Editing Fort Edmonton (section)

==Fifth Fort Edmonton (1830–1915)==
<small>Coordinates: {{Coord|53|31|55|N|113|30|24|W|type:landmark_region:CA-AB}}</small>

Due to floods in the late 1820s, a new fort was built on the terrace above the riverflats in 1830.<ref name="altasrcfted"/> This fifth and final fort stood for 85 years, though its use as a fur trading post was phased out starting in 1891. During its final years, the Fort co-existed with the [[Alberta Legislature Building]]. The Legislative Building opened in 1913 on a terrace just north of the fort on the site of "Rowand's Folly", the large house built for Chief Factor [[John Rowand]]...<ref>[http://www.parl.gc.ca/Infoparl/english/issue.htm?param=122&art=735 Canadian Parliamentary Review – Article<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
[[File:Fort Edmonton 1870.jpg|thumb|Fort Edmonton, 1870.]]

===Rowand's administration===

At this time, a long-serving member of the HBC, [[John Edward Harriott]], became the chief trader under Rowand. The two gained family ties when Harriott married one of Rowand's daughters. On a couple of occasions when Rowand joined HBC Inland Governor [[George Simpson (administrator)|George Simpson]] for travel abroad, Harriott acted as chief factor.

Rowand's administration from the 1830s onward coincided with a great change in the Saskatchewan District. For the first time, missionaries, artists, and curious travellers came to Edmonton to visit, sometimes for extended periods. This frustrated Rowand to some degree. Prior to this time, the only Europeans to come that far into the west were men on some sort of company business.

With Rowand making Edmonton his home, the fort became an important centre in the west. It was a necessity for any traveller going any further west of Edmonton to go through there for provisions first. Rowand constructed a three-storey house in the heart of the fort for the exclusive use of him and his family, denoting his station to his subordinates, visitors and trade partners alike. This was nicknamed "Rowand's Folly."

====Influx of missionaries====

Two [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] missionaries, Francois-Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers, were the first to visit Fort Edmonton (called ''Fort-des-Prairies'') in 1838.{{sfn|Goyette|Roemmich|2004|p=30}} Starting in 1840, the Fort housed the [[Methodist Church of Great Britain|Wesleyan]] [[missionary]] [[Robert Rundle]] as a company chaplain. Rundle's tenure lasted until 1848, and his ministry and missionary work was met with competition of a sort by [[Jean-Baptiste Thibault]], a Catholic priest who, like Rundle, was attempting to evangelize natives in the area. A chapel was erected inside the fort in 1843, which the Reverend Rundle boasted could host "(one) hundred Indians"; the structure also had two small rooms for Rundle's private use.{{sfn|Rundle|1977|pp=143-144}} Meanwhile, Rowand complained that the presence of ministers in his fort was a distraction for the natives, and was ostensibly impeding the fur trade business.{{sfn|Goyette|Roemmich|2004|p=56}} On a personal level, however, Rowand had taken a liking to Rundle, and entrusted the minister with teaching his children.{{sfn|Rundle|1977|p=xliii}}

Father [[Pierre-Jean De Smet]] spent the winter of 1845-46 at Fort Edmonton having traveled and explored from [[Oregon Country]] to meet the natives of the [[Rocky Mountains]].

In 1852, the [[Oblate]] missionary [[Albert Lacombe]] first visited Fort Edmonton. With Rundle having trouble controlling the department in 1848, Lacombe easily took up residence in the former Methodist chapel. Lacombe took pity on the fur trade labourers, opining that, "during the summer months, [Hudson's Bay labourers' toil] was as hard as that of the African slave.".{{sfn|Goyette|Roemmich|2004|p=59}} He found little sympathy for the workers from John Rowand or the HBC clerks. The following year, Lacombe moved to [[Lac Ste. Anne County|Lac St. Anne]], but had a new [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] chapel constructed in the fort in 1857 (but did not dwell there); this chapel lasted nearly twenty years before being moved outside of the fort.

