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Missions and Related Sites

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Lac La Biche

Rocky
Mountain House

Lac Ste. Anne

St. Albert

Our Lady of
Peace Mission

Lesser
Slave Lake

Dunvegan



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Heritage Trails - Presented by CKUA  1792: Fur Trade Starts in the Peace River County
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Like countless other historic mission sites, Dunvegan's roots are firmly planted in the fur trade. Located just north of present-day Grande Prairie, Dunvegan was one of the most significant trading sites on the Peace River, and the post established there in 1805 by the North West Company operated for over 100 years. Conflict and competition between the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) coloured the early years of Dunvegan until the two companies amalgamated and the latter took over operations in 1821.Church at Dunvegan

 The first mission that emerged to support the trading post at Dunvegan was the St. Charles Mission, established in 1867 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Roman Catholic Order. It was soon joined by the Anglican St. Saviour's mission. However, by the turn of the century the population of the area had declined, and both missions eventually moved elsewhere-the Anglicans to Shaftesbury in 1895 and the Oblates to Spirit River in 1903. Altar at Dunvegan

While the population grew in the region during the mid-1910s as a result of the construction of the Edmonton, Dunvegan, and British Columbia railway extension line, the line itself bypassed DunvegRoom of a Brotheran and following its completion, in 1918, the HBC closed the post. 

While Dunvegan never grew into a town, the site, however, remains an activAnglican Mission Dunvegane and important provincial resource: the church and rectory built by Oblate Frs. Grouard and Husson in 1884 still stand, restored and now part of a provincial historic park; the HBC house built in 1877 has been declared a provincial historic resource; and the Anglican mission is marked by  maple trees that the Reverend Alfred Garrioch planted while he served at the mission in the late 1880s.

Heritage Trails - Presented by CKUA  Alfred Campbell Garrioch, Missionary Author of the Peace
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