Date Published:
July 2005

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

Fort St. Charles

Fort St. Charles, a fur-trading post built by Pierre de la Vérendrye in 1732 at the west end of Lake of the Woods, at the Northwest Angle, on a peninsula extending far into the lake. It was named after Charles de Beauharnois, governor of Canada. It was the base from which La Vérendrye earned out his explorations, and was the most elaborate of the French posts in the far west. About 1758 it was abandoned, and the garrison was withdrawn. It is said to have been burned by the Indians during the Conspiracy of Pontiac in 1763; but parts of it were still standing when Alexander Henry passed it in 1775, and vestiges of the old fort were discovered in 1908.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 375.