building site was the focus of an archaeological study by Michael Forsman in 1987. Photo by Lloyd Chorney, winter of 1963/64. |
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| This view of the lake frontage shows the family home of Indian Affairs agent Jack Stewart, our house, the Public School teacherage, the chief factor's house, and the cairn on Monument Hill. From the window over my bedroom desk I had a clear line of sight to the chief factor's house, which at that time was occupied by the Ladouceur family. Photo by Paul Kelpin, 1963 |
The following is my best attempt at locating the HBCo buildings as they were in 1893, using photographs and George Bayne's 1898 land survey. Our house was located at the corner of Lucas Ave and Anderson Street, where building 7 once stood, and the teacherage was between buildings 9 and 10.
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2. Anglican school, later parish hall, built 1872-74. Cemetery between church and school.
3. Anglican mission, built before 1874, replaced with a new building between 1910 and 1916
4 - 10. Employee dwellings, built by 1875, all gone by 1916
9. This is the approximate location of the schoolhouse built in 1922, then teacherage in ~1950
11. Fish storage, with drying racks, ~1871 to 1939
12. Indian store and depot, ~1871 to 1939
13. Depot, ~1871 to 1939
14. Office, ~1871 to 1939
15. Probably washhouse. Also toilets above 15 and beside 20
16. Milk house, ~1871 to ?
17. Chief factor's house plus cookhouse, 1873 - 1964
18. Clerks/officers quarters, ~1873 to ~1920, then a storehouse that was dismantled in 1961
19. Sale shop for employees/recreation hall/equipment shop, ~1871 to 1939
20. Wood house, ~1871 to ?
21. Watch tower/jailhouse, built ?, dismantled between 1893 and 1900
22. Blacksmith shop, on 1898 survey
23. Sundial, ? until early 1960's, or later
24. Powder magazine, ? until at least 1940
25. Flagpole
26. Stable
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| This April 25, 2015 image from Google Earth shows surface disturbances corresponding to some of the fort buildings, in particular the chief factor's house (17), foundation of the clerks/officers quarters (18), and office (14). Also, interestingly, in all Google Earth historical views the area where the fish storage building stood (11) is flush with greenery. Our house (white roof) is at the staff dwelling at (7), and the Northlands School Division teacherage was at (9). |
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| Google Earth, September 9, 2012 |
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| Google Earth, May 11, 2021 |
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| Roderick McFarlane, Chief Factor of the Athabasca District from 1871 to 1885, oversaw the building of Fort Chipewyan IV. Photo from 1887, Glenbow Archives. |
Henry John Moberly in his book When Fur Was King describes Fort Chipewyan in the early 1870's: "Fort Chippewyan, head post of the Athabasca District ... is prettily situated on a gentle rise above the water, the houses well-built and whitewashed, set in an orderly row, with the Church Mission Society's chapel at one end and the unpretentious dwellings of the office in charge and his clerks and the large stores of the Company at the other, giving it the appearance of a small village."
In 1875 John Macoun, botanist with the Geological Survey of Canada, spent ten days in Fort Chipewyan recovering from nearly starving while paddling from Fort St. John (1,100 km) in a dugout canoe with insufficient supplies and a broken gun. He described the fort as follows: "All the buildings are of most substantial character, all shingled and whitewashed, and of imposing appearance. Two large stores with glass windows, each 63 X 31 X 17 ft., stand next to the landing. Eight houses are occupied by employees of the Company. In the rear is the clerk's house, 40 X 30 X 17 ft., well plastered and warm. Then the general store and the Factor's house.” Interestingly, he says nothing of the fish storage building, and identifies eight employee dwellings when by 1891 there are clearly only seven.
