Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site of Canada

History

Lower Fort Garry is commemorated as the place where Treaty #1 was signed between the Ojibwa and Swampy Cree of Manitoba, and the Crown.

Inside a saleshop
© Parks Canada/ FGPN 325

Lower Fort Garry was a major business site for all in the Red River Settlement. Besides outfitting farmers and trappers with their yearly supplies, the Aboriginal communities in the surrounding areas also conducted much business with the Hudson's Bay Company. Many Aboriginal people would trade their leather goods, farmed crops and dried fish with the Company, and more still would work for the Company by taking part in the yearly buffalo hunts.

This continued well into the 1850s and 1860s, with many Aboriginal women working on the Company farms, and the men working the small fishery on the Red River.

In 1871, Treaty #1 was signed at Lower Fort Garry, and a plaque commemorating this treaty has been placed outside the West Gate of the Fort.

Lower Fort Garry is commemorated for its role as a major agricultural and industrial supply centre in the fur trade of Western Canada.

Ox-cart
© Parks Canada

Contrary to many popular beliefs, Lower Fort Garry was not primarily a fur trading post. While some pelts were purchased by the Hudson's Bay Company at the lower fort, many were transported to the post from neighbouring districts where they were re-packed for shipment to England via Norway House and York Factory.

In fact, the bulk of the trade with the local settlers was with farm produce. Everyone who lived in the settlement had a farm that they used to supply themselves with food, and then they sold their surplus to the Company.

The Hudson's Bay Company hoped that the farmers in the settlement would be able to supply a large portion of the food needed to supply the Company workers up North, since shipping from Lower Fort Garry would lower the cost as the food didn't have to come from England and secondly, it would be fresher.

Beginning in the 1840s, the HBC constructed a number of industrial buildings at Lower Fort Garry, including a grist and sawmill, brewery and distillery, blacksmith shop and lime kilns.

The Fort's strategic location for water transportation was integral to these activities

A York Boat
© Parks Canada/ FGPN 146

The journey for York boats from Hudson's Bay to the Red River Settlement was nearly 1100 km (700 miles) and contained dozens of gruelling portages. Each York boat would contain three tons of supplies, all of which had to be portaged in 91 kg (200 lbs) loads on tripmens' backs.

While the upper fort was a good shipping fort due to the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, the St. Andrew's Rapids (which created yet another portage) and the yearly threat of flooding created the need for a site that was on high ground and avoided the rapids.

Lower Fort Garry became, for a short time, a major transshipment post for the Hudson's Bay Company. This, combined with the ample Company space able to house hundreds of hired tripmen to work the boat runs, made the lower fort an ideal site for this task.

The surviving stone structures at Lower Fort Garry represent significant examples of early fur trade architecture

In front of the fur loft building
© Parks Canada/Staff, summer 1999

Lower Fort Garry is home to several different architectural designs that flourished in the fur trade era.

The fact that there was wood 32 km (20 miles) to the north as well as a generous supply of limestone at the fort, enabled several different methods of construction to be used in the settlement. Designs using both stone and wood abounded in the settlement back then, and the current historic buildings are examples of construction techniques used 150 years ago.

The two main techniques used were colombage pierroté, and Red River frame construction. The former was used to build the Men's House, the Annex to the Big House, as well as a stable no longer standing. The latter can be seen best on display in the southwest bastion, where a display showcases some of these architectural techniques.

The Mounties at Lower Fort Garry