The cold climate produced some of the densest and thickest beaver fur in North America.
Secondly, the great distance from Montreal and Hudson Bay required the highly developed and efficient transportation system that characterized the Hudson's Bay Company in the nineteenth century.
[1] The natural centre of the trade was the Peace-Athabasca Delta at the west end of Lake Athabasca.
To the south, the Athabasca River led southwest to the Rocky Mountains with connections to the Columbia District across the mountains on the Pacific coast and to the North Saskatchewan River to the south.
The administrative centre of the region was the depot at Fort Chipewyan on the west end of the lake where out-going furs and in-coming trade goods were stored.