Fort Assiniboine is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in northwest

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

, Canada, within

Woodlands County Woodlands County is a municipal district in north-central Alberta, Canada. Located in Census Division No. 13, its municipal office is located outside but adjacent to the Town of Whitecourt. A second municipal office is located in the Hamlet ...

. It is located along the north shore of the

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is ...

at the junction of Highway 33 and Highway 661. It is approximately northwest of

Barrhead Barrhead ( sco, Baurheid, gd, Ceann a' Bharra) is a town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, southwest of Glasgow city centre on the edge of the Gleniffer Braes. At the 2011 census its population was 17,268. History Barrhead was formed wh ...

, southeast of

Swan Hills Swan Hills is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It is in the eponymous Swan Hills, approximately north of Whitecourt and northwest of Fort Assiniboine. The town is at the junction of Highway 32 and Grizzly Trail, and is surrounded by Big Lak ...

and northeast of

Whitecourt Whitecourt is a town in central Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by Woodlands County. It is approximately northwest of Edmonton and southeast of Grande Prairie at the junction of Highway 43 and Highway 32. It has an elevation of . White ...

. Fort Assiniboine was founded as a trading post by the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

and became a stopping point along the

Klondike Trail The Klondike Trail or Chalmers Trail was an overland route to the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon, Canada. Prospectors were reaching the Klondike via the American route over the Chilkoot Pass, and the northern route via Edmonton and the Athabasca ...

. It gets its name from the

Assiniboine 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 Nakod ...

people. The fort itself no longer exists, but the land on which it stood is designated as a National Historic Site for its archaeological value. The hamlet, built on and around the site of the fort, is a now a local hub for the surrounding agricultural region.

History

Local oral history tells of an early (possibly late 1700s)

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 trading post south of Holmes Crossing (an early ferry crossing) on the Athabasca River. In 1821, the North West Company was merged with

(HBC), who then undertook to reorganize its transportation routes, seeking out advantages and efficiencies in its operations. By then, trade on

Lesser Slave Lake Lesser Slave Lake (french: Petit lac des Esclaves)—known traditionally as "Beaver Lake" (ᐊᒥᐢᐠ ᓵᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ amisk sâkâhikan in the Plains Cree language, and T’saat’ine migeh in Dene Zhatıé) or "Beaver people were over the ...

was in decline and the council adopted a resolution in 1823 calling for a fort further up the

to reduce transport times. Under the new plan, Fort Assiniboine on the Athabasca River (the fort was originally named 'Athabaska River House' ) became the northwest end of an overland horse track to

Edmonton House Fort Edmonton (also named Edmonton House) was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1795 to 1914, all of which were located on the north banks of the North Saskatchewan River in what is now central Alberta, ...

/ Fort Edmonton, cut by Jacques Cardinal, a

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United State ...

free trader, in 1824–25. The trail became known as 'The Hudson Bay Packtrail'.This provided a straighter route from Jasper House and the

Athabasca Pass Athabasca Pass (el. ) is a high mountain pass in the Canadian Rockies on the border between Alberta and British Columbia. In fur trade days it connected Jasper House on the Athabasca River with Boat Encampment on the Columbia River.Whittaker, Jo ...

within the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

York Factory York Factory was a settlement and Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) factory (trading post) located on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay in northeastern Manitoba, Canada, at the mouth of the Hayes River, approximately south-southeast of Churchill. ...

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

. A party on horseback could make the trip from Edmonton to Fort Assiniboine in two to six days, depending on conditions. The new post opened in 1824. The new route was used by the York Factory Express. The old canoe route involved going far north-northeast up the Athabasca to

Fort Chipewyan Fort Chipewyan , commonly referred to as Fort Chip, is a hamlet in northern Alberta, Canada, within the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo. It is located on the western tip of Lake Athabasca, adjacent to Wood Buffalo National Park, app ...

and then southeast through

Methye Portage The Methye Portage or Portage La Loche in northwestern Saskatchewan was one of the most important portages in the old fur trade route across Canada. The portage connected the Mackenzie River basin to rivers that ran east to the Atlantic. It wa ...

to Lake Winnipeg. Though the fort never grew as large as some other Alberta forts, its role as a transportation hub and provision centre ensured its survival between the 1820s and 1880s. The fort burned to the ground after its abandonment by the Hudson's Bay Company. No plans existed for its original layout, but, using clues from post administrators' log books and archaeological surveys, a replica was built on the site in 1980. It operates as a museum and friendship centre. Fort Assiniboine United Church

