Lac La Biche - History - Transportation

Explorers | Fur Traders

FUR TRADERS

George Simpson

George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1821 to 1860, became known as the "Birch-bark Napoleon" for his dictatorial manner. As this passage illustrates, he sometimes acted as if even the Church were a part of his fur empire.

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"Lac La Biche ... [has] ... become the resort of a large body of retired servants and half-breed families, who since the free trade movement at Red River have given much trouble and found ways and means to convey considerable quantities of furs to the Settlement." – Sir George Simpson, 1853.

Although missionary activities were more or less the primary force behind the development of Lac La Biche from 1853 to the coming of the railroad in 1915, the fur trade was by no means dead.

In a report to his superiors in London, England dated June 29, 1853, Hudson’s Bay Company Governor Sir George Simpson expressed some apprehension over the impact that the Red River Colony free trade movement was having on HBC trade in the Athabasca country. Of particular concern to Simpson was Lac La Biche, which he had ordered abandoned in 1825. “There has been a Roman Catholic Mission for several years past established at Lac La Biche,” he wrote, which has “become the resort of a large body of retired servants and half-breed families, who since the free trade movement at Red River have given much trouble and found ways and means to convey considerable quantities of furs to the Settlement.” Simpson was convinced that the people at Lac La Biche were hoarding and hiding the best furs to trade with the Red River free traders.

The next day Simpson sat down and wrote a letter to Bishop Taché complaining that Oblate activities were injuring HBC trade because the missions were providing a haven for free traders. Lac La Biche, he informed Taché was becoming "a rendezvous for the petty traders". The Governor wanted the Bishop to "ensure your best endeavours to check the evil which must have sprung up without your knowledge."

In diplomatic language, Bishop Taché replied that there was no Roman Catholic mission at Lac La Biche as yet. When the mission became established, he would do all that he could to ease Simpson’s complaint - adding that it probably would not be much since there was little he could do to stop the free traders from going where they wanted, when they wanted. It was a polite brush-off but a brush-off nonetheless.

Sir George Simpson’s complaint about Lac La Biche becoming "the resort of a large body of retired servants and half-breed families" highlighted the growing reality of a development fur traders had long feared: settlement. European style civilization and settlement were the enemies of the fur trade. As one HBC shareholder put it, “the policy of the Hudson’s Bay Company from the beginning was to keep out every vestige of civilization and every attempt at colonization.” Simpson believed that once places like Lac La Biche developed into settlements, they would not only become centres of commercial opposition to the HBC, but would foster a spirit of insubordination among HBC employees. That had to be avoided at all cost.

The upshot of all this was the return of the HBC to Lac La Biche in 1853, the same year the Oblates arrived to establish a mission. Simpson’s primary aim was to head-off the free traders who were cutting into HBC profits. The HBC never fully succeeded at that task. But for the next 66 years, from 1853 to 1919, the Hudson’s Bay Company maintained a post at Lac La Biche.

From 1853 to 1855 the new HBC post at Lac La Biche was managed by Peter C. Pambrun. He was replaced by the legendary Henry J. Moberly, who took charge from 1856 to 1858. Looking every inch like a crusty old fur trader, Moberly wrote that he "had the melancholy satisfaction and distinction of hunting ... the last wood buffalo.

Source: Lac La Biche Chronicles: The Mission Era

Extract 1

The annual fall fishery was another important industry. It provided much of the food for the Mission through the winter. An indication of the importance of these fisheries came in the late 1870s and 1880s when declining fish catches prompted Faraud to consider limiting enrolment in the convent school. As early as 1862, brothers and Métis hired help were spending a full month in late October and November making the fall fishery. While the fish in the lake were getting increasingly scarce in the 1870s and 1880s, it was still considered a crucial activity at the Mission. To store these fish over the winter, an ice house was needed. The first mention of an ice house was the one house on the ground floor of the warehouse built in 1870. By 1881, however, Faraud noted that Boisramé and Charley Johnson were cutting wood for a new ice house.

Lac La Biche was considered to be a fish lake - a large deep lake at least twenty miles in length and two to three miles in width characterized by sandy beaches and bottoms. Only lakes such as these had fish sufficient to maintain the trader and his men and for this reason were the choice settings for posts (Tyrrell 1968:110). The fish which the traders depended upon was whitefish (Coregonus spp.), and according to Father Petitot, Lac La Biche produced "the best whitefish imaginable." (Rowand n.d.)

Whitefish was the staple food of the northern forests and its importance was such that the Chippeways and Nithe-wuk gave it the figurative appellation of "adikumaig" or "atihham eg" meaning "reindeer of the waters" (Richardson 1969:51), an implication that a favorable comparison with the huge caribou herds of the north was to be made. Nutritionally, whitefish provided a well-balanced diet preventing deficiency diseases such as scurvy. "Though it is a rich, fat fish, instead of producing satiety it becomes daily more agreeable to the palate; and ... one may live wholly upon this fish for months, or even years, without tiring." (Richardson 1836:195-196)

Extract 2

Tissot was trying his hand at trapping to generate extra revenue.

Two plus for a martin, it’s a bit encouraging in for those who know where to find them and the other furs are sold in proportion. I’m not too lucky in my hunt so far, one crossed fox and six mink, but I’ll keep setting traps and hope some little animals will eventually honor them with a visit.

By December, 1857, he had trapped fix foxes and one lynx, which he planned to trade for the purchase of a gilded silver chalice. Eventually he was able to buy a harmonium for the Mission from the proceeds of his traps. During the spring of 1858, he mentioned that.

October 16, 1890, this afternoon, the fisherman Julien (Cardinal) and Narcisse (Ladouveur) left with 16 nets for Birch Island. Tommy Huppie and Isidore to the fishing island (Black Fox Island).

November 1, 1890, Julien has 1,500 fish. Tommy 1,000.

October 31, 1892, [unkown] has 2,500 fish. Sylvestre (Bourque), 1,700 fish. Generally speaking, we are catching more than last year.

November 26, 1892, we have over 6,200 whitefish which is more than in previous years.

May 30, 1903, Joseph Cardinal went camping on one of the islands; result, 4 ducks and an all day nap. The ice appears to be going. It is very late.

November 10, 1896, the lake appears to be frozen between the mission and birch island. Also to the fishing island, Sylvestre Bourque and Jean Baptiste killed four animals.

October 19, 1904, Father LeGoff comes back from his hunt with six rabbits.

October 11, 1904, Raphael Tremblay brought us 30 pounds of moose meat. May his example be followed by hunters of Lac La Biche.

Source: The Edmonton Bulletin

The Lac La Biche Fish Company is building a new high power boat – 33 feet long and 14 feet wide. The fish companies are also anticipating the coming of spring and open water and are overhauling the machinery of their boats. An expert from Edmonton has been here for the past week attending to the motors of the Lac La Biche Fish Company and Mr. Douglas’ boat, the Alta.

Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta.