Fort Reliance, Yukon
Subtitle: an archaeological assessment
By: by Donald W. Clark.
Contributors: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Series: Mercury series,; Archaeological Survey of Canada paper,; 150; Archaeological Survey of Canada paper ;; no. 150.
Publisher: Canadian Museum of Civilization
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Hull, Quebec
Language: eng
Number of pages: 247
Subjects: Trading posts -- Yukon Territory -- History -- 19th century; Han Indians -- Yukon Territory -- Antiquities; Indians of North America -- Yukon Territory -- Antiquities; Excavations (Archaeology) -- Yukon Territory; Fort Reliance Site (Yukon); Yukon Territory -- Antiquities
Description: Initially founded by Francois Mercier as a small, semi-independent fur-trading post, Fort Reliance is of particular interest and importance because of its role in opening the Yukon to prospecting and mining, which eventually led to the Klondike discovery. The trading post became the primary focal point for what one author has termed the "Prelude to Bonanza." The location was also a pre-Gold Rush Han Athapaskan settlement, with a unique and somewhat enigmatic set of semisubterranean houses. Traces survive of the original structures, and possibly of all structures ever built there. This study describes the history of Fort Reliance, assesses the nature and extent of archaeological remains, and examines the relationship between Native use of the site, previously known through the recovery of stone artifacts that relate to a precontact or prehistoric technology, and the trading post.
Notes: Includes an abstract in French.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [212]-221).