#hbchistory — Public Fediverse posts

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
When I wrote my first book, I mentioned that the furs had an odour. My beta reader asked me to explain what the furs smelled like. It was an interesting project. #Journeys #TheHBCBrigades #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/smell-of-furs/

NO ORDINARY RISKS: FROM HUDSON BAY TO THE ARCTIC SEA
When travelling through winter cold and deep snow, the men of the HBC set up their campsites for the night (or in this case, the day) by clearing away the snow using their snow-shoes as shovels, before lighting their warming fire. #Journeys #ThreeJourneysNorth #HBCHistory #NoOrdinaryRisks https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/winter-encampment/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
The story of a conversation between two traders who are brothers, on how the HBC promotions worked and who got the promotions and who did not.. It was all in who you knew... #Journeys #TheHBCBrigades #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/chief-trader/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
The tiny Chilcotin post was built as a temporary post in 1829, and completed at a later date. It stood on the banks of the Chilcotin River some distance south and west of Fort Alexandria, on the Fraser River. #TheHBCBrigades #Journeys #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/chilcotin/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
Deep Creek was a small river or Creek that flowed through a deep valley into the Fraser River, along which the brigade trail seemed to sometimes run. When I visited Wiliams Lake and was shown Deep Creek (Haines Creek), I was amazed at. how deep a gully it had dug for itself. #TheHBCBrigades #Journeys #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/deep-creek/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
In 1826, Peter Warren Dease continues the brigade journey North from Fort Alexander, on his way home from delivering the goods to Fort #Vancouver #WA #TheHBCBrigades #Journeys #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/brigade-twenty/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
In 1826, the men travelling with the incoming horse brigades make their way West to Fort Alexandria, travelling through the grasslands on the North bank of Lac La Hache (or Axe Lake). #Journeys #TheHBCBrigades #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/lac-la-hache/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
When the men in the HBC Brigades finally reached Bridge River, on their way North to Fort Alexandria and #FortStJames, they knew that the hard part of the journey home was finished and the easiest part was to come. #TheHBCBrigades #Journeys #HBCHistory #BCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/bridge-river/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
The new brigade trail, first opened in 1843, led the HBC men from Loon Lake north to Green Lake, on their way home to Fort Alexandria and #FortStJames #Journeys #TheHBCBrigades #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/green-lake/

THREE JOURNEYS NORTH TO THE ARCTIC SEA:
In 1842, clerk Augustus Peers got onto the London Ship to York Factory, and sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean to Hudson Bay. It was a new experience for a young man who had not yet been away from his home, and he enjoyed the journey. #ThreeJourneysNorth #Journeys #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/london-to-york-factory/

THE YORK FACTORY EXPRESS: FORT VANCOUVER TO HUDSON BAY, 1826-1849
In 1847, Thomas Lowe led out the York Factory Express from Fort #Vancouver, #WA, to the east side of the Rocky Mountains. He was one of the men who kept a good journal of the journey, and so we know exactly what occurred in this express. #Journeys #YorkFactoryExpress #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/thomas-lowe-2/

THE YORK FACTORY EXPRESS: FORT VANCOUVER TO HUDSON BAY, 1826-1849
It was a long tradition among the Canadien voyageurs that no one began a long journey on a Friday. I asked on Twitter (when it was still amazing) why it was so, and so learned how long ago this voyageur tradition had begun. #YorkFactoryExpress #Journeys #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/voyageur-superstition/

THE YORK FACTORY EXPRESS: FORT VANCOUVER TO HUDSON BAY, 1826-1849
From Fort #Vancouver #WA, the outgoing York Factory Express made their way upriver and through the mountains to Fort Nez Perces #WallaWalla, on the first leg of the journey east to Hudson Bay. #Journeys #YorkFactoryExpress #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/first-leg/

THE YORK FACTORY EXPRESS: FORT VANCOUVER TO HUDSON BAY, 1826-1849
My great-great-grandfather James Birnie travelled out and in in the first of the York Factory Expresses to Hudson Bay. I was astonished when I learned that he was there, and fortunately I found the journal written by the gentlemen who took it out, and who brought it in. Sometimes these stories are personal. #Journeys #YorkFactoryExpress #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/birnie-three/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
Provisioning for the HBC Brigades was sometimes quite a challenge, especially when the salmon runs were poor and every one who lived in the territory starved. The HBC sometimes had alternate provisions, of course.... #TheHBCBrigades #HBCHistory #Journeys https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/brigade-provisions/

THE YORK FACTORY EXPRESS: FORT VANCOUVER TO HUDSON BAY, 1826-1849
An introduction to the York Factory Express that tells you something of their journey to Hudson Bay and the experiences they had while on their canoe and boat journey to the east. #Journeys #YorkFactoryExpress #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/york-factory-express-introduction/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
Alexis Bellanger was shot but not killed in the boats as they came up the Fraser River to the #Quesnel River and Fort George #PrinceGeorge. He did die as a result of this shooting, but later, and at Fort Alexandria. His story is well known in this part of the world. #TheHBCBrigades #Journeys #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/alexis-bellanger/

