Fort Maurepas (Canada)

Fort Maurepas
on the Red River, St. Andrews RM, north of Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada
Type	fur trade
Site history
Built	1734

Not to be confused with the Fort Maurepas built in 1699 on the Gulf of Mexico

Fort Maurepas was the name of two forts, or one fort in two locations, built by the French in the Lake Winnipeg area in the 1730s. They were both named after Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas who, as Minister of Marine, was in charge of French colonies.

First Fort Maurepas (Red River): In 1734 two explorers returned from Lake Winnipeg to Fort Saint Charles on Lake of the Woods and reported that they had found a good site for a fort near the mouth of Red River of the North, or Maurepas River as they called it. While returning to Montreal, La Vérendrye sent from Fort Kaministiquia Sieur Cartier, a merchant, with 12 men in 3 canoes to build a fort on the river. When he reached Fort Michilimackinac he ordered La Jemeraye to relieve his son Pierre at Fort Saint Charles so that Pierre assist at the new post. Since his son Jean-Baptiste had returned from the Indians, Jean-Baptiste went instead. The fort was five leagues up the Red River on high ground where the marshes end. The site has not been identified. Morton thinks it was on Nettley Creek which was called Riviére Aux Morts from a massacre of Saulteurs by the Sioux.

They explored the river from Lake Winnipeg almost to Pembina, North Dakota and opened a route from the Red River to Lake of the Woods via the Roseau River (Manitoba-Minnesota) and the Portage de la Savanne. In 1735 the fort produced 600 packages of furs. La Vérendrye himself arrived in February 1737 after travelling overland and held council with the Indians. In May 1737 it was reported that all the Indians at the fort had died of pox. In 1738 La Vérendrye returned, passing the fort on his way to found Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine River. By 1739 the fort was abandoned in favor of Fort Rouge upriver (south) at the present site of Winnipeg.

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Wikipedia