Exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilisation / Exposition au Musée canadien des civilisations

Abstract

Despite being greatly overshadowed in history by the Hudson’s Bay Company which took it over in 1821, the North West Company has a better claim than its one time rival to the honour of creating a Canada from sea unto sea. Beginning in 1779, Montreal fur traders formed the North West Company, travelled through the Great Lakes, crossed the prairie, touched the Arctic Ocean, explored and mapped the far west, and established a series of trading posts in what is now British Columbia. In a spectacular exhibit that ran from September 2009 to September 2010, the Canadian Museum of Civilization has given due credit to the Nor’Westers.