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| Émil Petitot made this sketch of Fort Chipewyan in May 1879. Although the HBCo and Anglican mission buildings are correctly positioned, they are not architecturally consistent with later photographs. Note the York boats rigged for sailing. Library and Archives Canada. |
Many of the photos of fort show additional buildings along the lakeshore that I haven't identified, but were still there when we lived in Chip. Homes west of the church owned by the Wylies, Frasers, Loutits, Fletts, Lepines, McKays and others appear in many of the photographs. The resolution of the photos is generally poor as they are what is available on-line; higher quality images can be requested or purchased from the sources identified. I invite the reader to compare some of the photos with the aerial views of Fort Chipewyan taken in the early 1960's, and please, make comments!
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| Fort Chipewyan from Pointe des Mortes, 1891. The HBCo buildings stretch along the lakeshore from the Anglican Mission to the depots on Monument Hill. The large two story house west of the church is on land that eventually belonged to John James Loutit, HBCo Factor in the 1920's. Pole structures along the beach are for Dënesųłı̨né or Cree lodges. Library and Archives Canada. |
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Joseph Burr Tyrrell was a geologist, surveyor, engineer, mining consultant and palaeontologist whose extensive fonds are stored at the University of Toronto. He passed through Fort Chipewyan with his brother James in June 1893 at the start of their "Barren Lands" expedition for the Geological Survey of Canada. His excellent photographs are amongst the earliest of Fort Chipewyan IV.
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| The chief factor's house, clerks' (aka officers') house, watch tower, sale/equipment/recreation shop, and blacksmith's shop in 1893. The fence between the clerks' house and sale/equipment shop was added since 1892. The picket fence on the left border of the photo is in front of the office. Joseph Burr Tyrrell, UofT Library. |
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| The view from the watch tower, 1893. Note the fish drying racks behind the fish storage building. The large fenced area north of the employee dwellings is agricultural. Joseph Burr Tyrrell, UofT Library. |
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| In 1893 the main gate into the fort was between the store and the depot, with a covered structure (guardhouse?) behind the gate. The post-on-sill construction of the depot is evident: six 3-metre logs are tenoned into seven morticed posts to form a 19-metre wall. The tents are the camp of Joseph and James Tyrrell's party about to leave on their exploration of the barrens country between Lake Athabasca and Hudson Bay. Joseph Burr Tyrrell, UofT Library. |
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| This 1893 view of the lakefront clearly shows seven buildings between the Anglican mission and the fish storage building. Joseph Burr Tyrrell, UofT Library. |
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| Episcopal (Anglican) Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Schoolhouse and Mission house, 18 June 1893. The mission house was built first, and initially occupied by Reverend and Mrs. Arthur Shaw from 1874 until 1876. Alfred Campbell Garrioch, a teacher from Red River, built the schoolhouse with help from HBCo employees during the winter of 1874-75. The church was built by William Wylie, and consecrated on Easter Sunday, March 28, 1880. The steeple was added in 1890. (The original image is adjusted to depict land elevations more accurately.) Joseph Burr Tyrrell, UofT Library. |
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| HBCo wood-burning steamship "Grahame" at Hudson Bay Point, 1893. It was built in Fort Chipewyan under the direction of John W. Smith between August 1882 and September 1883, and began regular service in 1884 between Fort McMurray and Smith's Landing (Fitzgerald). Joseph Burr Tyrrell, UofT Library. |
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| This photo, from between 1893 and 1900, has the best detail I've found of the HBCo employee dwellings that stretched from the fort compound to the Anglican mission building. Notice there are only six employee houses; the one closest to the mission has disappeared. Alberta Archives. |
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| HBCo staff and at least one NWMP member in front of the chief factor's house in 1899. Notice the turned balustrades and newel posts have been replaced with squared lumber. RCMP Museum. |
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| North West Mounted Police dog teams in front of the clerks' house, 1899. Inspector William D. Jarvis visited Fort Chipewyan for the first time in January 1897, travelling from Fort Saskatchewan by dog team. (2) In 1898 the NWMP established a detachment at the site of the present RCMP compound. The HBCo clerks' house was reputedly very comfortable; John Macoun wrote in his Geological Survey Report for 1875-76 that it "was so warm last winter, from the heat of two stoves, that water did not freeze in it." Glenbow Archives. |
