Grand Rapids
In 1842, Alexander Caulfield Anderson led the York Factory Express to Hudson Bay. As always, the express men descended the Saskatchewan River to Lake Winnipeg, and two or three months…
Read moreThe Orkney Islands
“It is the lot and duty of every man to seek a profession,” Augustus Richard Peers wrote from Peel’s River House [later Fort McPherson] in the early 1850’s. “Some there…
Read moreJohn Lee Lewes, the fop of the fur trade
In 1848, Alexander Caulfield Anderson left Fort Alexandria forever, and took over the supervision of Fort Colvile, on the Columbia River just south of the 49th parallel. The man in…
Read moreYork Factory Express, Carlton, Cumberland and Norway Houses
In this post, the York Factory Express men are on their way to Norway House, their next destination. In 1847, Fort Vancouver’s clerk Thomas Lowe began his journey from Carlton…
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