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Historic Forts and Trading Posts of the French Regime and of the English Fur Trading Companies

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Historic Forts and Trading Posts of the French Regime and of the English Fur Trading Companies Historic Forts and Trading Posts of the French regime and of the English Fur Trading Companies. compiled by Ernest Voorhis, A. M., Ph. D., 1930 Department of the Interior Ottawa Honourable Charles Stewart W. W. Cory, O. M. G. Minister Deputy Minister Natural Resources Intelligence Service F. C. C. Lynch, Director. PREFACE Attempt is made in this brochure to group in alphabetical order the numerous military and trading forts erected under the French regime and by the English Fur-trading companies. A few of these establishments were located on what is now territory of the United States, but the list is primarily concerned with the posts in Canada. Historical notes on each fort are given as far as accessible sources permit and lists are appended of authorities and maps consulted. Contents French forts and trading posts Main portage and canoe routes Chain of French forts French Trading Companies Free Traders after cession of Canada The North West Company The Hudson's Bay Company Alphabetical list of forts and posts List of chief authorities consulted List of Maps showing forts [Summary List of Fort Names] [Map 1: Canada showing Historic Forts and Trading Posts (small) (medium) (large)] [Map 2: Mississippi & Ohio Valleys Errata [Transcriber's Note: Corrections of the errata have been made in the text.] Page 2, Line 16, for distinct read distant. " 27, " 17, for Government read Governor. " 32, No. 22, for village of Hartney read Souris. " 40, No. 55, for 1857 read 1757. " 43, No. 70, for latitude read longitude. for Chilcotin lake read right bank of Chilcotin " 52, No. 106, river at mouth of Chilko river. " 54, No. 115, line 1, read on Columbia river at Kettle Falls. " 59, No. 138, add See No. 239. " 64, No. 154, for Manitoba read Saskatchewan. " 66, No. 162, for Bedford read Bedfont. " 87, No. 247, for 20 miles read 50 miles. " 109, No. 338, for at junction read near junction. " 110, No. 343, for 14 miles read 60. " 135, No. 418, omit Alberta. " 169, No. 554, for Liard read Dease. " 176, No. 587, for Winnipegosis read Waterhen. Additional Posts: [Transcriber's Note: The following forts have been included in the list of forts.] Athabaska landing, No. 613. Cross Lake House, No. 614. Forts duplicated in the list: Au Chat Falls No. 31 and Lac Des Chats No. 270. Fort Bull No. 77 and DeBull No. 134. Old White Mud No. 406 and White Earth River No. 594. Paubna No. 418 and Pembina No. 421. CHAPTER I The French forts and trading posts. Two main objects called for the erection of forts and garrisoned posts by the Government of France in North America. First, there was the need of strongly built military forts for establishing the claims of New France. This required defence against the English colonies of New England and against the hostile Iroquois, their allies. Second, fortified posts were needed for protection of trade routes against incursions of the Iroquois, who from the days of Champlain were bitter enemies of the French. During the struggle for possession of North America between France and England, which lasted for more than a century until 1763, the French Government constructed many strong forts and fortified outposts at strategic points where now exist thriving cities. Rivalry in the fur trade, with its enormous profits, induced both French and English to solicit alliance with the Indians and this fostered wars of extermination between the Indians. On the one hand, the Algonquins and Hurons, staunch friends of the French, controlled the Nipissing and Ottawa trade route to Montréal and endeavoured to keep open the St. Lawrence route. On the other hand, the Iroquois barred the gateway of the St. Lawrence and tried to divert the fur trade from the French in Montreal to the English in Albany and New Amsterdam. For a time the Iroquois succeeded in preventing the Indians of the upper country from bringing their furs to Montreal. Success in the fur trade thus depended upon control of the trade routes and for this purpose the French constructed fortified places at strategic points, beginning their erection early in the seventeenth century. These forts were built in some cases solely for defence and military purposes; in other cases they were intended primarily for trading purposes, for the protection of the licensee fur-traders, and as establishing France's sovereignty. In some instances, though built for strategic and military defence, they became the headquarters of fur-trading merchants. The location of the French forts was chosen with much foresight and military skill. A definite plan was followed with the design of restricting the English settlements