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| By 1899 the guardhouse at the front gate had been removed, and the flagpole moved outside of the compound. Glenbow Archives. |
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| The front gate in 1900. James Williams Tyrrell, Library and Archives Canada. |
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| By the winter of 1900 the watch tower is gone and a new building appears on the rocks near the blacksmith shop. James Williams Tyrrell, Library and Archives Canada. |
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| Another view in 1900 looking west. James Williams Tyrrell, Library and Archives Canada. |
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| Spring 1900. This is the earliest image of the powder magazine on the rocks. James Williams Tyrrell, Library and Archives Canada. |
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| The Anglican Mission, 1900. This was built about 1875, and was probably used for services until St. Paul the Apostle Church was consecrated in 1880. There is an HBCo staff dwelling missing where the fence appears to have been replaced. James Williams Tyrrell, Library and Archives Canada. |
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| View from the hill on Mission Point, 1900. The steamboat beached in Mission Bay is the HBCo's Grahame. James Williams Tyrrell, Library and Archives Canada. |
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| Inside of Fort Chipewyan, 1901. The platform in front of the sale/equipment/recreation shop did not appear in earlier photos. C.W. Mathers, Alberta Archives. |
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| Corral and fenced HBCo garden in the valley between the fort compound and the NWMP detachment in 1908. The HBCo stable would have been to the left (west) of this photo. Alberta Archives. |
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| By 1910 there are only five employee dwellings between the Anglican mission and the fish storage building. This is the first image showing the boat equipment building "down the hill" that Alexis Victor Mercredi described in his 1962 memoir. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| By 1911 the cookhouse connected to the chief factor's house has been replaced with building with a gable-end roof. Glenbow Archives. |
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| 1916. There is no longer a fence between the store and the depot. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| 1916. St. Paul the Apostle church is showing its age: the roof below the steeple is looking poorly, the chinking between the logs is spotty, and the whitewash is fading. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| By 1916 only two HBCo staff dwellings remain west of the fish storage house and the Anglican mission building is replaced with a large 2½-story house which I believe was built by the government for the Indian agent. The house west of the church is on property that Reverend James Richard Lucas loaned to William Wylie, HBCo blacksmith, in the 1890's, and which was subsequently titled to him after the 1911 survey. Walter Wylie lived in that house when we were in Fort Chipewyan. The small building close to the lake was still standing in 1960. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| 1916 from the hill on Mission Point, near Little Island. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| About 1917-1919, this is the first image I've found of the Hamdon & Alley Ltd. General Merchants store located where Mah's Hall now stands. The Hamdons were Syrian immigrants who established their fur-trading business in Fort Chipewyan. They moved to Edmonton in 1933 and were primarily responsible for building the Al Rashid mosque, the first Islamic mosque in Canada. Glenbow Archives. |
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| By 1919 the main gate is between the fish storage building and the store, with another gate facing the growing townsite through the fence behind the office. This scene was staged for the filming of "The Romance of the Far Fur Country", a silent documentary shot by filmmakers hired by the HBCo to honour the Company's 250th anniversary. The 2-hour film was digitized and re-released in 2014. A trailer that shows the Fort Chipewyan buildings is on Youtube. The film can be purchased on DVD, but there is no source for streaming that I can find. HBC Archives. |
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| This is a frame lifted from "The Romance of the Far Fur Country" filmed in 1919. Factor John James Loutit's large house is clearly visible directly below the Anglican church. This was the home of Roddy and Mabel Fraser's family when we were there. Also visible is Jimmy Fraser's house directly above the Hamdon & Alley store. The house that is now Lily's on Wylie Bed & Breakfast shows to its right. This house was almost completely destroyed by fire and was rebuilt in 1958 - the southwest-facing sun-room is part of the current structure. |
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| 1920. The roof of the clerks/officers house can be seen just above the depot. This is the last image I have found of this building. Whether it was intentionally dismantled or destroyed by fire is unknown to me. Glenbow Archives. |
