Voyageurs

During the fur trade Voyageurs were independent contractors, workers or minor partners in companies involved in the fur trade. They were licensed to transport goods to trading posts and were usually forbidden to do any trading of their own.

The life of a voyageur is explained in detail at this Hudson's Bay Company website.

COur de Bois

Coureurs des Bois were itinerant, unlicenced fur traders from New France. They were known as “wood-runners” to the English on Hudson Bay and “bush-lopers” to the Anglo-Dutch of New York. Unlike voyageurs, who were licensed to transport goods to trading posts, coureurs des bois were considered outlaws of sorts because they did not have permits from colonial authorities.

The main differences between the Voyageur and the Cour de Bois is explained at this website.

This video gives you a really good glimpse into the life of a Voyageur.

This video gives you a good glimpse of into the life of a COur de Bois.

FOrt Edmonton

Learn more about this important, interesting place that you can actually visit along the banks of the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton today!

An important historical place in Alberta...

Fort Edmonton was founded by HBC’s William Tomison in the fall of 1795 at the junction of the North Saskatchewan and Sturgeon Rivers. It was built “virtually next door” to the North West Company (NWC) post, Fort Augustus, which had been established only a few months earlier. Tomison named the site Edmonton after an estate in England owned by HBC Deputy Governor Sir James Winter Lake.

Click here to learn more about the modern-day site of Fort Edmonton, and what you can do and learn when you visit there.

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