In 1898, when the Chalmers, or

was cut through the Swan Hills, northwest of Fort Assiniboine to Lesser Slave Lake, the location again became a stopping point, with gold seekers crossing the river with a self-service ferry on their overland trek to the

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

. The earliest homesteads in the area were filed in 1906 in the Holmes Crossing district (named for the ferryman William B. Holmes), across the Athabasca and downriver from Fort Assiniboine. Most came via Edmonton, by way of the Hudson's Bay Pack Trail, which had been widened by then to accommodate wagons and sleights. The graded road only went to about west of

Morinville Morinville is a town in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada. It is approximately north of Edmonton along Highway 2. History Morinville was settled by Jean-Baptiste Morin, a priest and missionary of the Missionary Oblates ...

. By 1908 settlers crossed on the ferry and took up land north of the Athabasca River, including around the site of the old fort. The Fort Assiniboine post office was set up in 1910, operated, as was the practice, from a local homestead. Joseph Brewster was the first

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

. A blacksmith's shop, and a store were soon built near the fort site. In 1914, the railway was built to

Westlock Westlock is a town in central Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1913, the town is primarily an agricultural, business, and government administration centre serving communities and rural areas within surrounding Westlock County. Geography Westlock ...

, shortening the route on the trail significantly. The first

community hall Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

was built in 1916. By 1919, the road was graded to Holmes Crossing. The next year, on the north side of the river, a road was graded from the ferry landing, to a bridge on the Freeman River west of Fort Assiniboine. In 1922, the post office was moved to the settlement. The quarter-section of land on which the trading post had been situated had been homesteaded by a Dr. E.J. State in 1913. When he died in 1923, his property was willed to the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...

, who surveyed and sold the lots, expanding the hamlet. In 1927 the railroad was built to Barrhead, only away. In 1934 the Provincial government set up a public nursing service in the hamlet, which operated until 1969. The surrounding schools were centralised to Fort Assiniboine in 1946 and in the same year a charter was issued for a Fort Assiniboine Branch of the

Royal Canadian Legion The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit Canadian ex-service organization (veterans' organization) founded in 1925. Membership includes people who have served as military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial and municipal police, Royal ...

. A

United Church A united church, also called a uniting church, is a church formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations. Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state ...

and a

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

were built in 1948 and 1949. The

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns slidi ...

club was formed and a rink built in 1953. In 1956 a bridge was built over the Athabasca River, putting the ferry out of business. Fort Assiniboine was a

until incorporated as a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

in 1958. E.M. (Gene) Redington was the first Mayor. The Village of Fort Assiniboine dissolved and reverted to hamlet status on December 31, 1991. It is now administered by Woodlands County, which has offices in the hamlet and in the Town of

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultu ...

, Fort Assiniboine had a population of 158 living in 64 of its 74 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 176. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. As a designated place in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Fort Assiniboine had a population of 176 living in 78 of its 83 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 155. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Attractions

Wagon Wheel and Pick at Fort Assiniboine, Alberta

Fort Assiniboine is home to a Hudson's Bay–style historical museum, known as the Fort Assiniboine Museum and Friendship Club Drop-In Centre, and the world's largest wagon wheel and pick axe. A boat launch east of the hamlet provides river-boaters access to the Athabasca River. There is also a private R.V. park and marina, which hosted the Athabasca River Voyageur Canoe Bridade in June 2017, celebrating Canada's 150th birthday. A farmer's market is held every Friday afternoon from May to September in the Recreation and Agriculture Building, which also hosts agricultural and sports events throughout the year including the annual Hamlet Hoedown Rodeo & Fair, held each August.

Services

The Fort Assiniboine School, which offers kindergarten through Grade 9, is located within the hamlet. Students in Grades 10-12 are bussed to Barrhead Composite High School. Both are administered by Pembina Hills Public Schools (PHPS). Fort Assiniboine is also served by a post office and the Fort Assiniboine Public Library.Fort Assiniboine Public Library
/ref> It has numerous businesses including a general store, a motel, a gas station, a liquor store and a shop that repairs and sells all-terrain and other vehicles.

Climate

Fort Assiniboine had a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, g ...

( Köppen ''Dfc''), characterized by pleasant summers and frigid, although extremely variable, winters.

References

External links

Fort Assiniboine Museum
{{Alberta, hamlets=yes 1823 establishments in the British Empire Designated places in Alberta Former villages in Alberta

Forts or trading posts on the National Historic Sites of Canada register Fur trade National Historic Sites of Canada Hamlets in Alberta Hudson's Bay Company forts National Historic Sites in Alberta Woodlands County Populated places disestablished in 1991