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| Sep 15, 1920. Note the perspective of the fort and High Island is very similar to Captain George Back's sketch one hundred years earlier. Glenbow Archives. |
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| In 1920 the Anglican parish hall and church were significantly restored with new roofs and white drop siding over the logs. The church's chancel was extended to the north, a new chimney appeared, the window under the steeple was lowered to accommodate a new vaulted ceiling, and a vestry was added to the east wall. The building now has four windows on each side and a new vestibule. Also, pointed arch stained glass windows were installed, stained glass over the alter, dark stained wainscoting and woodwork trim completed, and pulpit and bishop's chair added. The east wall of the new rectory is visible on the left border of the photo. The large 2½-story house that replaced the Anglican mission between 1910 and 1916 may have been built by Indian Affairs. In 1932 Dr. H.W. Lewis was appointed Indian Agent, and at least two other physicians used this house before 1944 when it was occupied by Indian Agent Jack Stewart. The house was used by assistant agents after Mr. Stewart's family moved into the new house next door to ours. It was on Indian Affairs property when we arrived in Chip in 1958, and was replaced with a bungalow in 1960. Photo by F. H. Kitto, 1920. Library and Archives Canada |
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| By 1921 the church renovations and new rectory are complete. Peel Postcard Library, University of Alberta |
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| 1921 Mission Bay. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| July 2, 1922. The clerks/officers house has been replaced with a smaller storage building which remained until 1961. Also, notice the new schoolhouse building west of the fish storage does not appear, although construction may have started. Alberta Archives |
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| 1922. The schoolhouse building appears, without a veranda. The building was absent in the previous photo taken on July 2. Alberta Archives. |
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| 1923. From the west, the Loutit property, Wylie house, Anglican rectory, St. Paul the Apostle church, school/parish hall, and the Indian Affairs house that replaced the Anglican mission. Edward Loutit's house appears for the first time, second from the left. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| 1924. The schoolhouse building has a veranda. |
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| This 1925 photo of St. Paul the Apostle church shows the remarkable effect of the 1920 expansion/restoration. |
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| 1926, Glenbow Archives. |
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| The office in 1927 is definitely slumping compared to 1916. This building contained account books for the entire Athabasca District which included, at times, Fort Chipewyan, Fort Vermilion, Dunvegan, Fort St. John, Fond du Lac, Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, Red River (Alta.), and Fort McMurray. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| Account records stored in the office building, 1927. These are now contained in the HBCo Archives maintained by the Archives of Manitoba. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| 1927. The sheet metal chimneys on the chief factor's house have been replaced with masonry and the balustrades have been either replaced or whitewashed. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| 1927 Library and Archives Canada. |
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| 1927 Library and Archives Canada. |
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| 1927 Powder magazine and sundial. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| 1927. The post-on-sill construction method is clearly evident with the chinking and whitewash having deteriorated. Notice the rock-work under the storehouse is much larger than the building - it appears to be situated on the original clerks' house foundation. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| 1927. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| 1927, before Charlie Mah built the Athabasca Café. |
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| 1928, from SS Athabasca, Glenbow Archives. |
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| 1929, Major Frank Herbert Norbury, Alberta Archives. |
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| 1929, note the logs have been covered with drop siding and the entry porch extended. Alberta Archives. |
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| 1930, photo of Luke Vieweger, Alberta Archives. |
The following three photographs are taken from an upper deck of a riverboat, probably the HBCo's steam-driven sternwheeler the SS Athabasca River II. It ran from Fort McMurray to Fort Fitzgerald between 1922 and 1946 with a crew of 26, and was capable of carrying an additional 48 passengers.
