Fort Garry

Flintlock Guns

You all know that in my last post I made a mistake when I identified the two Fort Garry’s incorrectly. I live on the West Coast of Canada and now have to write a history of a place that is a few thousand miles away from me, and it has a confusing history too. So here goes: I will try to sort out my errors and get it right this time. As many of my blogposts are me trying to figure out some sort of history, it is not at all uncommon that I have to sort out an error I made in a previous post, as many of you know.

So, Fort Garry. When I could not locate the papers that I used when I put Fort Garry in my manuscript correctly, I looked to the book, Historic Forts and Trading Posts, for an answer. Fort Garry is “The chief Hudson’s Bay Co. fort at Winnipeg,” the author of this book writes. Fort Garry

was built on site of N.W.C. Fort Gibraltar in 1822, after the union of both companies in 1821. It was a rough affair with wooden palisades, known at first as The Company’s Fort or Fort Gibraltar (so called because it was built on site of N.W Co fort Gibraltar) It was named fort Garry by Governor Simpson in 1823 after a Hudson’s Bay Co councillor. The fort consisted of the buildings erected by the North West Co. after the destruction of Fort Gibraltar and some additions and palisade. This fort was known at the first Fort Garry. Was situated near the banks of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers. Much of the land was washed into the Assiniboine river, especially by the flood of 1826, and in 1852 what was left of the fort was pulled down.

The second Fort Garry was begun in 1835, a little removed from the site of the first fort Garry. It was known as Upper Fort Garry. Built by Governor Alexander Christie. It was substantially built, covered a space 240 x 280 feet enclosed by a solid stone wall and four large round bastions at the corners. It was sold to the city of Winnipeg in 1882. Only the north gate now remains as an historical site. A picture of the second fort Garry is given in Hind’s Expedition vol. II, p. 82, 1858.

So that is where I went wrong. I presumed this author was speaking of Lower Fort Garry and Upper Fort Garry, which started as Fort Gibraltar. He wasn’t. He was speaking of the two posts that were at Upper Fort Garry–There were actually four posts, see the list below.

Lower Fort Garry must be somewhere else in this volume–and I do find it in the L’s — under Lower Fort Garry. Anyway, the author says:

Hudson’s Bay Co. fort on Red River, 19 miles from Upper Fort Garry, at St. Andrews. Built 1831-33. Strengthened with loop holes and bastions 1841. Surrounded by massive stone wall with bastions. It was the strongest of the Company’s forts, next to Fort Prince of Wales. In 1843 it was the residence of the Governor of Rupert’s Land and the seat of the government. It was often called the Stone Fort and is so named on Arrowsmith map 1850 (No. 100.)

That 1841 date: the post was strengthened by the British soldiers who then lived there, and they apparently had not arrived before Governor Simpson left Red River on his journey around the world. But Simpson knew they were on their way to York Factory. 

Prince of Wales Post: Fort Churchill was the first post built near the mouth of the Churchill River in 1688. It was captured by the French in 1689. A new fort was built at the mouth of the river, named Fort Churchill, but its name was changed to Prince of Wales Fort. It was built in 1717, with stone walls 37 to 42 feet thick at their base, but massive as it was, it was once again captured and destroyed by the French in 1782. A new fort was then built on the location of the first fort, and this one was called Fort Churchill. 

But of Fort Garry, it is interesting that the author of Historic Forts said that the Lower Fort is residence of the Governor of Rupert’s Land in 1843. At that time Governor Simpson was the Governor of Rupert’s Land, and so he resided at the Lower Fort after the time of his journey around the world, according to the author. But did he? If that is so, why is there a Governor’s residence at Upper Fort Garry in the mid 1840s, see a few paragraphs below. However this question is answered, we know that Simpson was at the Upper Fort in 1841 when George Traill Allan and W.F. Tolmie ride into the fort. See this post: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/fort-pelly-to-fort-garry/  

So I need to check up what the author of Historic Forts says, and fortunately I have the books to do it. From Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America, I have this on Lower Fort Garry.

Just 12 kilometres [7 3/4 miles] from downtown Winnipeg on the lower Red River, Lower Fort Garry has been called “the most elegant example of Hudson’s Bay architecture on the continent.” The fort dominates the west bank of the river a few kilometres below the St. Andrews Rapids, high above the reach of flooding. These attributes–easy navigation from Lake Winnipeg and a site safe from flooding–undoubtedly contributed to Governor George Simpson’s decision on the location of the fort, for the terrible Red River flood of 1826 had destroyed the first incarnation of Fort Garry at the Forks of the Red and Assiniboine. The Lower Fort was reasonably distant from both the Red River Settlement and the growing colony at St. Andrews, where a number of fur traders had settled their mixed-blood families. Simpson had just married his young cousin Frances in England, and he was anxious to keep her apart from his North American wives and families.

Work began on the fort in 1831. Pierre la Blanc, a stonemason from York Factory, was hired at considerable expense to build a large stone house-cum-adminstration building facing the river. Though it was the first structure, finished in 1832, the Simpsons resided there only a brief time. Both were ill during the following winter and their infant son died in 1833.

So the first structure was the governor’s residence, and it was only finished in 1832. We do not know where Simpson resided that first year. He could have been at either post, depending on what part of the residence the men were building.

