Editing Fort Chipewyan (section)

==History==
[[File:Fort Chipewyan 1900.jpg|thumb|left|Fort Chipewyan 1900 and {{SS|Grahame}}]]
[[File:Fort Chipewyan H.B.C. post (1900).jpg|thumb|left|Fort Chipewyan HBC post in 1900]]
Fort Chipewyan is one of the oldest European settlements in the Province of [[Alberta]]. It was established as a trading post of the [[North West Company]] in 1788,<ref name="est"/> named after the [[Chipewyan people]] living in the area. Its original location was Old Fort Point, on the southwest shore west of the Old Fort River.<ref name=ABlakes>{{cite book |url=http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/Projects/Alberta-Lakes/view/?region=Peace%20and%20Athabasca%20Region&basin=Lake%20Athabasca%20Basin&lake=Lake%20Athabasca&number=18 |title=Atlas of Alberta Lakes |chapter=Lake Athabasca |publisher=[[University of Alberta Press]] |location=Edmonton |year=1990 |isbn=0-88864-214-8 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928195426/http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/Projects/Alberta-Lakes/view/?region=Peace%20and%20Athabasca%20Region&basin=Lake%20Athabasca%20Basin&lake=Lake%20Athabasca&number=18 |archive-date=2011-09-28 }}</ref>

One of the founders of the fort, [[Roderick Mackenzie of Terrebonne]], had a taste for literature. Later he opened correspondence with traders all over the north and west, asking for descriptions of scenery, adventure, folklore and history. He also founded a library at the fort that was not only for the residents of Fort Chipewyan, but also for traders and clerks of the whole [[Athabasca Country|Lake Athabasca region]]. He hoped it would be what he called, in an imaginative and somewhat jocular vein, "the little [[Athens]] of the [[Arctic]] regions." This library, started in 1790, held more than 2000 books.<ref name="Chipewyan Bicentennial Museum 20132">Ft. Chipewyan Bicentennial Museum, 2013,</ref> It became one of the most famous in the whole extent of [[Rupert's Land]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=George|title=MacKenzie - Selkirk - Simpson - The Makers of Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/mackenzieselkirk005668mbp|date=1910|publisher=Morang & Co|location=Toronto|isbn=978-1-4067-3242-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mackenzieselkirk005668mbp/page/n38 21]–30}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bryce |first=George |title=The Scotsman in Canada |location=Toronto |publisher=Musson Book Co |date=1911 |url=https://archive.org/details/scotsmanincanada02campuoft}}</ref>

In 1798, Fort Chipewyan was relocated to its current site on the north shore.<ref name=ABlakes/> In 1802, the HBC set up another post on English Island at the lake's outlet, called Nottingham House, but was abandoned in 1806.<ref name=HBC>{{cite web |title=Hudson's Bay Company: Fort Chipewyan |url=https://pam.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/PAM_AUTHORITY/AUTH_DESC_DET_REP/SISN%201813?sessionsearch |website=pam.minisisinc.com |publisher=Archives of Manitoba - Keystone Archives Descriptive Database |access-date=2025-01-21}}</ref>

From about 1815 to 1821 the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC) operated a competing Fort Wedderburn (named after [[Andrew Colvile]]'s family) on Coal or Potato Island {{cvt|1+1/2|mi|order=flip}} from the North West Company's fort.<ref>{{cite book|last=Raffan|first=James|title=Emperor Of The North: Sir George Simpson and the Remarkable Story of the Hudson's Bay Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X3Jg6Wr1fg0C&pg=PA108|year=2007|publisher=HarperCollins Canada|isbn=978-1-4434-0139-5|pages=108–119}}</ref> This fort was established by John Clarke, and [[George Simpson (Pre-Confederation Canada politician and trader)|Sir George Simpson]] stayed here 1820–1821, during which time he reorganized the fur trade.<ref name="Chipewyan Bicentennial Museum 20132" /> When the HBC and NWC merged in 1821, Fort Wedderburn was abandoned and all HBC's fur-trade operations moved to Fort Chipewyan.<ref name=HBC/>

Sir [[John Franklin]] set out from Fort Chipewyan on his [[Coppermine Expedition of 1819–22|overland Arctic journey]] in 1820. 

In 1887–1888 there was a great famine in the Fort Chipewan area. Electricity and electric lights arrived in Fort Chipewyan in 1959.<ref name="Chipewyan Bicentennial Museum 20132" />

In 2023 about a thousand people were evacuated from the centre due to threat by a wildfire.[https://globalnews.ca/news/9739567/alberta-wildfires-chief-allan-adam-fort-chipewyan/]

=== Historic sites ===
Old Fort Point, the site of the first Fort Chipewyan, established southeast of Fort Chipewyan in 1788, was designated a [[List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Alberta|National Historic Site of Canada]] in 1930.<ref name=":2">{{CRHP|17705|Fort Chipewyan|25 November 2013}}</ref> 

[[List of historic places in Alberta|Historic places]] in the community include the site of the third Fort Chipewyan established in 1803,<ref>{{CRHP|11935|Fort Chipewyan III|23 December 2014}}</ref> the Anglican Church built in 1880 and Day School built in 1874,<ref>{{CRHP|9088|1880 Anglican Church of St. Paul the Apostle and the 1874 Day School|23 December 2014}}</ref> and the Roman Catholic Mission Church built in 1909.<ref>{{CRHP|5915|Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Roman Catholic Church|23 December 2014}}</ref>