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| August, 1931, showing three buildings by the lakeside - the boat equipment house, a small unidentified building, and a storage building with a ramp for steamboat landings. The blacksmith shop is no longer present. Library and Archives Canada. |
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| August, 1931, Library and Archives Canada. |
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| August, 1931, Library and Archives Canada. |
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| August, 1931, Library and Archives Canada. |
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| By 1933 Roderick Fraser's house appears, without a veranda. This house was occupied by William Flett when we lived there. Notice the young spruce trees planted around the Indian Affairs house. Glenbow Archives. |
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| July 1933, from Gordon Rolfe's NWT&Y Photo Album, Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. |
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| This 1936 photo is attributed to Michael Ronald Lubbock. His biographical record states he was "personal assistant to the HBC governor in London from 1934-1939, and was sent to observe and report on the Fur Trade Department in Canada from 1936-1937". I presume he is the guy in the suit, with his pilot. The other two men may be post manager and assistant post manager John James Loutit. Notice all the fences around the office building are gone. HBC Archives. |
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| By 1938 the roof on the chief factor's house has been replaced and two small windows added on the east wall. After RCSignals moved their operation to the new buildings downtown the chief factor's house was used as a residence by at least three local families - the MacDonalds, Trippe de Roches and Ladouceurs. Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. |
In late 1930's the company's business moved to a new store at the location where the Northern store now stands. In April 1939 the company dismantled all the fort's buildings except the chief factor's house and the nearby storehouse which sat on the foundation of the clerks' quarters since 1922. Timbers, floors, hardware, windows and doors were salvaged for new buildings throughout the town. Joe Poitras, who was an RCMP Special Constable for many years, responsible for teaching officers how to patrol with a dog team, built his house with fort timbers on his property directly north of the fort.
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| September, 1963. Photo by Paul Kelpin. |
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| September 22, 1939. The first downtown HBCo store had staff quarters on the upper floor with a view over Mission Bay. The building was destroyed by fire on December 31, 1950 with the tragic loss of three lives: the post manager's sons Victor and Jim Mann, and a clerk. Photo by Paul Lloyd, NWT Archives. |
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| 1939-40. The three fort buildings facing the lakeshore are missing in this photo, although the office building is still in place. NWT Archives, photo by J.F. Henderson or C.S. Lord. |
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| This photo is attributed to Eva Ladouceur who was a housekeeper for Frank Lynch-Staunton in the Lieutenant Governor's residence in Edmonton. Visible, from the left, are the RC Signals station, Hamdon & Alley store, Mah's Athabasca Café, the first downtown HBCo store, and two warehouses. The schoolhouse building is visible at the top left, closest to the horizon. At this angle the fish storage and depot buildings should also be in the picture, but don't appear. The fort buildings were removed in 1939 and the store burned in 1950, so I believe this photo was taken between 1939 and 1950. Alberta Archives. |
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| By 1952 only these two buildings remain. Notice the ground disruption where the equipment shop once stood. The 1922 schoolhouse has been replaced with the teacherage and public school, although the basketball backstop is still in place - it wasn't removed until after 1960. This photo by Bern Will Brown was taken when he was a priest with the OMI, and are in his fonds with the NWT Archives. |
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| 1952, Bern Will Brown, NWT Archives. |
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| By 1952 the porch on the stone foundation had been replaced with one on wooden posts, the small windows on the east wall covered over, and the east chimney removed. Bern Will Brown, NWT Archives. |
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| The evening sun highlights the fort's powder magazine, 1939 cairn, storehouse, chief factor's house, sundial and lakeside landing storehouse on Hudson Bay Point. The first Indian Affairs house with its spruce trees is directly behind the spire of the Anglican church. The HBCo store (expanded in 1959), two warehouses, fuel storage building and outhouse are on the downtown lot now occupied by the Northern store. Photo by Paul Kelpin, late summer 1958. |
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| 1959, showing the Anglican church steeple, assistant Indian Affairs agent's house (with large spruce trees), Jack Stewart's house (Indian Affairs agent), our house, the old basketball backstop, and the public school teacherage. The white gable-end building on the left edge of the photo is the back wall of the HBCo store, and next to it is the front of Jimmy Fraser's house. Jimmy Fraser was Colin Fraser Jr's first son. His own grandson Donny Nicholson lived with him at the time. Photo by Paul Kelpin. |
