Collection search - Fort William, Lake Superior at the Mouth of the Kamanistiquia River

Fort William and Grand Portage were the two starting points for the canoe route westward from the Great Lakes.
The French had a series of forts in the Thunder Bay area prior to 1759 but they were closed with British control. The North West Company (NW Co.) re-established the fur trade in the area with a fort at Grand Portage (Minnesota). The fort would act as a midway transshipment (break-in-bulk) point between the company's inland posts and Montreal. The 1794 Jay Treaty acknowledged American control of the Grand Portage area. In 1803, the NW Co. moved to a new post on the Kaministiquia River. It was named Fort William after William McGillivray. With the 1821 union of the NW Co. with the Hudson's Bay Company, most of Fort William's trade shifted to York Factory on Hudson Bay.
The North West Company's employees were mostly French-Canadians and Métis.

Colour transparency available

Exhibition title: Fur Trade Fort William: A Chronology Through Art, 1805-1882. Thunder Bay Museum, Thunder Bay, Ontario; 2023.10.10 - 2024.03.31.

Inscribed. Signed. Dated., Inscription: Inscribed recto: on the mount u.r. "4" in pen and ink; centre left "McKay [sic] Mount" in pencil; l.l. "July - 1857. Fort William Lak [sic] Superior. / Mouth of the Kamanistiquia River / W.H.E.N. Napier / / Two of this" in pen and ink; plus other miscellaneous inscriptions in pencil.