Fort Edmonton Fort Edmonton ( also named Edmonton House ) was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson ' s Bay Company from 1795 to 1891 , all of which were located in central Alberta , Canada . From 1795 to 1821 it was paired with the North West Company ' s Fort Augustus . It was the end point of the Carlton Trail , the main overland route for Metis freighters between the Red River Colony and the west and an important stop on the York Factory Express route between London , via Hudson Bay , and Fort Vancouver in the Columbia District . The fifth and final Fort Edmonton was the one that evolved into present - day Edmonton . Fort Edmonton was also called named Fort - des - Prairies , by French - Canadians trappers and coureurs des bois , and " Amiskwaskahegan " or " Beaver Hills House " by the Cree Indians during the 19th century . Fort Edmonton , Mark I ( 1795 – 1801 ) . In the late 18th century , the Hudson ' s Bay Company was in fierce competition with the North West Company for the trade of animal furs in Rupert ' s Land . As one company established a fur trading post , the other would counter by building another post in close proximity . Expansion down the Saskatchewan River began in the 1790s . In the summer of 1795 , the North West Company constructed Fort Augustus where the Sturgeon River ( Alberta ) meets the North Saskatchewan River near the present - day city of Fort Saskatchewan . In the following autumn , Hudson ' s Bay constructed Edmonton House nearby , where the Sturgeon River meets the North Saskatchewan River 34 km northeast of modern Edmonton . In a possible revelation of the competitive nature of the companies , Fort Augustus and Edmonton House ' s distance was described as being a " musket - shot " apart , yet the proximity also offered mutual security to the European traders of both companies in a land where they were all intruders . Fort Edmonton was named by John Peter Pruden , clerk to the HBC ' s George Sutherland . The Fort was named after Edmonton , Middlesex , England , birthplace of both Pruden and HBC Deputy Governor Sir James Winter Lake . Fort Edmonton , Mark II ( 1801 – 1810 ) . In 1801 , due to several years of declining fur returns and increasingly scarce firewood , it was decided to move Fort Edmonton and Fort Augustus upstream , to what is now the Rossdale area of downtown Edmonton . This area had been a gathering place for aboriginals in the region for thousands of years . The first woman of European descent to live in this region was the French - Canadian Marie - Anne Gaboury , who was also noteworthy as the grandmother of Louis Riel . She had accompanied her fur trader husband , Jean - Baptiste Lagimodière , into the west , and was known to take part in hunting expeditions . They lived in Fort Augustus from 1807 to 1811 . John Rowand , chief factor at Fort Edmonton from 1823 to 1854 , first worked at Fort Augustus from 1804 to 1806 ; he was stationed there again from 1808 onward . Fort Edmonton , Mark III ( 1810 – 1812 ) . Both Fort Augustus and Fort Edmonton moved to the mouth of White Earth Creek , 100 km northeast of modern Edmonton at the northernmost point of the North Saskatchewan near present - day Smoky Lake , Alberta . This location was only active for two years for two main reasons : the Cree had been encouraged to visit other posts to avoid violent confrontations with the Blackfoot , yet the Blackfoot refused to travel so far off of their normal circles and consequently took their trade south to Americans . The two posts shared a palisade from this time forward . Fort Edmonton , Mark IV ( 1813 – 1830 ) . Fort Edmonton and Fort Augustus moved back to the second site at the Rossdale flats , it having proven to be a site more amenable for the tribes to visit . The name Fort Augustus was dropped following the merger of the Hudson ' s Bay Company and the North West Company in 1821 . After the amalgamation of the companies ( which thereafter used the Hudson ' s Bay Company name ) , Fort Edmonton became the headquarters for the Saskatchewan District , which stretched from the Canadian Rocky Mountains in the west to Fort Carlton in the east ; from the 49th parallel in the south to Lesser Slave Lake in the north . The former Nor ' Wester John Rowand was placed in charge of Edmonton in 1821 as chief trader . In 1823 , Rowand was promoted to chief factor . Rowand managed Saskatchewan District from Fort Edmonton until his death in 1854 . Fort Edmonton , Mark V ( 1830 – 1915 ) . Due to floods in the late 1820s , the Fort