Fort Gibraltar 4.26

Fort Gibraltar was a fort built in 1809 by the North West Company in present-day Manitoba, Canada. It was located at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in or near the area now known as The Forks in the city of Winnipeg. Fort Gibraltar was renamed Fort Garry after the merger of North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821.HistoryIn the early 19th century fur-trading was the main industry of Western Canada. Two companies had an intense competition over the trade. The first, the Hudson's Bay Company, was a London, England-based organization. The second, the North West Company, was based in Montreal. Hudson's Bay Company was distinctly English in its culture and flavour while the North West Company was a mix of French, Scottish and First Nations cultures.The voyageurs of the North West Company were a highly mobile group of fur traders. They established temporary encampments in the forks region that later became Winnipeg.In 1809 the North West Company built Fort Gibraltar. About half a mile north the Selkirk settlers and HBC employees built Fort Douglas which was started in 1813 and completed in 1815. There were many conflicts between the mostly Scottish employees of the HBC and the NWC employees, who were mostly French-Canadians and Métis.(see Pemmican War)