Methye Portage

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The Methye Portage or Portage La Loche, is part of an old fur-trade route across western Canada. It lies in the province of Saskatchewan, and runs 19 km overland from Wallis Bay at the north west end of Lac La Loche to the Clearwater River. The Clearwater River eventually runs into the Athabaska and Mackenzie Rivers, and then to the Arctic Ocean. Lac La Loche feeds the Churchill River which traverses Saskatchewan and Manitoba ending at Hudson Bay. The portage joins these two river transportation routes.

The Methye had been in use by indigenous peoples as a trade route for generations. They introduced it to Peter Pond in 1778. Although Anthony Henday had come within sight of the Rocky Mountains in 1754 by overland routes to the south, the advance of western exploration was limited until this fur trade transportation route to the Athabasca opened. The portage was in constant use until 1883 when the Canadian Pacific Railway reached Calgary ending more than 100 years as the main access to the north.[1]:23 From the winter of 1822, York boats came into use on this route in addition to canoes. Furs were transported up the Clearwater River by crews who would bring them to the centre of the portage, where they would be picked up by crews from Norway House for that portion of their transport.[2]:705

It also allowed for the spread of smallpox to previously untouched aboriginal populations, decimating them in a matter of years.[citation needed]

The Methye was also used by Sir Alexander MacKenzie on his exploratory expedition to the west coast, an expedition which reached the Pacific Ocean in 1793, fully 12 years before the more famous Lewis and Clark expedition.

[edit] External links

Rendezvous Lake near the centre of Methye Portage 56°40′55″N 109°48′55″W / 56.68194, -109.81528

[edit] See also

Continental Divide

[edit] References

  1. ^ MacGregor, James G. (1998), Peter Fidler, Canada's Forgotten Explorer 1769-1822 (3rd ed.), Calgary: Fifth House, ISBN ISBN 1-894004-19-1 
  2. ^ Morton, Arthur S; (Lewis G Thomas) [1939] (1973). A History of the Canadian West to 1870-71, 2nd ed, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-4033-0.