Fort Alexandria

In 1821 the North West Company built a post here as the northern terminus of their Pacific brigade trail. Goods which had been brought up the Columbia to Fort Okanagan were sent overland by pack train to this point, then distributed by water to the post of New Caledonia. The post was named for Sir Alexander Mackenzie who had explored the upper Fraser in 1793. After the union of the companies in 1821, Fort Alexandria was retained by the Hudson’s Bay Company and played a key role in the logistics of the trade until road transportation supplanted the brigade in the 1860s.

En 1821, la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest construisit ici un poste qui servit de terminus septentrional à la route de la brigade sur la côte du Pacifique. Les marchandises acheminées au Fort Okanagan par le Columbia, puis transportées jusqu’ici par des bêtes de somme, étaient ensuite distribuées aux postes de la Nouvelle-Calédonie par voie d’eau. Après la fusion des deux compagnies en 1821, la Compagnie de la Baie d’Hudson conserva le fort Alexandria qui joua un rôle commercial important jusqu’à ce que le transport routier supplantât les brigades dans les années 1860.