A Methodist follow-up to Robert Rundle, Reverend [[Thomas Woolsey]], was dispatched to Edmonton in 1852. His arrival in the fort coincided with Lacombe's residency in the former Methodist chapel, a discovery which distressed Woolsey. Conflicts and private frustrations with Catholic missionaries, and failures to convert Catholics to Protestantism, marked Woolsey's twelve-year residence at the fort.

In 1854, the mission St. Joachim was officially founded in turn at Fort-des-Praires (Fort Edmonton).

====Oregon mission====
[[File:1846 watercolor depicting a plan view of Fort Edmonton on the banks of the North Saskatchewan.jpg|thumb|This watercolor with a scale diagram of the Fort was drawn by Vavasour in 1846.]]
Though somewhat distant from the territory in question, Fort Edmonton, an important stop on the [[York Factory Express]] overland trade route, was peripherally involved in the [[Oregon Boundary Dispute]]. A pair of British Army lieutenants, [[Mervin Vavasour]] and [[Henry James Warre]], were sent on a mission in the guise of eccentric gentlemen to reconnoitre the lower [[Columbia River]] valley and [[Puget Sound]]. Among other objectives, they were to determine which HBC posts could be used in a military conflict.<ref>[http://www.abcbookworld.com/?state=view_author&author_id=8519 ABCBookWorld<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526124217/http://www.abcbookworld.com/?state=view_author&author_id=8519 |date=May 26, 2011 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.inlander.com/topstory/276910500730952.php Cover Story – Warre's War<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202111219/http://www.inlander.com/topstory/276910500730952.php |date=February 2, 2014 }}</ref> The trip had been encouraged by Sir [[George Simpson (administrator)|George Simpson]] Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Warre and Vavasour reported that the mountain passes were unsuitable for troop transport. Their mission took them through Fort Edmonton in the fall of 1845, and again on their way back to [[Montreal]] in 1846. They wrote: "Without attempting to describe the numerous Defiles through which we passed, or the difficulty of forcing a passage through the burnt Forests, and over the high land, we may venture to assert, that Sir George Simpson's idea of transporting troops. . . with their stores, etc. through such an extent of uncultivated Country and over such impracticable Mountains would appear to Us quite unfeasible." As with other forts he visited on this mission, Vavasour drew a plan of Edmonton.

====Other notable visitors====
[[File:Kane Fort Edmonton.jpg|thumb|right|Artist [[Paul Kane]]'s romanticized painting of the fifth fort (1849, from 1846 sketch), displaying Rowand's house rising high above the palisade.]]
The artist [[Paul Kane]] first visited the fort in 1845. He produced several works of art based upon his time there.

====Rowand's end====

In May 1854, John Rowand died while accompanying the annual [[York Boat]] trip eastward. Accounts suggest that he tried to break up (or join) a skirmish between some of the tripmen while at [[Fort Pitt, Saskatchewan|Fort Pitt]], and in his rage he fell suddenly dead. He was initially buried at Fort Pitt, but was later exhumed and buried in Montreal as per his last will and testament.{{sfn|Goyette|Roemmich|2004|pp=68-69}}

===Remaining years===

====Remaining administrators====
[[File:Edmonton in 1867.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|A charcoal sketch of Fort Edmonton circa. 1867.]]
Following a few short-lived administrations in Rowand's wake, [[William J. Christie]] was a long-lasting chief factor at Edmonton from 1858 to 1872. Christie's protégé [[Richard Hardisty|Richard Charles Hardisty]], later a [[Senate of Canada|Canadian Senator]], served as chief factor in Edmonton for an interim period from 1862 through 1864.

The Hudson's Bay Company relinquished Rupert's Land to the [[Government of Canada]] in 1868, pursuant to the [[Rupert's Land Act 1868]], thus ending the HBC's administration of the vast territory and beginning an era of settlement in the 1870s.

By the 1890s, the fort was in disrepair and largely abandoned. The Hudson's Bay Company transitioned to retail stores, and business in Edmonton ran from one of those instead.

