The year is 1798

The North American fur trade has been in existence for almost 200 years. A rivalry has developed between Simon McTavish and his kinsmen of the North West Co. and the new XY company. In the XY Company are partners who have left the North West Co.. They are disgruntled because of the favoritism they feel McTavish shows to his own kin. Those of us at the White Oak Fur Post are partners and employees of the North West Co..

This was not the only rivalry however. The North West Co. also competed with the Hudson Bay Co. and traders from the young United States. The British gained control of these northwest territories and the fur trade after defeating the French in the French and Indian Wars (1760).

One clerk and 12 voyageurs came here in the fall of 1794. They first built the clerk's quarters then the voyageur's winter quarters. In the spring of 1795, they built the stockade, a new clerk's quarters, canoe shed, smoke house, root cellar and planted the garden. In the summer of 1796, they built the bourgeois' quarters and blacksmith shop.

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