where was the fur trade located

Where did the fur trade occur?

The fur trade began in the 1600s in what is now Canada. It continued for more than 250 years. Europeans traded with Indigenous people for beaver pelts. The demand for felt hats in Europe drove this business.

When did the fur trade start and end?

Introduction. The fur trade was a thriving industry in North America from the 16th through 19th centuries. When Europeans first settled in North America, they traded with Indigenous peoples (known in different places as First Nations, Native Americans, or American Indians).

Who set up the fur trade?

The earliest fur traders in North America were French explorers and fishermen who arrived in what is now Eastern Canada during the early 1500's. Trade started after the French offered the Indians kettles, knives, and other gifts as a means to establish friendly relations. The Indians, in turn, gave pelts to the French.

Do fur traders still exist?

Most of the exploration across North America by Europeans was conducted by men looking for furs, first and foremost. If they happened on other riches, it was a side benefit. Fast forward a few hundred years, the fur trade is still alive and still flourishing.

What caused fur trade?

High demand resulted in the near extinction of Europe's beaver population by 1500, forcing traders to come to what is now the United States and Canada for pelts. Europeans viewed North America as a land of opportunity with vast natural resources, including fur-bearing mammals.

How much are furs worth?

The best quality pelts – the largest sizes that are fully prime and undamaged – will have demand and may sell for $10-15, but the rest may not sell at all, or if they do, average in the low single digits.

How did the fur trade end?

Many Indigenous peoples soon came to depend on the fur trade as their primary source of income and European-manufactured goods. However, by the mid-19th century changing fashions in Europe brought about a collapse in fur prices and led to the closure of several fur companies.

What is a fur trader called?

Voyageurs ("travelers" in French) were men hired to work for the fur trade companies to transport trade goods throughout the vast territory to rendezvous posts.

When did the fur trade start?

The North American fur trade began as early as the 1500s between Europeans and First Nations (see: Early French Fur Trading) and was a central part of the early history of contact between Europeans and the native peoples of what is now the United States and Canada.

How did the fur trade end?

Many Indigenous peoples soon came to depend on the fur trade as their primary source of income and European-manufactured goods. However, by the mid-19th century changing fashions in Europe brought about a collapse in fur prices and led to the closure of several fur companies.

When was the fur trade era?

The peak of the Rocky Mountain fur trade ran for a very short period of time, from 1820 to 1840. This was the time that Americans became more interested in the politics and geography beyond the Mississippi River; it was a time of expansion and experimentation.

What ended the fur trade in Canada?

In 1701, the French and their allies reached a truce with the Haudenosaunee, known as the Great Peace of Montreal. This effectively ended the Beaver Wars over the fur trade.

Where did the fur trade take place?

The Fur Trade. Native Americans traded along the waterways of present-day Minnesota and across the Great Lakes for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in the mid-1600s. For nearly 200 years afterward, European American traders exchanged manufactured goods with Native people for valuable furs. The Ojibwe and Dakota held powerful positions, ...

Who were the main parties involved in the fur trade?

After the War of 1812 there were three main parties involved in the Upper Mississippi fur trade: Native Americans (primarily the Dakota and Ojibwe), the fur trading companies, and the US government. These parties worked together and each had something to gain from a stable trading environment. Both Fort Snelling and the Indian Agency were ...

Why did the fur trade decline in Minnesota?

By the 1840s the fur trade had declined dramatically in the Minnesota region, partially due to changes in fashion tastes, the availability of less-expensive materials for hat-making, and because the US government reduced Dakota and Ojibwe hunting grounds through treaties.

What were the primary trappers of fur-bearing animals in the Northwest Territory?

The Dakota and Ojibwe were the primary trappers of fur-bearing animals in the Northwest Territory. They harvested a wide variety of furs (beaver being the most valuable) in the region's woodlands and waterways.

What were the important things that the French and British did to the fur trade?

Trade with Native Americans was so critical to the French and British that many European Americans working in the fur trade adopted Native protocols. The Ojibwe were particularly influential, which led many French and British people to favor Ojibwe customs of bartering, cooperative diplomacy, meeting in councils, and the use of pipes.

Why was Fort Snelling established?

Both Fort Snelling and the Indian Agency were established by the US government at the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota river s to control and maintain the stability of the region's fur trade. By 1823, the American Fur Company controlled the fur trade across much of present-day Minnesota. The company’s headquarters was at the confluence ...

