Fort Ellice

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Fort Ellice, a Hudson's Bay Company post, was built near the junction of the Assiniboine and Qu'Appelle rivers in 1831. This placed it just east of the present-day Manitoba-Saskatchewan border.

It was an important fort, being a major stopping point on the Carlton Trail, which ran from the Red River settlement to Fort Edmonton. (The section leading from Upper Fort Garry to this district was commonly known as the Fort Ellice Trail.)

A second, more elaborate, structure was built in 1862 by the HBC but its economic life was short-lived as the Company relinquished control of the north west with the 1870 Deed of Surrender. This deed transferred many HBC rights to the new national government.

The fort had one more important role to play in history; it acted as a staging point for part of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) force that was headed west in 1874 to establish law and order in what are now the Canadian prairie provinces. The fort acted as an NWMP post beginning in 1875.