The Gingras Trading Post State Historic Site is a North Dakota State Historic Site near

Walhalla, North Dakota Walhalla is a city in Pembina County, North Dakota, Pembina County, North Dakota, United States. It sits on the banks of the Pembina River (North Dakota), Pembina River, five miles (8 km) from the border with Manitoba (Canada) and approximately ...

. It features the trading post and home of the

Metis Metis or Métis may refer to: Ethnic groups * Métis, recognized Indigenous communities in Canada and America whose distinct culture and language emerged after early intermarriage between First Nations peoples and early European settlers, primar ...

legislator and fur trader

Antoine Blanc Gingras Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin. The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guiana ...

(1821–1877).Antoine Blanc Gingras, Metis Fur Trader and member of the Minnesota Territorial Legislature, 1852–1853
Minnesota Historical Society, accessed December 6, 2010.

Antoine Blanc Gingras

Antoine Gingras was born in 1821 at Red River, the son of Antoine Cuthbert Gingras, a

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 ...

voyageur and Marguerite Madeleine Trottier. He began his career as a hunter and trapper. Gingras built a two-story exposed-log trading post and a

clapboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

house on his plot of land in the 1840s. In 1861, the net worth of Gingras was $60,000.00. He soon owned trading posts across the

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of No ...

and parts of Southern

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 ...

. In 1851, Gingras was chosen to represent the area in the Minnesota Territorial House of Representatives. He served in the legislature from 1852 to 1853. When

Louis Riel Louis Riel (; ; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first ...

(1844–1885) started the 1869

Red River Rebellion The Red River Rebellion (french: Rébellion de la rivière Rouge), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by ...

, Gingras also participated in the events. When the City of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

was chartered in 1873, Gingras was present. Gingras died on September 26, 1877, at

Today

Gingras Trading Post is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

North Dakota State Historical Society The State Historical Society of North Dakota is an agency that preserves and presents history through museums and historic sites in the state of North Dakota. The agency operates the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck, which serves as a his ...

operates the site. It features the original buildings and exhibits about Antoine Blanc Gingras,

culture, and the

Red River Valley The Red River Valley is a region in central North America that is drained by the Red River of the North; it is part of both Canada and the United States. Forming the border between Minnesota and North Dakota when these territories were admitted ...

fur trade. It also contains a reproduction of the Gingras Store.

References

External links

Gingras Trading Post State Historic Site website
{{NRHP in Pembina County, North Dakota Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in North Dakota Pre-statehood history of North Dakota Historic house museums in North Dakota History museums in North Dakota Museums in Pembina County, North Dakota Houses completed in 1845 Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in North Dakota North Dakota State Historic Sites Houses in Pembina County, North Dakota National Register of Historic Places in Pembina County, North Dakota Trading posts in the United States Rupert's Land

Antoine Blanc Gingras

Today

See also

References

External links