Dunvegan ( ) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

within the

Municipal District of Fairview No. 136 The Municipal District of Fairview No. 136 is a List of municipal districts in Alberta, municipal district (MD) in northwestern Alberta, Canada. It is located in Division No. 19, Alberta, Census Division 19. The district stretches along the ...

northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the cent ...

, Canada. It is located south of the town of Fairview on the northern bank of the

Peace River The Peace River (french: links=no, rivière de la Paix) is a river in Canada that originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows to the northeast through northern Alberta. The Peace River joins the Athabasca River in th ...

at the mouth of the Hines Creek. Highway 2 crosses the Peace River at Dunvegan on Alberta's longest vehicle

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

.Zuehlke,Mark. ''The Alberta Fact Book: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Alberta.'' Whitecap Books. 1997 The Dunvegan Formation was named for this community.

History

The area was inhabited by the Beaver (

Dunne-za The Dane-zaa (ᑕᓀᖚ, also spelled Dunne-za, or Tsattine) are an Athabaskan-speaking group of First Nations people. Their traditional territory is around the Peace River in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. Today, about 1,600 Dane-zaa resi ...

)

First Nation Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

. The first European explorers arrived in the late 18th century. Fort Dunvegan was established in 1805 by

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

fur trader

Archibald Norman McLeod Major The Hon. Archibald Norman McLeod (17 March 1772 – after 1837) J.P., was a partner of the North West Company and a political figure in Lower Canada. In 1805, he built Fort Dunvegan. He was a member of the Beaver Club and represented Mont ...

, who named it after

Dunvegan Castle , native_name_lang =Gaelic , alternate_name = , image = Dunvegan Castle.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = The south-west face of the castle , map = , map_type = Scotland Isle of Skye ...

in Scotland. Today,

Dunvegan Provincial Park Dunvegan Provincial Park and Historic Dunvegan ( ) are a provincial park and a provincial historic site of Alberta located together on one site. They are located in Dunvegan, at the crossing of Peace River and Highway 2, between Rycroft and Fa ...

offers tours of the restored Hudson's Bay Company Factor's House (built 1877), St. Charles Church, St. Charles Rectory, and Revillon Freres Trading Post to the public during the summer months. A campground is also located onsite. The fort is designated as a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

Parks Canada Parks Canada (PC; french: Parcs Canada),Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 48 National Parks, th ...

References

Hudson's Bay Company trading posts Localities in the Municipal District of Fairview No. 136 {{NorthernAlberta-geo-stub