Who ran the Western Outfit of the American Fur Company?

The post was managed by Alexis Bailly, who began running a series of trading posts that extended up the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. Henry Hastings Sibley , who took Bailly’s place in 1834, ran the Western Outfit of the American Fur Company and was responsible for trade with the Dakota.

Where is the Museum of Fur Trade?

The Museum of the Fur Trade is located on the James Bordeaux trading post, which has become an important historical site over the years. The trading post was established in the fall of 1837 as a site for the American Fur Company to conduct business with American Indians who spent their winters in the area.

When was the trading post reconstructed?

The trading post was reconstructed on its original foundation stones in 1956 and formally opened to the public later that year. Although the walls and the stumps of the upright supports were clearly revealed during the excavations, all wood components of the structures had deteriorated beyond any possibility of reuse.

When did Boucher get out of business?

Finally, in August 1876, army troopers caught Boucher with 40,000 rounds of ammunition and put him out of business. The post on Bordeaux Creek fell into ruins by the time the railroad and the first homesteaders reached Pine Ridge in 1885.

Where did the fur trade take place?

One of the final historical episodes in which the fur trade played a leading role took place in the Oregon Country from 1790 to 1848.

What was the fur trade?

The fur trade was the earliest and longest-enduring economic enterprise that colonizers, imperialists, and nationalists pursued in North America. It significantly shaped North American history, especially from 1790 until 1840, when the trade played a dramatic and critical role in the Oregon Country, which included present-day Oregon ...

What was the fur trade in Oregon?

British interest in the Oregon fur trade originated with the late eighteenth-century maritime expeditions of British naval officers James Cook and George Vancouver. Great Britain set out to create a vast global empire, using the tools of conquest, colonization, and commerce. The royal navy's expeditions of "discovery" and trade advanced British interests everywhere, including the practically uncharted regions of the North Pacific Ocean. Captain James Cook's Third Voyage to the Pacific in the 1770s took him to the Pacific Northwest Coast, where he encountered Native Nations such as the Haida, Tlingit, and Nootkans. After Cook was killed in Hawai'i, his associate George Vancouver continued to explore and chart the Northwest Coast. Commercial traders soon followed, exchanging copper, weapons, liquor, and varied goods for sea otter pelts. Natives also acquired syphilis, gonorrhea, and other diseases from the seafarers who sojourned on the Oregon Coast.

How much did Oregon fur sell for?

With beaver fur approaching its highest nineteenth-century market value, Oregon furs sold in London for about five dollars a pound. From 1825 through the 1830s, several hundred fur hunters from both the United States and Canada prowled the interior Pacific Northwest, harvesting peltry.

How many beaver skins were harvested in the 1820s?

Precise numbers are furtive, but it is reasonable to assume that the combined fur harvest of the HBC men and the Americans working the Snake Country in the 1820s accounted for twelve to sixteen thousand beaver skins annually, along with many mink, otters, muskrats, martins, and other furs.

How did the fur trade affect the Indians?

By about 1870, through treaties and the establishment of the reservation system, Native subsistence bases had practically collapsed, and Indians could no longer survive on the natural products of their own land. Still, the fur trade and Indian trade offer a deep-time continuity that is unmatched in North American history. One of the final historical episodes in which the fur trade played a leading role took place in the Oregon Country from 1790 to 1848.

Which countries were involved in the Oregon fur trade?

The sea-based trade, however, was necessarily limited in scope, and eventually land-based traders would greatly expand the Oregon fur trade. Spain, Russia, Britain, and the United States made assertions of sovereignty over Oregon and its coastal fur trade.

Where did the fur trade begin?

The fur trade began as an adjunct to the fishing industry. Early in the 16th century, fishermen from northwest Europe were taking rich catches of cod on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Drying their fish onshore took several weeks. During that time, good relations had to be maintained with Indigenous people, who were eager to obtain metal and cloth goods from the Europeans. What they had to offer in exchange were furs and fresh meat. The fishermen found an eager and profitable market in Europe for the furs.

What was the fur trade?

The fur trade was a vast commercial enterprise across the wild, forested expanse of what is now Canada. It was at its peak for nearly 250 years, from the early 17th to the mid-19th centuries. It was sustained primarily by the trapping of beavers to satisfy the European demand for felt hats. The intensely competitive trade opened the continent to exploration and settlement. It financed missionary work, established social, economic and colonial relationships between Europeans and Indigenous people, and played a formative role in the creation and development of Canada. (This is the full-length entry about the fur trade. For a plain-language summary, please see Fur Trade in Canada (Plain Language Summary).)

