Date Published:
June 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Fort Pasquia

Fort Pasquia , a fur-trading post built by the French prior to 1750 on the south bank of the Saskatchewan river, near the mouth of the Pasquia river. The name, which is variously, spelled Paskoya, Pascoyac, and Basquia; means "a narrow place between steep or high banks", and has reference to the fact that above this point the banks of the river are low and muddy, while below it the stream flows through a vast marsh. This was probably the "Neck of land" visited and named by Henry Kelsey in 1690-1; and it was during the French régime an important trading-centre. It was not rebuilt, however, after the British conquest.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 373-374.