The Hudson's Bay Company Takes Over

The Hudson Bay supply route was shorter and more efficient than the long series of rivers, lakes and portages which connected the Mackenzie River and Montreal. The North West Company was finally forced to yield to the size and efficiency of the British company's network and in 1821, the two companies were joined.

Hudson's bay company - Room full of furs - Ernest Brown Collection, Provincial Archives of Alberta. The Bay reorganized trade in the Mackenzie Valley. Locations of existing forts were adjusted to accommodate trade, often at the request of the aboriginal people. The Forks, renamed Fort Simpson, after the new governor of the Company, was relocated several times over the next 30 years, as were Fort Norman and Fort Good Hope.

Fort Simpson served as the administrative centre for the Mackenzie River District, as well as the location of boat building and blacksmithing. In 1827, the trade goods received at Fort Simpson from the main depot of York Factory included: 15 crimson and scarlet belts, 50 common-coloured belts, several kilos of beads, over 150 blankets, a dozen shaving boxes, two dozen horn combs, 60 powder horns, clothes of various sorts, eight bags of flour, two kegs of butter, six cases of guns, nine bags of shot and 16 kegs of gunpowder. The furs sent from the Mackenzie River District for the same year were valued at close to £13,000 and included over 4,800 beaver, 6,900 marten and 33,700 muskrat.

Imported food was a luxury and goods shipped from England could take two or three years to reach their destination. The northern posts had to rely on country food, which could be obtained locally. A system was set up so that Indians could trade provisions such as fish, waterfowl, hare and big game for trade goods. At least four ducks or four moose tongues or ten hares were required to equal the value of one "made-beaver".

Hudson's Bay Company posts on Great Bear Lake contributed to the success of several mapping expeditions by serving as supply centres and winter quarters for the explorers. Fort Franklin was built on the southwest arm of the lake (near the site of the original Bear Lake Post) in 1825, to supply Capt. John Franklin, who chose the site because of its fishing potential. Between 1825 and 1827, Franklin, George Back, and John Richardson spent the summers surveying the area around Great Bear Lake and the Arctic Coast. They spent the two winters at Fort Franklin. During this time, the five arms of Great Bear Lake - Dease, McVicar, McTavish, Keith and Smith - were named after Chief Traders and Factors of the Hudson's Bay Company who had helped Franklin's expedition.

In 1837, Fort Confidence was built on the northeast arm of Great Bear Lake as winter quarters for Dease and Simpson, who explored the central Arctic Coast between 1836 and 1839. The fort was used again in 1848-49 by Richardson, Rae, and Bell during their search for survivors from Franklin's third expedition to the Arctic, which left England in 1845 and had disappeared without a trace.