on the Rossdale flats had to be moved to higher ground . This fifth and final fort was built on the site that is now inhabited by the Alberta Legislature Building . Rowand ' s administration . At this time , a long - serving member of the HBC , John Edward Harriott , became the chief trader under Rowand . The two gained family ties when Harriott married one of Rowand ' s daughters . On a couple of occasions when Rowand joined HBC Inland Governor George Simpson for travel abroad , Harriott acted as chief factor . Rowand ' s administration from the 1830s onward coincided with a great change in the Saskatchewan District . For the first time , missionaries , artists , and curious travellers came to Edmonton to visit , sometimes for extended periods , which frustrated Rowand to some degree . Prior to this time , the only Europeans to come that far into the west were men on some sort of company business . With Rowand having made Edmonton his home , the fort became an important centre in the west . It was a necessity for any traveller going any further west of Edmonton to go through there for provisions first . Rowand constructed a three - storey house in the heart of the fort for the exclusive use of him and his family , denoting his station to his subordinates , visitors and trade partners alike . Influx of missionaries . Two Catholic missionaries , Francois - Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers , were the first to visit Fort Edmonton ( called " Fort - des - Prairies " ) in 1838 . Starting in 1840 , the Fort housed the Wesleyan missionary Robert Rundle as a company chaplain . Rundle ' s tenure lasted until 1848 , and his ministry and missionary work was met with competition of a sort by Jean - Baptiste Thibault , a Catholic priest who , like Rundle , was attempting to evangelize natives in the area . A chapel was erected inside the fort in 1843 , which the Reverend Rundle boasted could host " ( one ) hundred Indians " ; the structure also had two small rooms for Rundle ' s private use . Meanwhile , Rowand complained that the presence of ministers in his fort was a distraction for the natives , and was ostensibly impeding the fur trade business . On a personal level , however , Rowand had taken a liking to Rundle , and entrusted the minister with teaching his children . In 1852 , the Oblate missionary Albert Lacombe first visited Fort Edmonton . With Rundle having departed in 1848 , Lacombe easily took up residence in the former Methodist chapel . Lacombe took pity on the fur trade labourers , opining that , " during the summer months , [ Hudson ' s Bay labourers ' toil ] was as hard as that of the African slave . " . He found little sympathy for the workers from John Rowand or the HBC clerks . The following year , Lacombe moved to Lac St . Anne , but had a new Catholic chapel constructed in the fort in 1857 ( but did not dwell there ) ; this chapel lasted nearly twenty years before being moved outside of the fort . A Methodist follow - up to Robert Rundle , Reverend Thomas Woolsey , was dispatched to Edmonton in 1852 . His arrival in the fort coincided with Lacombe ' s residency in the former Methodist chapel , a discovery which distressed Woolsey . Conflicts and private frustrations with Catholic missionaries , and failures to convert Catholics to Protestantism , marked Woolsey ' s twelve - year residence at the fort . In 1854 , the mission St . Joachim was officially founded in turn at Fort - des - Praires ( Fort Edmonton ) . Oregon Mission . Though somewhat distant from the territory in question , Fort Edmonton , an important stop on the York Factory Express overland trade route , was peripherally involved in the Oregon Boundary Dispute . A pair of British Army Lieutenants , Mervin Vavasour and Henry James Warre , were sent on a mission in the guise of eccentric gentlemen to reconnoitre the lower Columbia River valley and Puget Sound . Among other objectives , they were to determine which HBC posts could be used in a military conflict . The trip had been encouraged by Sir George Simpson Governor of the Hudson Bay Company . Warre and Vavasour reported that the mountain passes were unsuitable for troop transport . Their mission took them through Fort Edmonton in the fall of 1845 , and again on their way back to Montreal in 1846 . They wrote : " Without attempting to describe the numerous Defiles through which we passed , or the difficulty of forcing a passage through the burnt Forests , and over the high land , we may venture to assert , that Sir George