Days off were few and far between for the young men who had come west to work in the fur trade.
The people hired to buy furs from local trappers during most of the 19th Century, when the Hudson’s Bay and North West Companies had pushed toward the Rocky Mountains, really were just boys, many as young as 14, says Emily Rowe, manager of the Confluence Heritage Society at Rocky Mountain House.
The great explorer and mapmaker, David Thompson, was only 14 when he began his apprenticeship with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1784, says Rowe, whose non-profit group provides fundraising and other supports for the Parks Canada national historic site at Rocky Mountain House.
Rowe recently entertained members of the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance with tales of how Thompson and fellow fur-traders spent their one day off at Christmas, starting in 1799 with construction of a pair of competing trading posts owned by the two rival fur companies.
The North West Company was first to arrive, building an fort it called Rocky Mountain House.
The Hudson’s Bay Company moved in a few months later and built Acton House, little more than a stone’s throw away.
Rocky’s unique place in history is that it is the only trading post in Canada to maintain the name given by the North West Company after it merged with Hudson’s Bay in 1821.
Historians have not clearly established why competing companies would want to set their forts so close together, she said. It may have simply been that the handful of fur traders felt more comfortable that way.
At any given time, they were in groups of 11 to 14 traders in each fort, surrounded by anywhere from 500 to 5,000 aboriginal hunters from nine different nations — and those different nations didn’t always get along, said Rowe.
Lodgings at the forts were utilitarian and primitive, with garden vegetables planted in spring and then left to fend for themselves until the traders returned in fall.
Through most of the winter, the traders subsisted largely on pemmican — ground and dried bison meat mixed with bear fat, berries and herbs. “People often like to relate it to beef jerky. It does not taste like beef jerky,” said Rowe.
“It’s very dry. There are reports of men adding dirt to it, adding human hair to it, trying to give it more taste — more flavour. It’s not yummy, but it (keeps) forever. There are reports of farmers digging in their fields, they’ll come across a hide pouch full of pemmican and it’s still edible.”
Christmas would be time for a feast, on foods the traders had brought with them and saved for the occasion.
There would also be a plentiful supply of alcohol on hand, because both companies encouraged their traders to take advantage of the hunters by getting them drunk, said Rowe.
While the Hudson’s Bay Company discouraged its employees from mingling with the various First Nations groups they encountered, it was fairly common for North West Company traders to take wives and set up their own households, often living in teepees outside the fort while the single men stayed together inside.
Those Hudson’s Bay men who did take country wives were required to make them as European as possible, rather than “going native” like the North West men, said Rowe.
For Christmas, the companies would give their men extra rations that would not be included in their tabs, providing an opportunity for them to fill their bellies, get really drunk and pass out, she said.
The rivalry that was so strong between the two groups the rest of the time was set aside for the Christmas festivities, when they and their First Nations families and friends would often get together in one or the other of the two forts, sharing each other’s food and drink.
While the fur trade ended in 1876, staff and volunteers at the historic site, which is shut down in winter, now perpetuate the tradition by reopening for one day during the holiday season.
The annual Fur Trade Christmas, held on the same Saturday as the Parade of Lights, includes a fur-trade Santa Claus, tours of the forts, sleigh rides and snowshoeing — but no alcohol, said Rowe.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com