What was the main trade in the West Indies?

The main staple of the trade was still beaver pelts for the hat industry. The Ministry of Marine, responsible for colonial affairs, leased three overseas enterprises — the West Indies plantation trade, the African slave trade, and the marketing of Canadian beaver and moose hides — to the newly formed Compagnie des Indes occidentales. In reality, it was a crown corporation. All permanent residents of New France were permitted to trade for furs with Indigenous people. However, they had to sell the beaver and moose hides to the company at prices fixed by the Ministry of Marine. All other furs were traded on the free market. Thus, the trade was not a monopoly, but the law of supply and demand had been suspended for beaver and moose hides.

What were the French's trade partners?

Indigenous peoples were important partners in this growing fur trade economy. From roughly 1600 to 1650, the French forged alliances of kinship and trade with the Huron-Wendat, Algonquin and Innu. These peoples helped the French collect and process beaver furs and distribute them to other Indigenous groups throughout their vast trade network, which was established well before the arrival of Europeans. The fur trade provided Indigenous peoples with European goods that they could use for gift-giving ceremonies, to improve their social status and to go to war. The French forged military alliances with their Indigenous allies in order to maintain good trade and social relations. In the 17th century, the French fought against the Haudenosaunee in the struggle for control over resources. This was known as the Beaver Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars.

Why did the French abandon the Western trading posts?

The order to abandon the Western trading posts (to slow the migration of men into the beaver trade, and to reduce the glut of pelts) was given while England and France were at war. The Canadians were engaged in a desperate struggle with the English colonies and their Haudenosaunee allies. ( See also: Beaver Wars .) The governor and intendant (French administrator) in Quebec protested vigorously. They declared that to abandon the posts in the West meant abandoning their Indigenous allies. By the latter half of the 17th century, these also included the Saulteaux ( Ojibwa ), Potawatomi and Choctaw. The French feared that these peoples would become allies of the English. If that happened, New France would be doomed.

How did the North West Company gain a monopoly?

The resulting North West Company (NWC) rose rapidly to a position of dominance by gaining a de facto monopoly of the trade in the fur-rich area around Lake Athabasca. ( See also: The North West Company, 1779–1821 .) Staple fur ( beaver) and fancy furs ( mink, marten, fisher, etc.), unsurpassed in quality and number, assured handsome profits. They did so even in spite of the high costs of the necessarily labour-intensive transportation system, the canoe brigade. The annual dash of brigades from Fort Chipewyan to Grand Portage (later to Fort William) on Lake Superior created much of the romantic image of the fur trade. To maintain its Athabasca monopoly the NWC competed, at a loss if necessary, with its opponents on the Saskatchewan River, around Lake Winnipeg and north of the Great Lakes. On the North Saskatchewan River, the rival companies leapfrogged westward past each other’s posts in an attempt to gain a commercial advantage with First Nations.

How did the fur trade in New France work?

Unlike the HBC, with its monolithic structure staffed by paid servants, the fur trade in New France was carried on into the early 18th century by scores of small partnerships. As costs rose with distance, the trade came to be controlled by a small number of bourgeois. They hired hundreds of wage-earning voyageurs. Most companies consisted of three or four men who obtained from the authorities a lease at a specific post for three years. All members of a company shared profits or losses proportional to the capital invested. Trade goods were usually obtained on credit, at 30 per cent interest, from a small number of Montreal merchants. They also marketed the furs through their agents in France. The voyageurs’ wages varied from 200 to 500 livres if they wintered in the West. For those who paddled the canoes westward in the spring and returned with the autumn convoy, the usual wage was 100–200 livres plus their keep (about double what a labourer or artisan would earn in the colony).

What is the fur trade?

The North American fur trade, an aspect of the international fur trade, was the acquisition, trade, exchange, and sale of animal furs in North America. Indigenous peoples and Native Americans of various regions of the present-day countries of Canada and the United States traded among themselves in the pre–Columbian era.

Who discovered the fur trade?

Origins. Further information: Canadian canoe routes. French explorer Jacques Cartier in his three voyages into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the 1530s and 1540s conducted some of the earliest fur trading between European and First Nations peoples associated with 16th century and later explorations in North America.

