North Saskatchewan River - History

History

The section of the North Saskatchewan river that falls within the Banff National Park boundaries has been designated a Canadian Heritage River in 1989, for its importance in the development of western Canada.

The river bridges the plains–parkland divide for much of its course, acting as a natural boundary between Blackfoot and Cree First Nations people for thousands of years. With the westward expansion of the fur trade under the North West Company, the river became a natural transportation route for fur trade brigades. A number of fur trade posts were constructed on the river, including Fort Edmonton and Rocky Mountain House, the uppermost post reached by canoe navigation. After the amalgamation of the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, the North Saskatchewan was a main travel route for York boats. Finally, before the arrival of the railway in western Canada, the river was plied by a number of steamboats.

Read more about this topic:  North Saskatchewan River

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.
    Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)

    I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility—I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling.
    Frances Burney (1752–1840)

    It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.
    Norman Mailer (b. 1923)