York Factory is Canada Strong

The Canada Strong Pass encourages Canadians and travellers alike to explore the treasured places that contribute to our national identity. Exemplified in every national park and national historic site is the strength of Canada, from legacies of resilience, the power in community, forces of nature, the fortitude of architecture and even physical feats. Parks Canada invites you to celebrate the significance of these places through sharing stories of strength, respecting the wild beauty of nature and using the Canada Strong Pass to the fullest.

The waters of the North flow with strength, and Parks Canada is proud to say that York Factory National Historic Site is Canada Strong.

York Factory sits just before the water of the Hayes River spills forth into the Hudson Bay. To its north, the Nelson River follows suit, leaving the fur trade post on a small peninsula. Boasting 273 years of active use, water was an important element for the post’s success.

This success can also be attributed to the knowledge of the First Nations of the region, who had been and continue to be stewards of these waterways since time immemorial. The familiar rivers had long since been transportation networks, traversed by canoe, that connected people to the coast and interior of what would become Manitoba.  These were the people, most often the Cree and the Assiniboine, who navigated the rivers, bringing furs from the interior and returning back with trade goods from the depot.

From York Factory, the furs would hit the open sea on their way to Europe where fur trade fed the growing trend of felted beaver hats. Ships would leave for England in the late summer and early fall, or risk being met with ice on the bay. At the end of the brutal northern winters, ships would once again return to the post in mid-May. In that way, the water controlled the comings and goings of the post.

Furs were not the only thing to come to the post by way of water. The York Factory Express, a brigade that traveled 4,200 kilometres in under four months, brought correspondence and Company men from the salt water of the Pacific Ocean to the salt water of the Hudson Bay. Beginning in Fort Vancouver, boats faced falls, rapids and lakes on its way to its final destination of York Factory.

York Factory was also the first introduction to many new settlers as they finished their transatlantic journey from Europe to Rupert’s Land. After a lengthy time asea, immigrants had a quick reprieve of land before the returned to the water. Rivers would take them the rest of the way to the fledgling Red River Settlement. The waters were an apt introduction to life in Manitoba, where river lots showed the importance of the rivers to daily life. From 1812 to the late 1850s, the post acted as the main entry point for European immigration to Western Canada.

While the waters brought prosperity to the post, it also threatened its very stability. York Factory as it stands is not the original York Factory. It isn’t even the second York Factory. This version of the post is York Factory III built in 1788, with its former iterations lost to the erosion of the bank of the Hayes River as early as 1900.

Water gave life to York Factory, and on two occasions swept it away. It is what helped shape its history — both the good and the bad — and is what makes it Canada Strong.