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Near the end of the 19th century, improvements in transportation changed
the nature of the fur trade. Steamers were introduced to the Athabaska
and the Mackenzie in the late 1880s, and a railway to Edmonton was
completed in 1890. The Hudson's Bay Company monopoly was broken,
and the Mackenzie Basin became more accessible to "free traders". Hislop
and Nagle built stores at Fort Rae and Fort Resolution and independent
traders also set up at Fort Providence and Fort Good Hope. The Hudson's
Bay Company built two new posts between 1870 and 1900 (Fort Smith in
1874 and Fort Rae in 1887).
 By 1894 the first white trappers had arrived north of the 60th parallel. The
trickle of newcomers turned into a flood when the Klondike Gold Rush
began in 1897. Hundreds of men tried to reach the gold field via the
Mackenzie Valley, and many remained to trap and prospect. By 1902, Fort
Resolution had six stores.
As the competition grew, trapping pressure began to seriously reduce the
numbers of furbearing animals. The Northwest Game Act, originally
passed in 1906, was revised in 1917 to protect furbearers and native
trappers whose livelihood was being threatened. The Act established
closed seasons on furbearers. In addition, it required all trappers and
traders who were not indigenous peoples and bona fide residents of the
NWT to hold a license. Beginning in 1918 and throughout the first half of
the 20th century, a series of preserves - at one point almost covering the
entire NWT - was set aside for exclusive use by native hunters and
trappers.
 By 1920, there were two major companies competing with the Hudson's
Bay Company - Lamson and Hubbard, and Northern Traders Limited,
which had bought out Hislop and Nagle. The period of greatest competition
occurred throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s. The influx of
independents from the south continued to grow as transportation improved
and fur prices soared. In 1920, the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort
Simpson paid $1000 for 154 muskrats. In 1929, the least-valued fox (red)
brought $37.42, while white fox went for $54.15 and silver fox for $104.65.
Trapping income could be counted in tens of thousands of dollars,
compared to the annual wage of less than $1000 in manufacturing
industries in the south.
The number of white trappers increased from 140 in 1920-21 to 500 in
1926-27. During the 1930s, 45 posts were opened at 13 new sites along
the Mackenzie River, although most of these were short-lived.
Overharvesting continued, and the mink catch dropped from 21,205 in
1923-24 to 3,630 in 1927-28. The muskrat harvest also fell.
Adapted from "A Way of Life", pp 8-18, by Marianne Bromley, Department
of Renewable Resources, (RWED) Government of the Northwest Territories,
Yellowknife, NT Copyright 1986 ISBN 0-7708-7146-1
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