Fort George and Buckingham House
The competition between the North West Company (NWC) and the Hudson’s
Bay Company (HBC) led to the development of a series of dual posts where
they lived in close proximity to their direct competition. In 1792, NWC
wintering partner Angus Shaw built Fort George on a south facing river
terrace of the North Saskatchewan River in 1792, to replace a post at
Lac d’Orignal (Moose Lake) near what is now Bonnyville. In turn, the HBC
Factor, William Tomison, the HBC’s senior inland officer, built another
post Buckingham House right beside them.
The close proximity of the
posts had some consequences and the relationship was characterized by
both competition and neighbourly action. The companies competed
aggressively with each other for trade with a variety of First Nations
groups (this was a very multicultural milieu) but had to get along as
well. The posts shared certain resources, including a well, and tried to
offer a degree of mutual protection, if necessary. Post residents even
visited back and forth and exchanged goods and supplies on occasion.
While the competition would later become more cut-throat, in the early
1790s, traders on the North Saskatchewan River were rather co-operative.
In 1794-1795, it has been reported that approximately 1,000 people had
passed through Fort George; this included the people in charge, their
families, the employees, other traders, the buffalo hunters, and the
First Nations people. The location of the posts meant that they drew a
wide variety of peoples: Woods and Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Blackfoot,
Peigan, and even the Blood from southern Alberta as well as a few other
groups. Before the establishment of Fort Augustus and Fort Edmonton, the
trading area for the two posts extended from west of the Rockies, south
to the Montana border, and north into present day Peace River country.
The size of their trading territory emphasized one of the key reasons
for their existence: as supply lines for distant posts lengthened (by
the 1780s some posts extended across the continent from Montreal)
companies such as the NWC and HBC developed a need for a staple food
that offered lots of calories, but was light and portable. A particular
Aboriginal food filled this requirement very well: pemmican, a mixture
of dried and pounded buffalo meat and fat (sometimes with added berries
for taste) could last without spoiling for years, offered lots of
calories for hard-working men in the brigades, was dense and portable,
and easy to prepare. It could be fried or eaten straight, but mostly it
was turned into rubbaboo or burgoo, a kind of soup or stew made by
boiling pemmican with water and flour (and anything else available).
Quick, convenient and nourishing, pemmican was vital to the fur trade by
the late 18th century.
The strings of forts along the edge of the
prairies were all provisioning posts. This meant that while they would
accept furs and buffalo hides in trade, their primary target was meat;
fresh, dried, smoked, frozen in huge lumps, or already pounded into
powdery flakes. The wives living in the forts took on the task of
turning all that meat into pemmican, ready to be sent down with the
brigades.
These posts also served a secondary trade function. They were
located between the Plains and Parklands regions and could exploit the
trade potential of both areas. The NWC men called these vital posts the
Forts des Prairies. They were moved frequently as they would "trap out"
an area. When the returns dropped too low, the post was moved up river
into new territory.
Fort George and Buckingham House were among the
first of the Prairie forts to stay in one place for long. Some of the
employees became well-known fur traders. In 1795, the role of these
posts as the main posts serving the northwest prairies was taken over
when the NWC built Fort Augustus and the HBC built Fort Edmonton. By
1800, Fort George and Buckingham House were abandoned, the trade had
moved on.
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Vermilion
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Fort George and Buckingham House
Victoria Settlement
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