Written by: Suzanna Wagner, Program Coordinator, Victoria Settlement and Fort George & Buckingham House
The Hudson’s Bay Company kept a close eye out for anywhere their business might flourish. So, in 1864, when it came to their attention that large groups of people were gathering at the McDougall Methodist Mission on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River (south of the present-day town of Smoky Lake), setting up a fur trade fort next door was an enticing prospect. Rather than reprise the “Fort White Earth” name of the HBC fort that had operated in the vicinity at the turn of the century, they chose to call the place “Victoria Post.” Victoria was the same name as the mission, and it was a “post” because it wasn’t large enough to merit being called a fort. Despite the technicalities, most people call it Fort Victoria.
By 1874, the fort contained the Clerk’s Quarters (still at Victoria Settlement Provincial Historic Site today), a warehouse, a house for other fort employees, a blacksmith shop, a stable, a dairy, a palisade, and of particular interest, the trade store. The trade store was built by local men Sam Whitford and Joe Turner, likely between 1866 and 1867. The humble post-in-sill built trade store went through almost as many changes as did the community which surrounded it, and unique within the history of Victoria Settlement, a series of photographs have shed light on many of the changes this building underwent.
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