Fort Ellice
Encyclopedia
Fort Ellice was a Hudson's Bay Company
trading post built in 1831 in Rupert's Land
near the junction of the Assiniboine
and Qu'Appelle
rivers. The fort was located in what is now west-central Manitoba
, Canada
, just east of that province's border with Saskatchewan
.
It was an important fort, as it was a major stopping point on the Carlton Trail
, which ran from the Red River settlement to Fort Edmonton
. (The section leading from Upper Fort Garry to this district was commonly known as the Fort Ellice Trail.)
A second more elaborate structure was built in 1862 by the HBC but its economic life was short-lived as the Company relinquished control of Rupert's Land with the 1870 Deed of Surrender. This deed transferred many HBC rights to the new Canadian national government.
The fort had one more important role to play in history; it acted as a staging point for part of the North-West Mounted Police
(NWMP) force that was headed west in 1874 to establish law and order in the future provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The fort acted as an NWMP post beginning in 1875.
The fort was named after Edward Ellice, a British merchant and an investor in the Hudson's Bay Company. Fort Ellice in turn gave its name to the Rural Municipality of Ellice
in west-central Manitoba and to Ellice Avenue, a major arterial road in Winnipeg.
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
trading post built in 1831 in Rupert's Land
Rupert's Land
Rupert's Land, or Prince Rupert's Land, was a territory in British North America, consisting of the Hudson Bay drainage basin that was nominally owned by the Hudson's Bay Company for 200 years from 1670 to 1870, although numerous aboriginal groups lived in the same territory and disputed the...
near the junction of the Assiniboine
Assiniboine River
The Assiniboine River 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 single main channel embanked within a flat, shallow valley in some places and a steep valley in...
and Qu'Appelle
Qu'Appelle River
The Qu'Appelle River is a Canadian river that flows 430 km east from Lake Diefenbaker in southwestern Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just south of Lake of the Prairies, near the village of St. Lazare....
rivers. The fort was located in what is now west-central Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, just east of that province's border with Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
.
It was an important fort, as it was a major stopping point on the Carlton Trail
Carlton Trail
The Carlton Trail was the primary land transportation route connecting the various parts of the Canadian Northwest for most of the 19th Century. It stretched from the Red River Colony up to what is today Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan via Fort Ellice...
, which ran from the Red River settlement to Fort Edmonton
Fort Edmonton
Fort Edmonton was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1795 to 1891, all of which were located in central Alberta, Canada...
. (The section leading from Upper Fort Garry to this district was commonly known as the Fort Ellice Trail.)
A second more elaborate structure was built in 1862 by the HBC but its economic life was short-lived as the Company relinquished control of Rupert's Land with the 1870 Deed of Surrender. This deed transferred many HBC rights to the new Canadian national government.
The fort had one more important role to play in history; it acted as a staging point for part of the North-West Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
(NWMP) force that was headed west in 1874 to establish law and order in the future provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The fort acted as an NWMP post beginning in 1875.
The fort was named after Edward Ellice, a British merchant and an investor in the Hudson's Bay Company. Fort Ellice in turn gave its name to the Rural Municipality of Ellice
Ellice, Manitoba
Ellice is a rural municipality in the province of Manitoba in Western Canada. It was named after Edward Ellice, Sr., British merchant and politician. The separately administered village of St-Lazare lies near the municipality's centre. In its northwestern section is a part of the Gambler 63 First...
in west-central Manitoba and to Ellice Avenue, a major arterial road in Winnipeg.