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| The powder magazine east of the forestry dock was still in place in 1960. It was dismantled by 1963. In 1985, the foundation was excavated in an archaeological study in anticipation that the site would be disturbed by construction of the nearby Fort Chipewyan Tourist Lodge. See "The Archaeological Investigation of a Hudson's Bay Company Powder Magazine (IeOs-4) At Fort Chipewyan", by Michael Forsman, Archaeological Survey of Alberta, page 70 of Occasional Paper No. 29 1986. The author was unable to find any historical photos of the structure, so worked with descriptions from local sources. Lawrence Yanik, Alberta Forest Service, told him the door faced west when in fact it faced south. Sorry Mr. Yanik, you were wrong! I never went into the building although it was on the path to Sandy Beach where we picnicked and swam - us kids were kind of spooked by it... Photo by Paul Kelpin. |
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| 1960. The original slide for this print would reveal considerably more detail than this image. Bern Will Brown, NWT Archives. |
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| Chief factor's house and warehouse in 1961. Photo by Paul Kelpin. |
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| St. Paul's Anglican Church and parish hall in August 1980. Thanks to the maintenance and care taken by the parish the buildings haven't deteriorated since the restoration 60 years earlier, although there are structural limitations preventing the steeple bell being used. Photo by Brault Kelpin. |
Fort Chipewyan Historical Locations
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| Located at the confluence of the major rivers comprising the Mackenzie basin, Fort Chipewyan was ideally situated as the administrative and supply centre for the entire Mackenzie basin, and as a collecting point for furs. It was accessible by canoe from Montreal in a single season by accessing the headwaters of the Churchill River, the Methye portage and the Clearwater (aka Pelican) River. |
The first local trading for furs in the Athabasca district was organized by Peter Pond, an impulsive and violent man who fled north after killing a man in a duel in the Mississippi. In 1778 he led sixteen voyageurs in four canoes with several tons of supplies across the Methye portage to the Clearwater River and paddled down the Athabasca River to near where the Embarras River branches off. Here he traded with the Dënesųłı̨né from a structure that was used by himself, and eventually the North West Company (NWCo), for nearly 10 years. In 1788 the NWCo moved its post to Lake Athabasca at the urging of Alexander Mackenzie, who had wintered at Pond's House before his journey to the Arctic Ocean. This became the first Fort Chipewyan, now known as Old Fort Point.
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| The wetlands of the Peace-Athabasca Delta provided an ideal habitat for beaver and muskrat, with its complex ecosystem depending on floodwaters to replenish perched basins and inland streams. Map from The Peace-Athabasca Delta: Portrait of a Dynamic Ecosystem, Kevin P. Timoney |
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| Although the location of Fort Chipewyan I provided good fishing, its open exposure to storms and the late springtime breakup made access difficult for both the traders from the Athabasca River and the Dënesųłı̨né trappers from the north shore of Lake Athabasca. Old Fort Point was used as a fishing camp by both the NWCo and HBCo, and may also have been temporary location of Fort Wedderburn in the winter of 1817-18. Parks Canada commissioned a full archeological study of this site in 1971, but its history remains a mystery. To my knowledge there has never been an archeological dig of Fort Chipewyan I. |
In about 1797 the NWCo relocated to near Mission Point on the northwest shore of the lake, and over the next decade abandoned their buildings on Old Fort Point. In 1799 the XY Company, owned by Alexander Mackenzie and his US partners, established their trading post on Little Island near the NWCo's Fort Chipewyan II. (The XY Company was formally named the New Northwest Company, but as they marked their fur bales with a simple XY to differentiate them from the NW markings, the name was colloquially XY.) By this time the HBCo was finally realizing they would have to have to be physically present to get any fur from the Athabasca, so in 1802 sent Peter Fidler (my 4g-grandfather) with a few men to establish Nottingham House on what is now English Island. In the following year the XY Company joined the NWCo and moved their joint operation to the prominent position on Monument Hill / Hudson's Bay Point, creating Fort Chipewyan III. The competition between the companies became increasingly violent, leading the HBCo to abandon Nottingham House in 1806 and not return to the Athabasca for nine years. In 1815, despite the strong resistance from the NWCo, the HBCo sent John Clark with 100 men to build Fort Wedderburn on Potato Island (then Coal Island) directly across the channel from Fort Chipewyan III. This post suffered many setbacks, particularly due to starvation and NWCo harassment. In the fall of 1817 the post was abandoned and some of the men may have moved to Old Fort Point for better fishing, returning in 1818 under Colin Robertson's leadership. Fresh from the violence in Red River, his more aggressive leadership, more men, and an improved defensive location for the fort finally gave the HBCo a chance to survive. George Simpson, who later became the Governor of Rupert's Land, wintered in Fort Wedderburn just prior to the 1821 merger of the NWCo and HBCo. The HBCo business remained on the Monument Hill site for nearly 120 years before dismantling most buildings and moving to the property at 193 Mackenzie Avenue, the site of the Northern store currently operated by the (new) North West Company.
