Fort Chipewyan


Fort Chipewyan

(chĭpəwī`ən), trading post, NE Alta., Canada, at the west end of Lake Athabasca. The old Fort Chipewyan, on the south shore, was built for the North West Company at the urging of Alexander Mackenzie in 1788. It formed the base from which he set out on his expedition (1789) down the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean and in 1792 across the mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The present post, built in 1804 on the north shore, was taken over by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821.