Fort Montagne à la Bosse facts for kids

Fort Montagne à la Bosse (which means "Hump Mountain" in French) was an important trading post built by the North West Company. It was active from 1790 until at least 1805. This fort was located near what is now Virden, Manitoba, in Canada. It sat right on the Assiniboine River, at a spot where the river makes a big bend.

Discovering Fort Montagne à la Bosse

Trading posts like Fort Montagne à la Bosse were like small forts or villages in the wilderness. They were places where European traders met with Indigenous peoples. They exchanged goods like furs for tools, blankets, and other supplies. These posts were vital for the fur trade, which was a huge business long ago. To learn more about this period, you can read about the Assiniboine River fur trade.

Life and Trade at the Fort

Fort Montagne à la Bosse was closed for a short time but reopened in 1794. It was built on the wide-open prairie. Because of its location, it mostly traded for buffalo and wolf skins, rather than beaver furs. But its most important product was pemmican. Pemmican is a super-food made from dried meat, fat, and sometimes berries. It was a vital source of energy for the voyageurs. These were the brave travelers who paddled canoes long distances for the fur trade.

At one point, Fort Montagne à la Bosse and another post called Fort Esperance supplied most of the buffalo meat for the North West Company.

Connections and Explorers

Because Fort Montagne à la Bosse was the southernmost trading post for the North West Company in that area, it had some contact with the Mandan people. The Mandan were an Indigenous group living in what is now North Dakota. However, the main trade with the Mandan usually happened at another fort called Brandon House.

During the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition (a journey by American explorers), messages were exchanged between them at Fort Mandan and the traders at Fort Montagne à la Bosse. In 1805, a man named François-Antoine Larocque started his journey to the Yellowstone River from this very fort.

What the Fort Looked Like

Fort Montagne à la Bosse was built inside a strong wooden fence, called a stockade. This stockade measured about 200 feet by 250 feet. It was located on a high bank that looked out over the flat land around it.

Today, the original spot of the fort is marked by a stone monument, called a cairn. You can find it about 2.5 miles east of Virden. Sadly, the actual site of the fort was destroyed. This happened because gravel was dug up from the area. The gravel was used either for the Canadian Pacific Railway or for the old Highway No. 1. There was also another trading post nearby, run by a man named Peter Grant, but not much is known about it.