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 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 ...

between Brandon, Manitoba and the mouth of the

Souris River The Souris River (; french: rivière Souris) or Mouse River (as it is alternatively known in the U.S., a calque of its French name) is a river in central North America. It is about in length and drains about . It rises in the Yellow Grass Mars ...

about 21 miles southeast of Brandon. Because of its location near the Souris River it was a center for trade with the Mandans in North Dakota. It was moved four times and there were related forts nearby, so its history is necessarily complex. 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 ...

. Around 1750, a French missionary lived in the area. Before 1793 there were ill-documented independent traders in the area and perhaps in 1793 a small post was established two miles upstream from the Souris by Ronald Cameron, a clerk to Peter Grant.

History

In the period 1793 to 1811, the North West Company was then first to arrive followed very shortly 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 ...

. The

Fort Assiniboine Fort Assiniboine is a hamlet in northwest Alberta, Canada, within Woodlands County. It is located along the north shore of the Athabasca River at the junction of Highway 33 and Highway 661. It is approximately northwest of Barrhead, southe ...

on the Athabasca River). From the first year they traded in buffalo robes 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 re ...

villages on the upper Missouri. In 1797, David Thompson (explorer) passed through on his way to determine the latitude and longitude of the Mandan villages. In 1804, when the NWC absorbed the XY Company, Fort Assiniboine was moved across the river to the site of Fort La Souris#1. In 1806,

Alexander Henry the younger Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

passed through. The man in charge was

François-Antoine Larocque François-Antoine Larocque (August 19, 1784 – May 1, 1869) was a Québécois businessman involved in the fur trade. He was born in L'Assomption in 1784, the son of François-Antoine Larocque, and studied at the Collège de Montréal. After ...

who later reached the Yellowstone River. In 1807, the fort was torn down and its parts rafted downstream to Fort des Épinettes. In 1793, Donald McKay ''le malin'' and John Sutherland of the Hudson's Bay company established Brandon House about 100 yards away from the new NWC post. It was supplied from

Fort Albany, Ontario Fort Albany First Nation ( cr, ᐲᐦᑖᐯᒄ ᐃᓕᓕᐗᒃ pîhtâpek ililiwak, "lagoon Cree") is a Cree First Nation in Cochrane District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, within the territory covered by Treaty 9. Situated on the southern ...

on James Bay. McKay lived up to his nickname by shooting at Joseph Augé who ran the NWC post. From 1795, they traded with the Mandans. There were usually two trips per year, in October and January. Using dog sleds or horses, they followed the

as far as

Minot, North Dakota Minot ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ward County, North Dakota, United States, in the state's north-central region. It is most widely known for the Air Force base approximately north of the city. With a population of 48,377 at the 2 ...

and then headed southwest across the prairie. 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 ...

sometimes tried to block the trade and a few traders were killed. In 1796

John Evans (explorer) John Thomas Evans (April 1770 – May 1799) was a Welsh explorer who produced an early map of the Missouri River. Evans was born in Waunfawr, near Caernarfon. In the early 1790s there was an upsurge of interest in Wales in the story of Madog ...

reached the Mandan country from near Saint Louis. Brandon House seems to be the first HBC post to hear of the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gr ...

. In 1809,

Manuel Lisa Manuel Lisa, also known as Manuel de Lisa (September 8, 1772 in New Orleans Louisiana (New Spain) – August 12, 1820 in St. Louis, Missouri), was a Spanish citizen and later, became an American citizen who, while living on the western frontier, ...

's group arrived on the upper Missouri and in 1812 the trade was abandoned to the Americans. In 1806 to 1807, there were 53 men at the post. In 1807, part of the saga of Isobel Gunn may have taken place here. In 1798, the

XY Company The XY Company also known as the New North West Company was a joint-stock fur trading enterprise based in Montreal that conducted business chiefly in the Canadian Northwest between 1798 and 1804. Peter Fidler (explorer) Peter Fidler (16 August 1769 – 17 December 1822) was a British surveyor, map-maker, fur trader and explorer who had a long career in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in what later became Canada. He was born in Bolsover, Derbyshire, ...

was in charge from 1811/1812 to 1819. In May 1816, during the so-called

Pemmican War The Pemmican War was a series of armed confrontations during the North American fur trade between the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the North West Company (NWC) in the years following the establishment of the Red River Colony in 1812 by Lord ...

, Cuthbert Grant and his men seized a load of pemmican coming down from Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan and then plundered Brandon House and took their loot across the river to Fort La Souris. The following year the fort was almost completely destroyed by fire, but Peter Fidler began rebuilding it in 1817. By 1821, there was a cart trail north of the river that was used in preference to canoes. When the two companies merged in 1821 Brandon House was moved across the river to Fort La Souris. In 1824, it was closed as part of George Simpson's attempt to consolidate posts. In 1811, the NWC closed Fort des Épinettes and built a second Fort La Souris 200 yards from Brandon House#2. In June 1814, during the so-called

s, Miles Macdonell sent a group of men from the

Red River Colony The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assinboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hudson's Bay ...

and seized some thirty tons of pemmican and other food at Fort La Souris. Some was taken to Brandon House but most was sent downriver to the River settlements. In 1821, the two companies merged and Brandon House was moved to the Fort La Souris site. Brandon House was re-established in 1828 to prevent the Indians from taking their trade to

Pembina, North Dakota Pembina () is a city in Pembina County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 512 at the 2020 census. Pembina is located south of the Canada–US border. Interstate 29 passes on the west side of Pembina, leading north to the Canada� ...

. The site was 12 miles upriver due to the lack of trees for building at the old site. It was closed when the area became trapped out and because of fear of attack by the

Gros Ventre The Gros Ventre ( , ; meaning "big belly"), also known as the Aaniiih, A'aninin, Haaninin, Atsina, and White Clay, are a historically Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe located in north central Montana. Today the Gros Ventre people are ...

Fort Ellice Fort Ellice was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post operated from 1794 to 1892. First established on the Qu'Appelle River, the post was rebuilt in 1817 on the south bank of the Assiniboine. Another iteration of the post was built near the first i ...

replaced it.

Locations

A man named Barkley from the United States had a post between the first two locations at an unknown date The exact locations of these posts do not seem to have been determined. The first Brandon House was on the north bank of the Assiniboine about two miles above the mouth of the Souris River on the Yellow Quill Trail to Portage la Prairie opposite something called "Five Mile Creek". Kavanagh has this at , the XY post at the edge of the woods below the mouth, one post across the river in an obvious clearing and another to the north of the creek in a plowed field. The second Brandon House was six miles upriver from the Souris on the west bank and the NWC post on a high bank across the river. Kavanagh has this as , but he also puts the first Brandon House on the east bank at this location which was probably the NWC post. The third location is about 15 km northeast of the first, probably near the cairn erected in 1928 at .See 1928 Cairn and Location problem above

Sources

* Elizebeth Browne Losey,"Let Them be Remembered: The Story of the Fur Trade Forts,1999, page 200-210 * Martin Kavanagh,"The Assiniboine Basin",1946 * Mandan trade in Lewis&Clark Journals websit

* Mandan trade in North Dakota Studies websit

* Sack of Fort Brando

* Isobel Gunn in Orkneyar websit

* 1928 cairn and ma

* Location problem in Manitoba Historical Society website

References

{{reflist Hudson's Bay Company trading posts North West Company forts Economy of Manitoba