Fort Espérance is a National Historic Site located in east central Saskatchewan near the Manitoba border. Fort Espérance was a fur trade post established by the North West Company in 1787. It is situated in the Qu’Appelle valley on the banks of the Qu’Appelle River. Fort Espérance was a provision post, and, as such formed a vital link in the northern fur trade. Each year it sent down large quantities of pemmican – a mixture of dried and pounded meat and melted fat tightly packed in hide sacks of approximately 90 pounds each – to the provision depot, Bas de la Rivière (later Fort Alexander), on Lake Winnipeg.