Simpson ' s idea of transporting troops . . . with their stores , etc . through such an extent of uncultivated Country and over such impracticable Mounatins would appear to Us quite unfeasible . " As with other forts he visited on this mission , Vavasour drew a plan of Edmonton . Other notable visitors . The artist Paul Kane first visited the fort in 1845 . He produced several works of art based upon his time there . Rowand ' s end . In May 1854 , John Rowand died while accompanying the annual York Boat trip eastward . Accounts suggest that he tried to break up ( or join ) a skirmish between some of the tripmen while at Fort Pitt , and in his rage he fell suddenly dead . He was initially buried at Fort Pitt , but was later exhumed and buried in Montreal as per his last will and testament . Remaining Years . Remaining administrators . Following a few short - lived administrations in Rowand ' s wake , William J . Christie was a long - lasting chief factor at Edmonton from 1858 to 1872 . Christie ' s protégé Richard Charles Hardisty , later a Canadian , served as chief factor in Edmonton for an interim period from 1862 through 1864 . The Hudson ' s Bay Company relinquished Rupert ' s Land to the Government of Canada in 1868 , pursuant to the Rupert ' s Land Act 1868 , thus ending the HBC ' s administration of the vast territory and beginning an era of settlement in the 1870s . By the 1890s , the fort was in disrepair and largely abandoned . The Hudson ' s Bay Company transitioned to retail stores , and business in Edmonton ran from one of those instead . Explorers . In 1841 James Sinclair stopped at Fort Edmonton to receive instructions on where to cross the Rockies ; while leading a party of nearly 200 settlers from the Red River Colony to Fort Vancouver in an attempt to hold Columbia District for Britain , Captain John Palliser stayed in Fort Edmonton for a time in 1858 while on his famous expedition . With the help of the factor ' s wife , Palliser held a ball there . In 1859 , the 9th Earl of Southesk visited on his way to the Rocky Mountains , hoping that the fresh mountain air would improve his health . Under threat of warfare . The spring of 1870 saw Fort Edmonton come under the threat of violence due to a war between the Blackfoot and Cree , resulting from the slaying of Cree Chief Maskipiton . The Blackfoot were unable to ford the North Saskatchewan due to the high spring waters , but they encamped across from Fort Edmonton and harassed it with their muskets nonetheless . Some wagons full of goods had to be abandoned by traders in a hurry to reach safety inside of the fort , and their contents were spoiled by the Blackfoot . Though the fort itself was not invaded , the men within were armed and ready to fight . Chief Factor William J . Christie chose to withstand the Blackfoot and not attack them , fearing that to do so would only invite further violence against the Hudson ' s Bay Company . Fifteen years later , on March 19 , 1885 , during the North West Rebellion , Edmonton ' s telegraph wire was cut . Fearing imminent attack , some settlers took shelter behind the fort ' s old wooden palisade . No attack happened . Dismantling . What remained of the fort was dismantled in 1915 . It was seen as a crumbling eyesore next to the Alberta Legislature Building , which had been completed three years earlier . The Government of Alberta indicated at the time that it would use the old fort ' s timbers to create a heritage site elsewhere in the city , but it never did . Legacy . In 1923 the suspected site of the original Forts Augustus and Edmonton was a National Historic Site of Canada , and a plaque was placed in Fort Saskatchewan . In 1959 , the site of Fort Edmonton III was also made a National Historic Site and plaque was installed near the Alberta Legislature building . Similarly the Fort Edmonton - Fort Gary Trail was also named a National Historic Site and a plaque for it was installed in Edmonton in 1996 . Reconstruction . In 1969 , a reconstruction of the fifth Fort Edmonton began five kilometres upstream from its final site , representing it as it stood in 1846 , but this time on the south bank of the North Saskatchewan River . This marked the beginning of Fort Edmonton Park , which has become one of the city ' s premier tourist attractions . The park represents , through various historical buildings , four distinct time periods , exploring Edmonton ' s development from a fur trade post in the vast Northwest , to a booming metropolitan centre after the First World War .