Buckingham House (fur-trade post)
Buckingham House (HBC) and Fort George (NWC) were two trading posts on the North Saskatchewan River near Elk Point, Alberta, from 1792 to 1800. Buckingham House belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company and Fort George to the North West Company. For background see Saskatchewan River fur trade.
Both posts were on a wooded north bank of the North Saskatchewan River. A gully and a few hundred yards separated them. From 1993 there was an interpretive center. To the north were the posts on the upper Beaver River (Canada).
Fort George
Faced with a declining supply of beaver and the increasing unrest of plains tribes[1] at Pine Island Fort, the North West Company moved 120 miles upriver and established Fort George.[2] It was one of several places also known as Fort des Prairies. Angus Shaw, who came south from Moose Lake (Alberta), was in charge for most of its history. Two of his clerks were Duncan McGillivray and John McDonald of Garth. Sixty to eighty men and an almost equal number of women and children inhabited Fort George. When news of the massacre at South Branch House reached Fort George, the inhabitants stayed inside the fort for six weeks and the inhabitants of Buckingham House joined them. In 1794-96 Fort George produced 325 bales of fur and 325 bags of pemmican. David Thompson (explorer) spent the winter of 1799 at the post and found it dilapidated. By 1800 the local beaver had declined so much that it was abandoned in favor of Fort de l'Isle 20 miles upriver. In 1809 Alexander Henry the younger salvaged what he could and took it downriver to Fort Vermilion.
Buckingham House
Following Angus Shaw,
See also
References
- ISBN 0-8020-4033-0.
- ^ Voorhis, Ernest (1930). "Historic Forts and Trading posts of the French Regime and of the English Fur trading Companies". www.enhaut.ca/voor1/voorhis.html. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
Further reading
- Losey, Elizabeth Browne (1999). Let Them be Remembered: The Story of the Fur Trade Forts. New York: Vantage Press. pp. 182–187. ISBN 0533125723.
External links
- "Fort George and Buckingham House: Provincial Historic Site". Alberta's Provincial Historic Sites, Interpretive Centres and Museums. 20 May 2023.
- Location:53°51′43″N 110°45′25″W / 53.862°N 110.757°W