Bas de la Rivière

Bas de la Rivière is a geographical area on both sides of the Winnipeg River at and near the mouth where it empties into Lake Winnipeg. It had a storied historical period in the opening of the west and the subsequent fur trade and settlement.

It is known that Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye, Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye and their men, explored the area in 1733 and built Fort Maurepas on the Red River in 1734. They may have established a structure at Bas de la Rivière at that time. A second Fort Maurepas was located there shortly after the first was established on the Red River.

After the La Vérendrye era and the Seven Years' War there was a steady increase in trade and commerce at the location. A supply depot, fishery and farm all flourished there. A community of Cree had a large village there by 1775 when Alexander Henry the elder traded in the area. Certain records refer to Fort Bas de la Rivière as the headquarters of the North West Company in the Winnipeg River basin at the time of the fur wars.

The three posts in the area were: second Fort Maurepas(French,c 1739), Fort Bas de la Rivière (NWC,1792) and Fort Alexander (HBC, before 1800). The area was strategic. The Winnipeg River was the main route east to Montreal. From Lake Winnipeg one could go southwest to the Assiniboine River, northwest to the Saskatchewan River and from there to Lake Athabasca or northeast up the Hayes River to Hudson Bay. See Canadian canoe routes (early) The forts were not proper trading posts where furs were collected but depots where goods were stored for shipment in either direction. After about 1810 or so when pemmican production started in the buffalo country along the Assiniboine River they were used to store pemmican to feed the voyageurs on their way to distant Lake Athabasca. There was some farming in the area. After the merger in 1821 the area became less important as trade was shifted from Montreal to York Factory on Hudson Bay.

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