THE YORK FACTORY EXPRESS: FORT VANCOUVER TO HUDSON BAY 1826-1849
In 1849, Michel Kaonesse led out the York Factory express to Hudson Bay, and on his return had a very difficult journey, having to deal with a death by gunshot, and later an accident on the violent Columbia River. #HBCHistory #Journeys #YorkFactoryExpress https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/michel-kaonasse/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
On his return from crossing over the Tulameen Plateau from #Hope #BC A.C. Anderson and his small party of explorers now make their way to the Nicola Valley and ride over its grasslands on their way home to #Kamloops. Many historic trails pass through this valley, and all of them are important. #HBCBrigades #Journeys #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/nicola-valley/

THREE JOURNEYS NORTH TO THE ARCTIC SEA:
In 1852, the Chilkats from the Pacific Northwest coast invaded Robert Campbell's Fort Selkirk and destroyed it, and Campbell and his men barely avoided being killed themselves. It was a violent, shocking attack and spelt the end for Fort Selkirk and Campbell's dreams. #ThreeJourneysNorth #Journeys #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/destruction-fort-selkirk/

THE HBC BRIGADES: CULTURE, CONFLICT, & PERILOUS JOURNEYS
At the top of the hill above Rhododendron Flats there was a small lake with a tree growing on its shoreline. When they reached it, Anderson's men carved the trunk of the tree and named it for Alexander Anderson, as traditionally happened whenever someone crossed a height of land he had not travelled before. #Journeys #TheHBCBrigades #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/andersons-tree/

THE YORK FACTORY EXPRESS: FORT VANCOUVER TO HUDSON BAY, 182601849
In the fall of 1847, the artist Paul Kane crosses the mountains to #Edmonton House, where he spends the winter before going home to #Canada travelling with the outgoing York Factory Express of 1848. #YorkFactoryExpress #Journeys #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/paul-kane-home/

THE YORK FACTORY EXPRESS: FORT VANCOUVER TO HUDSON BAY, 1826-1849
Sometimes stories come to you in little bits and pieces, and it is up to you to figure out how they fit into the story -- or even if they do fit into the story. These bits and pieces of stories are taken from things that were omitted from my book, and perhaps even stories that I learned later, after the book was published. #YorkFactoryExpress #HBCHistory #Journeys https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/bits-and-pieces/

THREE JOURNEYS NORTH TO THE ARCTIC SEA:
The HBC man called John O'Brien appears in many of my stories, although he is hardly mentioned at all. He is at Fort #Vancouver, Fort #Victoria, Fort Taku on the northwest coast. I find him in the York Factory Express. But it is only when he reaches Frances Lake that you realize what kind of a man he was. #Journeys #ThreeJourneysNorth #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/john-obrien/

THE YORK FACTORY EXPRESS: FORT VANCOUVER TO HUDSON BAY 1826-1849
In 1847, the artist Paul Kane, who is leaving the territory west of the Rockies, passes through the mountains and continues his journey down the Whirlpool River toward #Jasper's House #Alberta #Journeys #YorkFactoryExpress #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/rocky-mountains/

THE YORK FACTORY EXPRESS: FORT VANCOUVER TO HUDSON BAY, 1826-1849
John Greig was the miller at Fort Colvile. When he quit the HBC he rode west over the HBC Brigade Trail to #FortLangley. However, on his later property outside Fort #Victoria #BC he told his friends stories about his journey across the continent in the #YorkFactoryExpress #Journeys #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/john-greig/

THREE JOURNEYS NORTH TO THE ARCTIC SEA:
In one of his later writings, Fort Selkirk's Robert Campbell told the story of his joining the HBC and crossing the Atlantic Ocean in one of the London Ships of the time. Every man who came to York Factory arrived by the ships from London, so this was an experience common to everyone. #Journeys #ThreeJourneysNorth #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/london-ships/

THREE JOURNEYS NORTH TO THE ARCTIC SEA:
In 1828, Governor George Simpson of the HBC travelled from Portage La Loche to the Athabasca River and on to Athabasca Lake, where he visited Fort Chipewyan, on the lake's north shore. He would continue north as far as the Peace River, where he would head to the west and #FortStJames But others continued the journey north. #Journeys #ThreeJourneysNorth #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/two-canoes-eleven/

THREE JOURNEYS NORTH TO THE ARCTIC SEA:
The Echimamish River was a short and shallow river which flowed from a lake on the height of land to the Hayes River. Part of the same river system also flowed to the Nelson River and Playgreen, and so the two rivers led the men from the Hayes to Norway House by crossing over a low height of land. #Journeys #ThreeJourneysNorth #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/landmarks-on-the-echimamish-river/

THREE JOURNEYS NORTH TO THE ARCTIC SEA:
Winter travel is easy over hard snow and ice; but when the weather begins to change and becomes warmer, then the ice melts and travel becomes not only more difficult, but more dangerous as well. And so Augustus Peers had a difficult journey from Oxford House to Norway House, at the top of the hill. #Journeys #ThreeJourneysNorth #HBCHistory https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/spring-thaw/