Fort Simpson (Columbia Department)

Fort Simpson was a fur trading post established in 1831 by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) near the mouth of the Nass River in present-day British Columbia, Canada.

In July 1830 Aemilius Simpson [2] visited the area, confirmed that furs from New Caledonia were being brought to the coast, and made plans for the fort's construction.

A second voyage, under Aemilius Simpson, Peter Skene Ogden, and John Work, left Fort Vancouver in March 1831, and began construction in April 1831.

[1] Aemilius Simpson and Peter Skene Ogden spent the summer of 1831, trading at the new post and the Queen Charlotte Islands.

[3] In 1834, Fort Simpson was moved from the mouth of the Nass River to a more favourable location on the nearby Tsimpsean Peninsula.

By the end of the 1830s Fort Simpson's fur trade profits exceeded those of any other HBC post along the Pacific coast.

Groups of Tsimshian thus brought smallpox from Victoria to the Fort Simpson area, whence it spread widely starting in June of 1862.

[7][8] By early July the native settlement outside the fort was deserted due to deaths and people fleeing the area.