Recently I expressed what I know (or thought I knew) about trails north and learned that I did not know as much as I thought I did.
Edmonton is famous as Gateway to the North.
In fact recently I learned that Edmonton is the southern-most fur trading post of the HBC. The fur country is up north but there rivers flow to the Arctic Coast. Edmonton is on the northern-most river that flows into the Hudsons Bay (not directly -- the North Sask. River flows into the Sask. river which flows into a lake, then into another river that takes the water to the Bay. But you get the point, hopefully)
And Rocky Mountain House Post is actually south of Edmonton but off to the side and edged in by the Peigan First Nations who prevented further trade and/or movement by fur traders westward from there. (Mark Anderako, Historic Trails Alberta, p. 106)
And anyways RMH is actually on the same river as Edmonton so RMH could be thought of as an offshoot of Fort Edmonton, and travel/trade north is through Edmonton, not RMH, and trade/travel west is from Edmonton due to Peigan's policy anyway.
so it is safe to say Edmonton was the main post of the HBC that far south.
This is different from our present view that Edmonton is a northern place. Actually it was the southern-most major post of the HBC in the old days.
HBC had to make connection between the "Great Northland" (drained by rivers flowing from the mountains to the Arctic Ocean) and its posts on the shores of the Bay in eastern Manitoba.
Historic Trails Alberta outlines the major routes first used to make this connection:
Methye Portage
Beaver River Trail
Fort Assiniboine Trail.
Methys Portage travellers/freighters would be going from the Bay to Lac La Loche. The way could be up the Churchill River or up the Saskatchewan River then stopping at Cumberland House and changing over to Churchill River. At Lac La Loche, making a 20-km-long portage - the "Methye Portage" - to get the people and stuff over to Clearwater River which went downstream to enter the Athabasca River which had access to the Mackenzie River and points north. (Historic Trails Alberta p. 73. see also p. 100, 102, 130-131)
Beaver River Route -- travellers/freighters would be going from the Bay up the Churchill River to Lac Ile-a-la-Crosse (In Saskatchewan) then up the Beaver River to Beaver Lake then a short portage across to Lac La Biche, which had water connection (through Little Beaver River or through Moose River?) to Athabasca River.
Methye Portage was in more or lses direct direction Bay to Northland but travellers debouched into Athabasca River downstream of the Grand Rapids, theus missed out on connections to the mountains, Edmonton and to BC.
The Beaver River route did give access to upper reaches of Athabasca River, but it was not direct and the Beaver River was too small or shallow or both for the large northern freight canoes.
Fort Assiniboine Trail
So the HBC with more enthusiasm than careful forethought, decided to open an overland trail from the North Saskatchewan to a point on the Athabasca River's upper reaches to be called Fort Assiniboine. Historic Trails Alberta states that this decision ws made by HBC's "Little Emperor" James Simpson. The route goes form Edmonton House at the time at Fort Saskatchewan northwest to Pembina River then up the Pembina River to the Athabasca River. Simpson made the trip from Edmonton House (Fort Saskatchewan) to Ft. Assiniboine in two days so based on that the Company thought it was a good investment. However most travellers needed a full week to make the 128-km journey. Horse Hills (one of the oldest place names in Edmonton) was where horses used on this trail were pastured.
Ft. Assiniboine Trail was likely based on earlier indigenous trails (a trail from Edmonton House (meaning either old Edmonton House (Ft. Saskatchewan) or the new Edmonton House (at Rossdale, present city of Edmonton)) to the Athabasca River is noted as existing in 1814) The HBC officially firmed it up in 1824 when Ft. Assiniboine was established on the Athabasca River (Historic Trails Alberta, p. 105-106)
By 1846, artist Paul Kane went up the Trail and found it "impassable".
Athabasca Trail
But it was not replaced until the 1870s. That was when the trail to Athabasca Crossing (as the later town of Athabasca was known at the time) was cut wide enough to accomadate carts (Red River carts being cutting-edge technology at that time). Athabasaca Crossing had been a place since about 1848, but the trail had been -- let us say -- problematic at first.
The Athabasca Trail ran from Edmonton House (then on the grounds of the Legislature) to the Athabasca River at the present site of the Town of Athabasca.
The trail was made to be able to convey carts in 1877, then further improved in 1882. And from then on for 40 years, it was the main route for goods and people to the Northland.
In 1880s freight was about the only thing sent up the Trail, but that changed in 1891. With the completion of the Calgary & Edmonton Railway running from Calgary to South Edmonton (today's Old Strathcona), there was a wave of settlers going to the Lesser Slave Lake area and the Peace River country. They used the Athabasca Landing Trail. Even large awkward boilers for steamboats were shipped up the trail.
Freight was sent to Athabasca Landing. Some was then put on boats and sent upstream to Lesser Slave Lake and unloaded at Grouard. From there it would be portaged 160 kilometres to Peace River Crossing on the Peace River). From there it could be shipped downstream to Fort Vermilion (an important centre populated by the Fred Brick and Sarah Lendrum (formerly of Strathcona) or upstream to Fort St. John and other points in the Peace River country. (Historic Trails Alberta, p. 77)
Or alternatively, at Athabasca Landing the freight could be put on boats and sent downstream to Fort McMurray where the water flow was such that steamboats could be used to carry consolidate loads for the trip downstream to points on the Mackenzie River or all the way to the Arctic Ocean if desired.
The construction of a railway to Athabasca in 1912 supplanted the trail coming out of Edmonton, but the river route was still used for some time until the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway was completed during WWI. At least the stretch from Edmonton to Dunvegan was completed in 1916, or about then anyway.
Or the rail-line was built to a different location - the new centre of MacLennan.
(The Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway later became part of the Northern Alberta Railway system.)
For info on the role that Lac La Biche played in the fur trade trade network,
see
http://wayback.archive-it.org/2217/20101208175146/http://www.albertasource.ca/metis/eng/people_and_communities/historic_biche.htm
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