to the territory east of the Alleghany mountains, The St Lawrence valley, lakes Ontario and Erie, the Ohio valley and the Mississippi were to constitute the natural boundary between New France and the English settlements. All the rest of North America, excepting the region held by Spain west of the Mississippi river, was claimed by France under the name of New France. A complete chain of military forts was built by the French Government extending from Quebec along the St. Lawrence westward to the Great Lakes, including the Champlain valley. From the eastern end of lake Ontario these forts continued on the south of lake Ontario, and at Niagara Falls, to Presqu'Isle on the south shore of Lake Erie, whence they followed down the Alleghany river and the Ohio to the Mississippi, and then south to the mouth of that river. Other forts were constructed on the Great Lakes, between the Mississippi and the Great Lakes, from lake Superior to Winnipeg, and thence westward to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. "The forest posts of France were not exclusively of a military character. Adjacent to most of them one would have a little cluster of Canadian dwellings, whose tenants lived under the protection of the garrison and obeyed the arbitrary will of the commandant, an authority which, however, was seldom exerted in a despotic spirit. Agriculture was neglected for the more congenial pursuits of the fur trade, and the restless, roving Canadians, scattered abroad on their wild vocation, allied themselves to Indian women and filled the woods with a mongrel race of bush-rangers. French influence diffused itself through a thousand channels among distant tribes. Forts, mission houses and armed trading stations secured the principal passes. Traders and coureurs-des-bois pushed their adventurous traffic into the wildest deserts, and French guns and hatchets, French beads and cloth, French tobacco and brandy, were to be found among the Indians everywhere and showed the vast extent of French interior commerce. The French amalgamated with the Indians thus winning their friendship and alliance." French forts at the time of the Conquest. The following note is printed on a map [No. 12] entitled "Canada, Territory of the Indians and Hudson Bay," by Thomas Devine L. S., and found in Appendix to the Report of Minister of Crown Lands 1857: "Jeffreys, an English Geographer, writing 1760, just after the taking of Quebec and before the final conquest and cession of the country, at page 19 says: At the mouth of Les Trois Rivières, or the Three Rivers, is a little French fort called Camenistagouia, and twenty-five leagues to the west of said fort, the land begins to slope and the river to run to the west. (The French league was 2½ English statute miles.) At ninety-five leagues from this greatest height lies the second establishment of the French that way, called Fort St. Pierre, in the Lake des Pluies. The third is fort St. Charles eighty leagues farther on the Lake des Bois. The fourth is Fort Maurepas, a hundred leagues distant from the last, near the head of lake of Ouinipigon. Fort La Reine, which is the fifth, lies a hundred leagues farther on the river of the Assinibools (i.e. Assiniboine). Another fort had been built on the river Rouge, but was deserted on account of its vicinity to the two last. The sixth, Fort Dauphin, stands on the west side of Lac des Prairies or of the Meadows (lake Manitoba), and the seventh, which is called Fort Bourbon, stands on the shore of the Great Lake Bourbon (i.e. the northern part of lake Winnipeg). The chain ends with Fort Pascoyac at the bottom of a river of that name, which falls into lake Bourbon. The river Pascoyac is made by Delisle and Buache to rise within twenty-five leagues of their west sea which, they say, communicates with the Pacific Ocean. A mistake was made by Jeffreys in saying above that "the chain ends with Fort Pascoyac," for three forts lay still farther to the west, though their garrison had probably been withdrawn before 1760. These forts were Fort Nipaween (variously spelled) on the Saskatchewan, Fort à la Corne just below the forks of the North and South Saskatchewan, and fort La Jonquière on the Bow river about where the city of Calgary now stands. These ten western forts extending from fort St. Pierre on Rainy lake to Fort La Jonquière at the foot of the Rocky Mountains were all grouped under the general name "La Mer de l'Ouest." The Chevalier de la Corne was the last French officer to have charge of these western forts. In addition to the forts of "La Mer de l'Ouest" the French had constructed at an early date forts or fortified posts controlling the routes by the St. Lawrence, the Ohio, and the Mississippi rivers, and along the north shore of the lower St. Lawrence, also in the interior at various places south of James and Hudson bays.
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