====Explorers====
In 1841 [[James Sinclair (fur trader)|James Sinclair]] stopped at Fort Edmonton to receive instructions on where to cross the Rockies. With him were about 116{{sfn|Galbraith|1954|p=254}} to 121{{sfn|Simpson|1847|p=62}} mostly Métis settlers from the [[Red River Colony]], hired by the [[Pugets Sound Agricultural Company]] to settle on [[Fort Nisqually]] and [[Cowlitz Farm]] within modern [[Washington (state)|Washington state]].

Captain [[John Palliser]] stayed in Fort Edmonton for a time in 1858 while on his famous [[Palliser Expedition|expedition]]. With the help of the factor's wife, Palliser held a [[Ball (dance)|ball]] there.<ref>[http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/explorateurs/h24-1850-e.html John Palliser and Henry Hind – The Arctic and More – 19th Century – Pathfinders and Passageways<!-- Bot generated title -->]{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 1859, [[James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk|the 9th Earl of Southesk]] visited on his way to the [[Rocky Mountains]], hoping that the fresh mountain air would improve his health.<ref>[http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=f6049f2c-57b1-4004-846e-0502cb08f6d4 Alberta museum lands bulk of rare aboriginal collection<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> He recorded his observations in the 1874 book Saskatchewan and Rocky Mountains and also published a book on Cree syllabics in 1875.<ref name="Advanced Search">{{cite web | url=http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/ | title=Advanced Search }}</ref>

Viscount William Milton and William Butler Cheadle came through Edmonton in 1862/3 and published accounts of their journey.<ref name="Advanced Search"/>

====Under threat of warfare====
The spring of 1870 saw Fort Edmonton come under the threat of violence due to a war between the [[Blackfoot]] and Cree, resulting from the slaying of Cree Chief [[Maskipiton]]. A group of the Blackfoot approaching the fort from the south caught some traders with wagons of goods on the south bank, in today's Walterdale neighbourhood of Edmonton. The traders escaped by ferry but had to leave their wagons behind. The ferry was not sent back to the Blackfoot and they were not able to give chase to the fleeing traders as they were unable to ford the North Saskatchewan due to high spring waters. Th Blackfoot encamped nearby, plundered the wagons and harassed the fort with their muskets. The men in the fort armed themselves and prepared to fight. But the fort was not attacked in force. Chief Factor [[William J. Christie]] ordered the Bay men not to go out to attack the Blackfoot, apprehensive that to do so would invite further violence against the Hudson's Bay Company.{{sfn|Goyette|Roemmich|2004|pp=109-112}}[[File:LegislatureFortEd.jpg|thumb|Fort Edmonton, near the new Legislature Building, 1914.]]Fifteen years later, on March 19, 1885, during the [[North-West Rebellion|North West Rebellion]], the telegraph wire connecting Edmonton to the rest of the world was cut. Fearing imminent attack, many local settlers and their families took shelter within the fort's old wooden palisade walls. No attack happened. Within a few weeks, marching and mounted troops arrived from southern Alberta and from eastern Canada by way of the CPR station at Calgary, to ensure that no local outbreak would occur.{{sfn|Goyette|Roemmich|2004|p=143}} Most of the soldiers went on out to chase down [[Big Bear]] and his band.
[[File:Old Hudson Bay Post, Edmonton, Alta.jpg|alt=View of the Fort Edmonton buildings. Fences are broken, paint is peeling off the old buildings. Circa 1912.|thumb|View of the Old Hudson's Bay Company Fort Edmonton Buildings circa. 1912.]]

====Dismantling====
What remained of the fifth Fort Edmonton was dismantled in October, 1915. It was seen as a crumbling eyesore next to the Alberta Legislature Building, which had been completed three years earlier.<ref>[http://www.rewedmonton.ca/content_view2?CONTENT_ID=2139 Real Estate Weekly<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> The Government of Alberta indicated at the time that it would use the old fort's timbers to create a heritage site elsewhere in the city, but it never did. A few were saved and still possibly exist in city museums or in Rowand House, but most were said to be accidentally burned in a [[Boy Scouts of America|Boy Scout]] jamboree in May 1937.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Silversides |first=Brock |title=Fort De Prairies: The Story of Fort Edmonton |date=2005 |publisher=Heritage House |isbn=1-894384-98-9}}</ref>