What were the effects of the beavers trade?

The trade and subsequent killings of beavers were devastating for the local beaver population. The natural ecosystems that came to rely on the beavers for dams, water and other vital needs were also devastated leading to ecological destruction, environmental change, and drought in certain areas.

What happened to fur prices in the 19th century?

By the middle of the 19th century, changing fashions in Europe brought about a collapse in fur prices. The American Fur Company and some other companies failed. Many Native American communities were plunged into long-term poverty and consequently lost much of the political influence they once had.

How did the fur trade affect North America?

The trade soon became one of the main economic drivers in North America, attracting competition amongst various European nations which maintained trade interests in the Americas. The United States sought to remove the substantial British control over the North American fur trade during the first decades of its existence. Many indigenous peoples soon came to depend on the fur trade as their primary source of income and European-manufactured goods. However, by the mid-19th century changing fashions in Europe brought about a collapse in fur prices and led to the closure of several fur companies. Many indigenous peoples were plunged into poverty and consequently lost much of the political influence they once held.

When did beaver fur become popular?

The discovery of the superior felting qualities of beaver fur, along with the rapidly increasing popularity of beaver felt hats in fashion, transformed the incidental trading of fishermen into a growing trade in the French and later British territories in the 17th century.

Where did beaver pelts come from?

The earliest European trading for beaver pelts dated to the growing cod fishing industry that spread to the Grand Banks of the North Atlantic in the 16th century. The new preservation technique of drying fish allowed the mainly Basque fishermen to fish near the Newfoundland coast and transport fish back to Europe for sale. The fishermen sought suitable harbors with ample lumber to dry large quantities of cod. This generated their earliest contact with local indigenous peoples, with whom the fisherman began simple trading.

Where did the American Fur Company control the fur trade?

By 1823, the American Fur Company controlled the fur trade across most of present-day Minnesota. The company’s headquarters stood at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers (Bdote), ...

What company disrupted the fur trade?

The Dakota, meanwhile, continued trading in the south. In 1784, the British North West Company, a competitor of the powerful Hudson’s Bay Company, disrupted the fur business when it constructed an inland headquarters at Gichi Onigamiing (Ojibwe for “The Great Carrying Place”—Grand Portage). It was the largest fur trade depot in the heart ...

Where are muskrat fur pelts?

Muskrat fur pelts on display at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading post in Onamia, Minnesota. Created no earlier than 1918. The North American fur trade began around 1500 off the coast of Newfoundland and became one of the most powerful industries in US history. In Minnesota country, the Dakota and the Ojibwe traded in alliance with ...

Why did Minnesota fur traders marry Native women?

Traders often married Native women from prominent families, so that their relatives would come to them to trade. As a result of generations of intermarriage, large communities of diverse heritage developed. The dynamics of Minnesota’s fur trade shifted again in 1803.

Where is the headquarters of American Fur Company?

The company’s headquarters stood at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers (Bdote), in the shadow of newly constructed Fort Snelling. A series of American Fur Company posts extended up both rivers.

When did the fur trade in Minnesota change?

The dynamics of Minnesota’s fur trade shifted again in 1803. The United States, eager to solidify its border with Canada and claim its exclusive right to lucrative land, imposed regulations on British companies.

Where did the North West Company meet in July?

Each July, the two groups met at the North West Company Depot on Lake Superior for Rendezvous, the annual mid-summer company meeting and celebration. Hundreds of voyageurs spent the better part of July camped outside the palisade. Food was abundant and liquor flowed freely for those willing to part with wages just received for the past year’s work.

Where is the Museum of Fur Trade?

The Museum of the Fur Trade is much more than just another history museum - it is a step back in time. Located three miles east of Chadron, Nebraska, the museum includes over 6,000 artifacts to illustrate daily life in early America for fur traders and Native Americans.

Is photography allowed in the Museum of the Fur Trade?

Unlike many other museums, photography is allowed at the Museum of the Fur Trade, so remember to bring your camera along!

The North American Fur Trade

Indians and The Fur Trade

The Early Pacific Northwest Maritime Fur Trade

Over Land to The Pacific

• The London-based Hudson’s Bay Company and the Montreal-based North West Company were the most important British and Canadian fur-trading outfits in nineteenth-century North America. They developed nearly identical structural and social hierarchical systems, reflecting the fur trade’s special character in North American history. Chartered in 1670 by...

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