Anthony Henday came to Alberta in 1754/55. But his exact route cannot be defined in certain fashion. This trip, and later ones, took Henday across much of the southern prairies in what is now Saskatchewan and Alberta.
There is great uncertainty of his route -- his original journal of his trip and any notes in his own hand cannot be found. His journal was copied in four different and contradictory versions.(Stephen. A Puzzle Revisited) His trip as presented in the journals cannot always be put in a modern context, due to there being no landmarks he identified that are still extant today. The prairies did not have any distinct features. No large waterfalls, pyramids, standing permanent structures such as explorers recorded in other parts of the world.
We know Henday visited one or two French trading posts along the Saskatchewan River, but even they, being built out of wood, would have vanished from human detection within 50 or so years. Another French post in the mid-1700s may have been located at about Rocky Mountain House or possibly Calgary - no way to know which, at this late date.
A conjecture of Henday's route in detail was formulated and presented to the public by L.J. Burpee in 1907, under the name "York Factory to the Blackfeet Country." http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/35/4.html?qid=peelbib%7Csaskatchewan%7C%28peelnum%3A000035%29%7Cscore
Using the HBC Journals as his source, Burpee had the explorer's name as Hendry. (But I will use the more familiar name Henday in this blog.)
Burpee supposed that Henday passed through Walker Lake (which Henday called Christineaux Lake), not Lake Winnipeg as is sometimes supposed, then up the Minago River to Moose Lake, then to the Saskatchewan River at a point downstream of the French trading post of Fort Basqua (The Pas). Henday's visit, and his visit the next spring to Fort Basqua's sister fort, Fort Poskoyac (La Corne), are the only two recorded visits by a British explorer or trader to any French fort west of Lake Superior, up to the close of French rule in Canada. <ref>http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/35/4.html?qid=peelbib%7Csaskatchewan%7C%28peelnum%3A000035%29%7Cscore</ref>
Burpee supposed that Henday got as far west as about Airdrie in the autumn of 1754. Turning north he spent February and April along today's Red Deer River, building canoes. When the ice broke up in the spring, he paddled down the Red Deer to where it meets the South Saskatchewan just east of about today's Empress, Alberta, and then down the Saskatchewan River back to York Factory.
It is documented Henday's group passed the French Fort Paskoya "Pasqua"/"Basquia" or "Paskoway Yay," today's The Pas, on July 15, 1754, as recorded in his journal. There he may have met Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne, the western commander, or, if not, then likely he did meet him the next spring when Henday was on his way back to York Factory. (Belyea, A Year Inland, p. 54)
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