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| Much of the area shown as marshes and wetlands were open water in the early nineteenth century. The area north and west of English Island was known as Chipewyan Bay. Sometime in the 1800's Coal Island, where charcoal was produced for the fort's blacksmith, was renamed Potato Island as it was used for gardening. |
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| This 1820 sketch of the NWCo Fort Chipewyan III is from Captain George Back's journal during Sir John Franklin's first expedition to the arctic coast. It is an accurate depiction of Monument Hill viewed from the northwest, with High Island on the horizon. His drawing of the buildings corresponds well with the plan below. |
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| "A Plan or Rough Sketch of Fort Chipewyan Depot N.W. Indian Territories", from Factor James Keith's post journal, 1823, HBC Archives. |
1. Front Gate
2. Flag Staff
3. Rocking Press
4. Stores with Ice Cellars
5. Powder Magazine Yard
6. Interpreter & Guides' House
7. Ft Chipewyan Summer & Winter House
8. Covered Passage
9. Watch House Observatory
10. Depot Summer House
11. Depot Summer House Kitchen
12. Depot Summer House Fish Oven
13. Lookout
14. Winter Fish Oven
15. Ft. Chipewyan Kitchen
16. Men's Houses & Blacksmith Shop
17. Black Houses or Bastions
18. Summer Court & Woodyard
19. Winter Court & Woodyard
20. Side Gate
Also within the Fort: Boat Store, Canoe Store, Stable & Dog Kennel Yard
These are the buildings that Sir George Simpson viewed with envy on his very first trip to the northwest country with the HBCo:
"After a canoe-based six-week crash course in the workings of the fur trade under the tutelage of Robert Miles, immersed in the experience of travelling with a working HBC brigade in all its tattered drunken glory, [George] Simpson arrived on September 20, 1820, at Fort Wedderburn on Coal Island at the west end of Lake Athabasca. Clearly visible on the bluffs of the northern shore of the lake, a mile and a half away, were the magnificent wooden palisades, peaked roofs, watch tower and opposing flag of the rival Nor’Westers’ long-standing Fort Chipewyan. Wedderburn, by contrast, was more or less as John Clarke and his men had laid it out in 1815, a “scarcely habitable” north-facing assemblage of damp and smelly low-doored, sparsely windowed, hand-hewn, moss-chinked log buildings with its own approximation of a pointed log palisade surrounding the installation. Behind the “fort” was a huge cliff — good for defense, bad for keeping direct sunlight out of the buildings for six months of the year. And in front, off to the right, barely ten paces from Fort Wedderburn itself, was a most vexatious watch house built by the Nor’Westers, “an army of murderers, robbers, bullies and villains,” in the summer of 1819 to intimidate the enemy."
From Emperor of the North: Sir George Simpson and the Remarkable Story of the Hudson’s Bay Company, James Raffan, HarperCollinsPublishersLtd.
Notes
(1) I'm being somewhat facetious here. The force promoted by Canada in quelling the "resistance" in Red River in 1970 was totally unnecessary. The village around Fort Garry was peaceful, law abiding, and preparing to join Canada as the new province of Manitoba when the volunteers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force arrived to enforce their reign of terror on the French Métis. However, it may have given the company comfort in knowing they would be operating under a version of English law, of which they had experience and influence.
