Assiniboine River fur trade

Fur trading on the Assiniboine River and the general area west of Lake Winnipeg, in what is now Manitoba, Canada, began as early as 1731.

Because much of the Assiniboine is shallow and crooked, horses, dog sleds and later carts were used in addition to canoes.

In 1731, La Vérendrye began pushing French trade and exploration west from Lake Superior.

When it became apparent the Assiniboine was not a route to the Pacific attention shifted north to the Saskatchewan River (Fort de la Corne, 1753).

The western fur trade collapsed during the British conquest of Canada but it was soon restored by English-speakers.

The Hudson's Bay Company responded by building posts inland, starting with Cumberland House, Saskatchewan in 1774.

Competition between the HBC and NWC led to a great expansion to trade and exploration until the merger of the two companies in 1821.

In the 1790s Brandon House and Fort Montagne à la Bosse were built on the middle Assiniboine and there was trade from this area with the Mandans.

In 1811 the Red River Colony was founded which led to open violence culminating in the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816.

After 1821, when the two companies merged, the upper Assiniboine posts were closed and trade concentrated at Fort Pelly at the Swan River portage.

[8] Because the upper Assiniboine is shallow, twisting and full of sand bars the area was usually reached via the Swan River.

In 1790 Charles Isham of the Hudson's Bay Company built Swan River House (HBC,1790-1808) one-half mile above the NWC post.

This was in an area used as a wintering place by buffalo and was so successful that it reduced Swan River House to an outpost.

About the same time Isham and Peter Fidler built a post 15 miles west of the elbow which they called Carlton House (HBC,1795?-?)

The general area continued to be called "Swan River District" and was administered from Fort Pelly from 1824.