Heritage

The development of the fur trade in the Timiskaming district of northern Ontario has been largely overlooked until now, mainly because of the lack of records for the period before 1821. This gap has been partially filled by the discovery of private papers in the possession of the late Colonel Angus Cameron of Nairn, Scotland. His great granduncle and grandfather, as well as other memebrs of his family, were involved in the Timiskaming district for almost a century. These papers, plus the voluminous records of the Hudson''s Bay Company, have provided the basis for the present study.
Mrs Mitchell traces the history of Fort Timiskaming and its subsidiary posts from the first French establishments in the 1670s and 80s until 1870, when the Hudson''s Bay territories became part of the new Dominion of Canada. She describes the exploitation of the posts by freetraders from Montreal after 1763, their purchase by the North West Company in 1795, the struggle between rival Canadian and English traders before 1821, and the events following the amalgamation in 1821 of the North West and Hudson''s Bay companies.
She also discusses the effect of the district''s fortunes of petty traders, lumbermen, missionaries, and settlers, and offers a general picture of the country and of life at the posts. This is a work that will appeal not only to historians, but to all Canadians interested in Canada''s early history.