Date Published:
July 2005

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

Fort Simpson

Fort Simpson, a name applied to two distinct trading-posts of the Hudson's Bay Company. The first is on an island at the junction of the Mackenzie and Liard rivers, and was built about 1820 by the North West Company. It was known at first as Fort of the Forks; but after the union of the North West Company with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821 was named after Sir George Simpson. The other is a post built originally in 1831-2 about 20 miles from the mouth of the Nass river, in northern British Columbia, and first known as Fort Nass. In 1834 it was moved to McLoughlin's bay, now Port Simpson, in British Columbia ; and a new fort was built in 1860. This was closed in 1913, and burned in 1914. See M. Barbeau, Fort Simpson, on the northwest coast (Canadian Historical Association, Annual Report, 1923).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 377.