Experiences (Newsletter)

Saving York Factory National Historic Site

Between 1684, when it was established by the Hudson's Bay Company, and its closing 273 years later in 1957, York Factory served as a trading post, distribution point and administrative center for a vast network of fur posts throughout the West. In its heyday, there were more than 50 buildings and hundreds of residents at York Factory, but years of erosion, permafrost decay and poor drainage have taken their toll. The buildings on the site are shifting, and drainage issues are obvious in the courtyard of the main depot building.

But things are looking up for this key link in the fur trade between Western Canada and Europe. In 2007, Parks Canada assembled a multidisciplinary team of experts, including historians, engineers, archaeologists and local First Nations, to study the site's soils, permafrost, vegetation, river erosion, drainage and past intervention. Their research work will continue until 2012.

York Factory Depot Building, Storehouse and Garden, 1878.
© Geological Survey of Canada/91879

Elders from the local Fox Lake Cree Nation and York Factory First Nation communities, some of whom were born and lived at York Factory before the Hudson's Bay Company closed it in 1957, are key to the success of the project. Through oral history research, they are helping the team understand how the site was maintained in the past.

There were actually three York Factories in the same area over the years. Its current location (York Factory III), near the mouth of Hayes River, was influenced by York Factory I (1684-1715) and York Factory II (1715-88). In 1788, a higher piece of land upstream from York Factory II was chosen, after the river rose more than 32 feet. Erosion along the north bank of the river destroyed York Factory I and York Factory II more than a century ago.

York Factory's importance continues, both as a national historic site and for the area's First Nations, who have strong connections to the site and consider it part of their ancestral home.