X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Red River Colony


Marie-Anne Gaboury

They went first to the area near the confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers near what would later become the Red River Colony, and, eventually, modern Winnipeg, Manitoba.

On hearing that Lord Selkirk was establishing a permanent colony at the Red River, they returned to help establish the new Red River Colony in the spring of 1812.

Pembina Trail

It refers to the easternmost of the three principal routes from Pembina and Fort Garry in the former Red River Colony of Manitoba (then known as Assiniboia or the Selkirk Colony) to Mendota and St. Paul.

Point Douglas

Point Douglas is named after Thomas Douglas, the 5th Earl of Selkirk, who established the Red River Colony in 1812.

St. John's College, University of Manitoba

The first Anglican clergyman in the Northwest interior of Canada was Reverend John West who, in 1820, established the first Anglican school in the Red River Colony.


Adam Thom

He left England for Red River Colony to fill the position of recorder offered to him by George Simpson, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Andrew Bulger

After the war, on the recommendation of Gordon Drummond, temporarily Governor General of Canada, Bulger was appointed Secretary for the Red River Settlement, taking up the post in 1822.

Old Dawson Trail

In 1857, the Canadian government commissioned engineer Simon J. Dawson to survey a route from Lake Superior to the Red River Colony, thereby allowing travel from the east without having to take the existing routes through the United States Dawson surveyed the route in 1858 and construction of the roads began in 1868.

Red River cart

Often drawn by oxen, though also by horses or mules, these carts were used throughout most of the 19th century in the fur trade and in westward expansion in Canada and the United States, in the area of the Red River and on the plains west of the Red River Colony.

Sinclair Pass

He discovered and used the pass in 1841, while leading an expedition of over 100 Red River Colony settlers across Rupert's Land to Fort Vancouver on the north bank of the Columbia River (across from present day Portland, Oregon), in an attempt to hold the Columbia District for Britain.


see also