Interestingly, another stone mason also worked at Lower Fort Garry at this time. This was Amable Hogue, who in May 1831 was newly wed to Margaret (Peggy) Taylor. It appears that Frances Simpson knew about Simpson’s mistress (who would be foolish enough to tell her!) as Frances said that “she was aways terrified to look about her in case of seeing something disagreeable.” That also suggests that she would recognize Peggy Hogue if she ever saw her.

Lower Fort Garry never became a reliable centre of the trade, and in 1836 the HBC was forced to rebuild Upper Fort Garry at the Forks. When the Sixth Regiment of Foot (later the Royal Warwickshire Regiment), arrived from England, they resided in and improved Lower Fort Garry. (The soldier in charge of this Regiment was a man named Major George Seton, and he was my great grand-father Alexander Caulfield Anderson’s first cousin. At Red River, George Seton went riding with Captain John Palliser (of Palliser’s Triangle fame), and Palliser later came to Fort Victoria and met A.C. Anderson. Palliser gave Anderson a pipe, and the bowl of that broken pipe is now in the Royal BC Museum.) 

So, that is Lower Fort Garry, from Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America. Now here’s what the authors have to say of Upper Fort Garry. This fort, or what remains of it, is now in the downtown section of Winnipeg, at the corner of Broadway Avenue and Main Street. There were four forts built on or near this location, and Upper Fort Garry was the last of them. Here’s the four forts:

1. Fort Rouge, a crude wooden structure established in 1738 by a French-Canadian man named Lourière for Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye, as one of a network of posts from Lake Superior to Lake Winnipeg. It once stood at Portage and Main, but nothing remains of the post.
2. In 1806, the North West Company built Fort Gibraltar within 50 meters (55 yards) of the Red River’s west bank, to stand in opposition to the HBC. Within a few years it led the attack against the Selkirk Settlers brought in by Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk. The fort’s stockade was built of oak trees split in two and standing as much as 16 feet tall, and sheltering eight houses within its walls. The HBC men destroyed Fort Gibraltar in March 1816.
3. In 1813, the HBC built Fort Douglas near Fort Gibraltar, cutting off the supply of provisions to the Nor’Westers and seizing control of the Red River district. In June 1816, the Nor’Westers captured Fort Douglas and killed the local HBC governor Robert Semple and 20 of his men at the Battle of Seven Oaks, which took place a few miles north of the post. The Nor’Westers then rebuilt Fort Gibraltar, but in 1821 the two companies merged and Fort Gibraltar became Fort Garry, named in 1822 by Governor Simpson for Nicolas Garry, the member of the London Committee who oversaw the amalgamation of the two companies for the HBC. This Fort Garry was the fort that was later so damaged in the 1826 Red River floods that the HBC constructed a new fort, Lower Fort Garry, 32 kilometers (19 miles) downriver to the North, and much closer to Lake Winnipeg. For a few years, this lower post acted as the administration centre for the HBC in Red River, and this is where George Simpson and his wife Frances lived in the early 1830s. 
4. In 1835-36 the HBC returned to the forks of the Red River with the Assiniboine, and built a new post called Upper Fort Garry. It was an impressive post and this is where many of the annual Council meetings were held over the years to come. It had a Chief Factor’s residence and a Governor’s residence among its collection of buildings. And so this is where Governor Simpson lived when he came to Red River after 1836. 

In 1832, my great-grandfather Alexander Caulfield Anderson came to Red River on his way to the Columbia District. From The Pathfinder: “At this time the original Fort Garry, which had been flooded out so many times the wooden buildings were rotten, was in the process of being replaced by a stone fort closer to Lake Winnipeg. The new fort was only half finished, but the brigaders stopped here to pick up the Red River fur returns, which they were to carry north to York Factory.” So Anderson arrived at Lower Fort Garry, which he called the Stone Fort, in 1832, where he met John Stuart, who I believe was still in charge of Carlton House. Stuart was also the brother-in-law of Peggy Taylor (having married Peggy’s sister), and when he returned to Norway House from the West in 1829, Simpson had placed a very pregnant Peggy in Stuart’s care. So John Stuart was at Lower Fort Garry when Anderson arrived, and so was Amable Hogue and his wife Peggy. There is no mention of Simpson being there, nor any mention of Frances, but what a complicated story there is to tell of that time!

Now, here is the documentation published by the Manitoba Historical Society & Archives that I tried to locate when I wrote that last post. You will find the Upper Fort Garry information at https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/upperfortgarry.shtml

As you see, it says that the first fort, named Gibraltar, is built by the NWC in 1806, and destroyed in 1816. The NWC rebuilt the post, and in 1822 Fort Gibraltar is renamed Fort Garry after the amalgamation of the HBC and the NWC. In 1835, the HBC rebuilt it again, with stone walls running 280 feet east and west, and 240 feet north and south. 

In regards to Lower Fort Garry: The Manitoba Historical Society information is found here: https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/lowerfortgarry.shtml

Lower Fort Garry has one of the finest collections of early stone buildings in western Canada. The fort was built for  Governor George Simpson between 1831 and 1846. The northeast bastion was the gunpowder magazine, and the southeast bastion held the ice house and the provisioning store. The southwest bastion held the wash house and the kitchens, and the Northwest bastion the bakehouse and the stable. 

So I think I got everything right–I will hear if I did not. If there’s anything else I need to know then let me know. Thanks.

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2026. All rights reserved. 

• ← Sir George to Red River