Fort Carlton | Trails of 1885

Used as a base for the North-West Mounted police and civilian volunteers in the first battle of the Northwest Resistance on March 26, 1885 near Duck Lake.

Fort Carlton began as a trading post for the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1810. It operated as a trading post until the late 1870’s when it was leased by the North West Mounted Police and used as their main fort in the Saskatchewan River Valley.

During the North West Resistance, after the Battle of Duck Lake, the fort was abandoned and later used by Gabriel Dumont and his men before they withdrew to Batoche. The Fort was accidentally burned during the Resistance but rebuilt by the province of Saskatchewan as a Historical site that allows visitors to experience 1885 by touching the artifacts.

Fort Carlton is situated on the Carlton Trail, which was the path from the Red River Settlement near modern-day Winnipeg to Fort Edmonton, located outside the City of Edmonton. The Carlton Trial was an important part for Métis Culture; it got its name from the Red River Cart which was the primary mode of transporting goods from the Red River Settlement to Fort Edmonton.

Fort Carlton offers a reconstructed palisade, fur and provisions store, trade store, clerk’s quarters, and tipi encampment; each of these appears much like they would have in the late 1800s. You can see, touch and smell artifacts such as buffalo hides, beaver pelts, war clubs, blankets, guns, twist tobacco, birch bark baskets and so much more.