Fort La Reine was built in 1738 and is one of the forts of the western expansion directed by

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, first military commander in the west of what is now known as

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Located 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. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a sing ...

where present day

Portage la Prairie Portage la Prairie () is a small city in the Central Plains Region of Manitoba, Canada. As of 2016, the population was 13,304 and the land area of the city was . Portage la Prairie is approximately west of Winnipeg, along the Trans-Canada Hi ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, stands, the fort served as a

fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most ...

post. It was also the base of operations for much exploration north and west. From Fort La Reine,

explorers Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

made their way to Lake Manitoba and

Lake Winnipegosis Lake Winnipegosis is a large (5,370 km2) lake in central North America, in Manitoba, Canada, some 300 km northwest of Winnipeg. It is Canada's eleventh-largest lake. An alternate spelling, once common but now rare, is Lake Winipigoos or ...

Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg (french: Lac Winnipeg, oj, ᐑᓂᐸᑲᒥᐠᓴᑯ˙ᑯᐣ, italics=no, Weenipagamiksaguygun) is a very large, relatively shallow lake in North America, in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Manitoba, Canada. I ...

and the

Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River (Cree: ''kisiskāciwani-sīpiy'', "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers to Lake Winn ...

Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye (November 9, 1717 – November 15, 1761) was a French Canadian fur trader and explorer. He, his three brothers, and his father Pierre La Vérendrye pushed trade and exploration west from the Great Lakes. He, h ...

, the youngest La Vérendrye son, led expeditions from Fort La Reine and built the following western installations in what is now

: Fort Dauphin,

Fort Bourbon Fort Bourbon was one of the forts built by La Vérendrye during his expansion of trade and exploration west from Lake Superior. Besides providing support for the important fur trade in what is now Manitoba, La Vérendrye wanted to conduct explora ...

, and

Fort Paskoya Fort Paskoya or Paskoyac or Pasquia was a French fort and trading post on the lower Saskatchewan River above Cedar Lake. Around 1740 La Vérendrye built four forts to control the chain of lakes west of Lake Winnipeg. These were Fort Pascoya, For ...

. In 1743, the fort was also the starting point for an exploration of the upper Missouri River as far as the

Yellowstone River The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains an ...

. One old source says that the fort was burnt to the ground by the

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 Nakod ...

after the French had left it in 1752. Fort La Reine is near the portage from the Assiniboine north to Lake Manitoba. The elder Verendrye left

Fort Maurepas Fort Maurepas, later known as Old Biloxi, "Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville" (biography), ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', 1907, webpage: gives dates: 13 Feb. 1699, went to the mainland Biloxi, with fort completion May 1, 1699; sailed f ...

at the mouth of the Red River in September 1738, ascended that river to the present site of Winnipeg, ascended the Assiniboine and on October 3 chose a site for Fort La Reine. Morton thinks the site was about 21 miles east of Portage la Prairie and two miles southeast of Poplar Point. He thinks the fort was moved west to Portage la Prairie the following summer. In 1738 Fort Rouge (fortification) was built at the present site of Winnipeg. Fort La Reine was the base for the elder Verendrye's journey to the

Mandans 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 re ...

in North Dakota (October 1738 to January 1739). In 1742-43 it was the base for the

Verendrye Brothers' journey to the Rocky Mountains The Vérendrye brothers were the first Europeans to cross the northern Great Plains and see the Rocky Mountains, during an expedition in 1742–1743. What little is known about their journey comes from a journal found in the French archives in 18 ...

. It became increasing clear that neither the Assiniboine nor the Missouri was the route to the west and French attention shifted north to the

. The first priest to travel this far west arrived at the fort in 1743. He was a Jesuit named

Claude-Godefroy Coquart Claude-Godefroy Coquart (February 2, 1706 – July 4, 1765) was a Jesuit priest who probably arrived in Quebec in 1739. He was almost immediately assigned to accompany La Vérendrye to the western forts. He was to replace Father Jean-Pierre Aulne ...

. Around 1770, when trade was re-established, Adhemar's Fort and Blondishe's Fort were in the area. The site was designated a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of t ...

in 1925.

Fort la Reine Museum

Today there is a museum named after the original fort located in

, MB. There is a replica of Fort la Reine on the Museum in addition numerous other buildings covering local history from the time of La Vérendrye to current day. The Museum is affiliated with: CMA, CHIN, and

Virtual Museum of Canada The Digital Museums Canada (DMC; , ''MNC'') is a funding program in Canada "dedicated to online projects by the museum and heritage community," helping organizations to build digital capacity. Administered by the Canadian Museum of History (CMH) ...

Notes

References

Manitoba Historical Society - La Vérendrye

Manitoba Historical Society - Timeline

Fort la Reine Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:La Reine Hudson's Bay Company forts French forts in Canada 1738 establishments in the French colonial empire Forts in Manitoba National Historic Sites in Manitoba