History of Grand Forks County : with special reference to the first ten years of Grand Forks City, including an historical outline of the Red River Valley

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: State Historical Society of North Dakota
• Subjects: Canada; Emerson; Fort William; Grand Forks; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Red Lake
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/38969

.10 HISTORY OF flltAXn FORKS COUNTY The Northwest Fur company was organized at Montreal in 1783. 'Their cliiefstronghold in the Northwest was Fort William mi Lake Superior, now Port Arthur. Here, every antutnn, the courettrs des hois, or men of the woods, and other employees of tbe company were accustomed to gather, spend their earnings lor liquor and luxuries, and hold high carnival. The Northwest company controlled most of the fur trade of the fled River Valley. Capt. Alexander Henry, an officer of this company, came to the valley in 1799 and was engaged in establishing trading posts. In tlie winter of 1797-8 a Canadian French trader named Chabollier built a. post at Pembina, but when Capt. Henry visited that point, in 3800, he found the post unoccupied, and proceeded to establish his headquarters there, About this time Capt. Henry had a post built on the Pembina river about nine miles below the point where tlie stream issues from the Pembina mountains, which in those times were called (he Hair hills. This post was soon afterward removed farther up tlie river to the vicinity of tlie site of St.Joseph, now the village of Walhalla, where, as Captain Henry says, "the waters of the Panbian leave the steep hills." On September 8, 1800, Capt. Henry selected the site for a trading post on the plain between the Red and Park rivers, and not far from the mouth of the latter stream. One year later, to wit, in September, 1801, he sent a party of men to build another on the site of Grand Forks. This post, however, was not long maintained.*' At this time Capt. Henry's party consisted of eighteen men, four women, and four children. Of the men, one was his clerk, and another acted as interpreter in dealing with the Indians. The same month and year, Thomas Miller, of the Hudson Bay company, with eight Orkney men arrived at Pembina and established a post on the east side of the river where Emerson now is. Agents of another organization called the X. Y. company also appeared in that part of the valley at this time, and for awhile maintained a. post on tlie Pembina river. In 1801 also, the Red River cart was devised. The canoe, the travial and the dog-sledge seem to. have been the only means of communication prior to the introduction of the Red River cart. At first Captain Henry considered * It is a question in the mind of the writer whether Captain Henry ever established a trading post on the site of Grand Forks at all. He was one of the i'ew men of that period who thought it worth the ell'oi't, while in the country, lo keep a record of their movements and observations. His journal is carefully preserved in the Government Historical Library at Ottawa, Canada, and only extracts from it seem to have been published. His references to tbe "forks of the river" appear to have meant the continence of the Red and As- siniboinc, that is, the site of Winnipeg, It is therefore doubtful, whether or not, there has been some misunderstanding as to the location meant by him, unless he specially designates Ihe forks of Rod and Red Lake rivers as the site of this post. Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.