The Athabasca Landing Trail was a long-distance

portage Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...

route that linked

Fort Edmonton Fort Edmonton (also named Edmonton House) was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1795 to 1914, all of which were located on the north banks of the North Saskatchewan River in what is now central Alberta, ...

(modern day

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...

, Alberta) on the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows eventual ...

with

Athabasca Landing Athabasca ( 2021 population 2,759), originally named Athabasca Landing, is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It is located north of Edmonton at the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 55, on the banks of the Athabasca River. It is the cen ...

(modern day

Athabasca, Alberta Athabasca ( 2021 population 2,759), originally named Athabasca Landing, is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It is located north of Edmonton at the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 55, on the banks of the Athabasca River. It is the ...

) on the

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is p ...

. The distance of the trail between Fort Edmonton and Athabasca Landing was , giving the trail the nickname "The 100 Mile Portage." The Saskatchewan flows east and joins the

Nelson River The Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The river drains Lake Winnipeg and runs before it ends in Hudson Bay. Its full length (including the Saskatchewan River and Bow River) is ...

which then drains into

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

. The Athabasca flows north and joins the Slave River, which itself joins the Mackenzie River which drains into the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

. The portage, therefore, had local economic significance but was also part of a wider trade network that linked the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada ( Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm ( Greenland), Finland, Iceland ...

and

sub-arctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of humid continental regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and the Cairngorms. Generall ...

to the rest of North America. Various portage routes between the two rivers had been used by the indigenous peoples of the region for centuries before the arrival of British and Canadian

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mo ...

rs in region in the late eighteenth century. Once fur trading posts were established in the region, the same simple trails were also used to move freight between the posts. They linked

Edmonton House Fort Edmonton (also named Edmonton House) was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1795 to 1914, all of which were located on the north banks of the North Saskatchewan River in what is now central Alberta, ...

(in all of its various incarnations over the years), the centre of the Saskatchewan District, to posts in the Athabasca District (including the

Peace River Country The Peace River Country (or Peace Country; french: Région de la Rivière-de-la-paix) is an aspen parkland region centring on the Peace River in Canada. It extends from northwestern Alberta to the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia, ...

) such as

Dunvegan Dunvegan ( gd, Dùn Bheagain) is a village on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It is famous for Dunvegan Castle, seat of the chief of Clan MacLeod. Dunvegan is within the parish of Duirinish, Skye, Duirinish, and Duirinish Parish Church is at Dunveg ...

, Fort St. Mary's,

Fort Chipewyan Fort Chipewyan , commonly referred to as Fort Chip, is a hamlet in northern Alberta, Canada, within the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo. It is located on the western tip of Lake Athabasca, adjacent to Wood Buffalo National Park, approx ...

, and Fort Vermilion. The main

pack Pack or packs may refer to: Places * Pack, Austria, a municipality in Styria, Austria * Pack, Missouri * Chefornak Airport Chefornak Airport is a state-owned public-use airport in Chefornak, a city in the Bethel Census Area of the U.S ...

route northwards from Edmonton from 1824 to 1876 was that to Fort Assiniboine, well to the west of the later Athabasca Landing Trail. It was due to

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...

scouts seeking an alternative to the Fort Assiniboine route that Athabasca Landing was founded in 1876. The

North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory ...

stationed nine officers at Athabasca Landing in 1893. In 2010, a conceptual master plan for the modern version of the Athabasca Landing Trail was completed. The plan is to build a non-motorized recreational trail, which runs between

Fort Saskatchewan Fort Saskatchewan is a city along the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta, Canada. It is northeast of Edmonton, the provincial capital. It is part of the Edmonton census metropolitan area and one of 24 municipalities that constitute the Edmo ...

and Athabasca, and highlights the region's historic and natural features. The route is also designated as part of the

Trans Canada Trail The Trans Canada Trail, officially named The Great Trail between September 2016 and June 2021, is a cross-Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic oceans. The trail extends ...

; it links to the River Valley Alliance Trail in the south and to both the land and water routes north to the Arctic Ocean.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/ec73fd59-773e-4044-8215-c63ac33aeb65/download/414e5ca0-860b-46d9-bf44-2d0e42917ee2 , title = History of the Athabasca Oil Sands Region, 1890 to 1960's , author1 = J .M. Parker , author2 = K.W. Tingley , publisher = Boreal Institute for Northern Studies , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-08-23 , url-status = live , quote = In 1892 the first summer detachment of the NWMP began operating at Athabasca Landing, and in 1893, Inspector D.M. Howard, with eight constables, established a permanent outpost at Athabasca Landing to regulate the rapidly increasing northward traffic. Portages in Canada Athabasca, Alberta Events of National Historic Significance (Canada) Historic trails and roads in Alberta Hudson's Bay Company Rupert's Land North-Western Territory

See also

References