The mystic of this trip is the history of the route we will canoe. Historical information will be presented here. All contributions are welcome.
From 1800 on, the North West Company made plans to cross the Rockies. Three such explorations were made led by David Thompson (1811, Columbia River), Alexander MacKenzie (1793, north of Vancouver Island) and Simon Fraser (1808, Fraser River). Fraser spent considerable time on the Peace River and in 1802 built Ft. Laird at Ft. Vermilion.
In the autumn of 1805, Frazer reached the Upper Peace River. He spent nearly two years exploring the Peace River and its tributaries building a post at Rocky Mountain Portage, Ft. McLeod on the Pack River, a depot on Stuart Lake, Ft. St. James and Ft. George. In the summer of 1807, supplies arrived from Fort William (Thunder Bay, Ont.) and on May 22, 1808, he left Ft. George on his exploration that lead to his descending the Fraser River to the Pacific's Gulf of Georgia, arriving there on July 2nd. It took him five weeks to return to Ft. George where he wintered. In 1809, he made the trip from Ft. George to Ft. William via the Peace River, Ft. Chipewyan and the established route to the east. (Ref. 5)
Alexander MacKenzie left Ft. Chipewyan in 1792 traveling up the Peace River seeking a fur trade route to the Pacific Ocean. On his way, he made the first recorded reference to Peace Point (Ref. 4), visited Boyer's Fort near Ft. Vermilion (Ref. 2) and arrived at Fort Fork on November 1, 1792 (Ref. 4). On December 23, 1792, he moved into the newly completed bourgeois house and stated
"I This day removed from the tent into the house which had been erected for me, and set all the men to begin the buildings intented for their own habitation. Materials sufficient to erect a range of five houses for them, of about seventeen by tweleve feet, were already collected."
He spent that winter preparing for his voyage and trading with the Beaver Indians. In the spring, he sent six canoes of furs to his cousin Rodrick MacKenzie at Fort Chipewyan for shipment to Grand Portage. A son Andrew was born here to his Indian wife. On May 9, 1793 he left Fort Fork in a specially built conoe heading west. The canoe was twenty five feet long with a four-foot-nine-inch beam. It was the lightest craft they could construct and it carried ten men and gear, a total of about three thousand pounds. (Ref. 5)
The post continued to exist until 1805 when it was abandoned in favor of Fort Dunvegan. During its existance, it had a productive garden and had a good return of furs.
By 1983, the actual site of the fort was almost eroded into the river. The stone fire place was removed and reconstructed outside the Peace River Centennial Museum.
Fort Vermilion was founded in 1788, the same year as Fort Chipewyan. In 1788, Charles Boyer established Boyer's Fort east of the present-day location of Fort Vermilion. It is believed to be the first fort established on the Peace River. Several forts were subsequently established by the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, some of which were in direct competition with each other until 1821 when the two companies merged under the name of Hudson's Bay Company. Maps and locations of these forts are shown on a separate page in this website.
During the winter of 1810, one-hundred-thirty people wintered at the North West Company fort. The population consisted of thirty-six men, twenty-seven women and sixty-seven children. Records show that on average, it required eight pounds of meat per day for men, four pounds for women and two pounds for childern. Using these numbers, it is estimated that it required six hundred thirty pounds of meat per day to feed the inhabitants of the fort. (Ref. 6)
Peace Point was the place where a truce was negotiated between the Beaver and Cree Indians at the time of the exploration and expansion of the fur trade to the Upper Peace River. The river gets its name from this point. (Ref. 7)
Fort Chipewyan lies on the northwest shore of Lake Athabasca and has played a major role in the history of the area, the fur trade and Canada. It along with Fort Vermilion both claim to be the oldest continously inhabited towns in Alberta. Three rivers meet at Fort Chip, the Athabasca, the Rocher and Quatre Fourches. The later two lead to the Peace and Slave Rivers about 18 miles west of the town. Access to the Mackenzie River and the Arctic Ocean is gained from the Slave River via Great Slave Lake while the Peace and Athabasca lead to the Rocky Mountains. This resulted in Fort Chipewyan being a starting point for the exploration to discover a way to the Pacific Coast.
As the fur trade expanded west in the eighteenth century, the Athabasca area became the source of prime beaver pelts and other furs. The North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company were bitter rivals and both sought to control the fur trade here prior to their merger in 1821. In the late 1800's independent traders exerted their influence on the fur trade and their presence played a part of the history of the town.
The location of the town made it a key point in the transportation of goods to the Northwest prior the the extension of the railroad to the town of Hay River on Great Slave Lake. Barges and steamboats plied the Athabasca, Peace and Slave Rivers in the late 1800's and early 1900's. They all passed through Ft. Chip.
An historical time-line of Ft. Chipewyan and events important to Ft. Chip is give in "Fort Chipewyan Time Line".
1. "Peace River, Map/Guide for River Travel", Peace Valley Conservation, Recreation and Tourism Society, 1993.
2. K. Gabriel, "The Mighty Peace Carcajou - Fifth Meridian", Heritage Committee, Fort Vermilion Agricultural Society, August 1994.
3. Archange J. Brady, A History of Fort Cheiewyan, Fort Chipewyan Education North Society, 1983.
4. Halle Flygare, Sir Alexander Mackenzie Historic Waterways in Alberta, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Alberta, 1983.
5. Marjorie Wilkins Campbell, The North West Company, The Macmillan Company, Toranto, 1973.
6. Sylvia Van Kirk, Many Tender Ties, University of Okalhoma Press, Norman, 1980.
7. David V. Burley, J. Scott Hamilton and Knut R. Fladmark, Prophecy of the Swan The Upper Peace River Fur Trade of 1794 - 1823, UBC Press, Vancouver, 1996.