Date Published:
July 2005

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

Fort Garry

Fort Garry, for many years the chief Hudson's Bay Company fort at what is now Winnipeg, near the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. It was built in 1822, after the union of the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies in 1821, on the site of the North West Company's Fort Gibraltar. It was named in 1823 after Nicholas Garry. Much of tie surrounding land was washed away by a flood in 1826; and in 1852 what was left of the fort was pulled down. In 1835 a second fort was built not far from the site of the first fort, and was sometimes known as Upper Fort Garry. It was a substantial structure, covering a space of 240 by 280 feet, and was enclosed by a solid stone wall, with four bastions of solid masonry at the corners. It was occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company until it was sold to the city of Winnipeg in 1882. Only the north gate now remains, as a relic of the post. See C. N. Bell, The old forts of Winnipeg (Transactions of the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba, new series, vol. iii, 1927).

Source : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p.369.