Colonial Despatches

Frog Portage is located in eastern Saskatchewan, and is part of an ancient fur-trade and travel route, one of particular strategic importance during the years of intense competition between the Hudson Bay Company and North West Company from the late 1700s to the early 1800s.1 The portage connects the Churchill and Saskatchewan rivers; the Dene employed it regularly to transport furs down the Churchill River to the HBC post of Fort Churchill, and archaeological evidence has dated encampments there from roughly 1000 years ago.2

Frog Portage’s strategic position is highlighted in this letter from Douglas to Newcastle, which notes that a third Station formed at Frog Portage, to intercept trade traffic, would hermetically seal the Country, and enable the Government to regulate and control the trade with perfect ease and without much expense.

• 1. Frog Portage: Heading Them Off at the Portage, Royal Saskatchewan Museum.
• 2. Ibid.