Fort des Épinettes was a trading post or posts on the

Assiniboine River The Assiniboine River (''; french: Rivière Assiniboine'') is a river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River of the North, Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meand ...

from 1768 to 1811. It was also called Pine Fort and is not to be confused with

Pine Island Fort Pine Island Fort and Manchester House were trading posts on Pine Island, a small narrow island on the North Saskatchewan River in Saskatchewan, Canada, from 1786 to 1793. Pine Island Fort was a post of the North West Company while Manchester Hou ...

. It was the first post on the Assiniboine and was closely associated with

Brandon House Brandon House was a Hudson's Bay Company post or posts from 1793 to 1824. It was located at several places on the Assiniboine River between Brandon, Manitoba and the mouth of the Souris River about 21 miles southeast of Brandon. Because of its lo ...

/Fort Assiniboine/Fort La Souris 18 miles to the west. For background see

Assiniboine River fur trade Fur trading on the Assiniboine River and the general area west of Lake Winnipeg began as early as 1731. Geography Lake Winnipeg was a major junction for the fur trade routes. See Canadian canoe routes (early). To the southeast the route ran to ...

. 1. 1768-1781, Pedlar: Thomas Correy, Forrest Oakes and Charles Boyer independent traders from Montreal established the first Pine Fort probably in 1768. It met resistance from the local

Assiniboines The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda ...

who wanted to preserve their middleman status in the trade to the west and south. Following a devastating smallpox epidemic which struck down many of the native people and some of the traders it was abandoned in 1781. One old source says it was called Assiniboine HouseGeorge Bryce,"The Assiniboine River and its Forts", Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Section II, 1892 2. 1785-1794,NWC: The second post was established by the

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 ...

about three quarters of a mile upstream. Because it was near the head of easy navigation and in the buffalo country which provided pemmican it became a major depot for the trade in the Assiniboine area. In 1790

Peter Pond Peter Pond (January 18, 1739 – 1807) was an American explorer, cartographer, merchant and soldier who was a founding member of the North West Company and the Beaver Club. Though he was born and died in Milford, Connecticut, most of his life ...

noted that there was trade with the

Mandan The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still res ...

s who were twelve days away on horseback. In 1794 it was threatened by a group of 600 Sioux. The master, one of the McKays, bought them off with 200 made beaver worth of trade goods. In 1794 the post was closed in preference to the new NWC post of Fort Assiniboine#1. 3. 1807-1811,NWC: In 1807 Fort Assiniboine#1 was torn down and its parts rafted downriver to the old Fort des Épinettes site. In 1811 it was closed and moved upriver to Fort la Souris#2.

Location

It was located on a horseshoe bend of the Assiniboine, east of the mouth of Épinette Creek, on a high level plain 75 feet above the river. There was a good supply of birchbark and

watap Watap, watape, wattap, or wadab ( or ) is the thread and cordage used by the Native Americans and First Nations peoples of Canada to sew together sheets and panels of birchbark. The word itself comes from the Algonquian language family, but wa ...

for canoe-building but few large trees for construction. Archaeological work was done in 1971-74. It was on an oxbow lake that was cut off in 1979. In 1890

Joseph Tyrrell Joseph Burr Tyrrell, FRSC (November 1, 1858 – August 26, 1957) was a Canadian geologist, cartographer, and mining consultant. He discovered dinosaur (''Albertosaurus sarcophagus'') bones in Alberta's Badlands and coal around Drumheller in 1884 ...

found that much of it had been washed away by the river. This is in

Spruce Woods Provincial Park Spruce Woods Provincial Park is located in south-central Manitoba, Canada where the Assiniboine River passes through the delta of sediment left by the last glaciation. An area of open and stabilized sand dunes within the park provides habitat to ...

. The Manitoba Historical Society article (references) puts it about a mile northwest of where

Manitoba Highway 5 Provincial Trunk Highway 5 (PTH 5) is a provincial primary highway located in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The highway starts at the Hansboro–Cartwright Border Crossing on the Canada–United States border and ends at the Saskatchewan b ...

crosses the river.

References

*Elizabeth Browne Losey, "Let Them be Remembered: The Story of the Fur Trade Forts,1999, page 195-199 *

Carberry, Manitoba Carberry is a town in southwestern Manitoba, Canada. It is situated 3 kilometres south of the Manitoba Highway 1, Trans-Canada Highway on Manitoba Highway 5, Highway 5 in the Municipality of North Cypress – Langford, and has a population of 1,73 ...

website: /www.townofcarberry.ca/Fur.htm*Manitoba Historical Societ

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fort des Epinettes North West Company forts Pedlars (fur trade) des Epinettes 1768 establishments in North America 1811 disestablishments in North America