Author: McKay, Elsie
Title: The Stone Fort: Lower Fort Garry
Description: Selkirk: Enterprise Publisher [no date; ca 1960]. Paper bound, stapled pamphlet, smaller quarto (6.5 x 9.5 tall), illustrated throughout with 35 historical photographs, Pp29. Very minor soiling and creasing to covers else a very good or better copy. From the first page: The Stone Fort. Lower Fort Garry, like Upper Fort Garry, was so named in tribute to Nicholas Garry, a Director of the Hudson's Bay Company who served on the Advisory Board at the time of the union of the Honorable Company and the North West Company in 1821. Upper Fort Garry, now the City of Winnipeg, having been built on a flat, was subject to flooding, which caused material damage or dilapidation; and decked vessels then in use between Norway House and Red River found it difficult to ascend the Rapids with their freight. After the flood of 1826 had caused severe damage to the Upper Fort, the main trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company in the West, Sir George Simpson considered it important that headquarters be established elsewhere and he chose a site some twenty miles north on the Red River, owing to the fact that it was north of the Rapids and had a good harbor near the mouth of a large Creek. At a Council meeting of the Hudson's Bay Company's Northern Department of Rupert's Land held at York Factory in 1830, it was decided that the new establishment be built. Sir Geoorge Simpson wrote to the Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company, London, Eng., under date of July 18, 1831, but it was not until October of that year that the workmen commenced operations, by digging foundations, getting stones, and preparing timber. We welcome all reasonable offers on our books.

Keywords: Lower Fort Garry Rare Pictorial Works; Old Stone Forts Western Canada, Old Stone Forts Manitoba Fur Trade


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