(2) "January 31st, we made a portage to Lake Mamwee and crossed where it was 10 miles wide to the Quatre Fourche, which we followed for about three miles, meeting one Alexis Torangeau, who gave information respecting a case of setting out poison, which I attended to later on. About four miles farther on we struck Lake Athabasca and crossed a bay four miles wide, at the north-west end of the lake, to Fraser’s trading post, thence to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s post at Fort Chippewyan, where I was met and most hospitably entertained by Dr. McKay, chief factor in charge of the Athabasca district.
Fort Chippewyan is the headquarters’ post of the district, and was established about the year 1789 by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. It is on the lake shore and comprises three large store houses, one of which is a depot for the Mackenzie and Peel River districts. There is a residence for the chief factor, also quarters for the clerks, a large recreation hall, offices, stables and some other buildings, all inclosed (sic) by a stockade. The servants occupy a row of buildings outside the fort, and together number with the freemen, about 150 souls." From Inspector Jarvis' Northern Patrol in Report of the Commissioner of the NWMP 1897, p. 161.
References
In no particular order, and without citation standards, these are some of the materials used while posting this material.
Conversations with community elders:
Fred (Jumbo) Fraser
Katy Lou (née Loutit) Ohlhausen
Jack Poitras
Interview with Alexis Victor Mercredi, January 21, 1964, Merry Kelpin's 1929 Diary, p. 25
Glenbow Library and Archives, University of Calgary
RCMP Museum
Archives of the Anglican Church of Canada
Canada's Historic Places, Fort Chipewyan III
Prairie Towns, Historical Photographs of Fort Chipewyan
The Anglican Messenger, April 2020
La Loche and the North-West, Fort Chipewyan, Alberta 1893HistoryNet, Long Life of the Hudson's Bay Company
Fort Chipewyan and the Shaping of Canadian History, 1788-1920's; We like to be free in the country, Patricia A. McCormack, UBC Press
Emporium of the North; Fort Chipewyan and the fur Trade to 1835, James Parker
The Company; the Rise and Fall of the Hudson's Bay Company, Stephen R. Bown, Penguin Random House
Autobiography of John Macoun, M.A., Canadian Explorer and Naturalist, The Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club, 1922
UofA Circumpolar Research Institute open access publication THE UNCOVERED PAST: Roots of Northern Alberta Societies, edited by Patricia A. McCormack and R. Geoffrey Ironside:
- The Last Bourgeois' House in Fort Chipewyan, Michael R.A. Forsman, p. 45;
- Romancing the Northwest as Prescriptive History: Fort Chipewyan and the Northern Expansion of the Canadian State, Patricia A. McCormack, p. 89.
The North-West Is Our Mother; The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation, Jean Teillet, HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
Arctic Trader, The Account of twenty years with the Hudson's Bay Company, Philip Henry Godsell, 1932, Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Historic Resources Assessment, Fort Chipewyan III, 1978, Project 78-61-C, Roderick J. Heitzmann, Archeaological Survey of Alberta Occasional Paper No. 14 1979, p. 14
The Archaeological Investigation of a Hudson's Bay Company Powder Magazine (IeOs-4) at Fort Chipewyan, Michael Forsman, Archaeological Survey of Alberta, Occasional Paper No. 29, 1986, p. 70
Fort Chipewyan III and IV, Historical Resources Assessment Programme, 1979 Permit 79-100, Roderick J . Heitzmann, Archeaological Survey of Alberta Occasional Paper No. 15 1980, p. 91
The Archaeology of Fur Trade Sites in the Athabasca District, Michael Forsman, Proceedings of the Fort Chipewyan and Fort Vermillion Bicentennial Conference, p. 75
When Fur Was King, Henry John Moberly and Wm. Bleasdell Cameron, J.M.Dent & Sons Ltd, 1929.
