Factory (or Industrial) Hunt

The killing and processing of vast numbers of buffalo in a single hunt. The most common factory hunt methods employed were the Buffalo Jump and the Buffalo Pound.

Flusher (flesher)

An instrument for scraping hair, fat and residual meat off the hide of an animal in preparation for tanning.

Fort Chipewyan

Fort Chipewyan is the oldest, permanently occupied community in Alberta, and one of the oldest in Western Canada. Approximately 1,500 people live there today, many of them the direct descendants of the Aboriginal People and Europeans who jointly constituted a new social formation with the coming of the fur trade two centuries ago. They are Chipewyan and Cree, French and Scots Métis, and a small community of non-Aboriginals. The building of the post and local development of the fur trade in the heart of the Athabasca country went hand-in-hand with the generation of the new social community that historically comprised Fort Chipewyan.

Fort Edmonton

Fort Edmonton was initially built by William Tomison a Hudson’s Bay Company trader. The fort was built to compete with another built upstream by rivals the North West Company on the Sturgeon River. Tomison named the new fort Edmonton House in 1802, but its lifespan was relatively short. It moved upstream to Rossdale Flats where the Edmonton Power Plant now sits. The fort made yet another move to White Earth Creek in 1810 which also proved unsuccessful. It relocated once again at Rossdale Flats in 1812, where it became known as Fort Edmonton. Fort Edmonton moved to its final location in the 1820s when the river flooded and Chief Factor John Rowand issued it to be rebuilt on higher ground. At its new location, just below the site of present day Legislative buildings, Fort Edmonton flourished. Rowand directed the cultivation of large crops of potatoes and barley. Horses were also raised and York boats produced. Fort Edmonton supplied pemmican and pickled buffalo tongues, as well as fresh and frozen buffalo meat. The fort remained at this location until 1915 when it was dismantled and reconstructed at Fort Edmonton Park to make way for the new Alberta Legislature.