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The Revillon Freres Post in La Loche June 30-July 2, 1918 from Canada Archives (colourized version) with Dene Chipewyan teepees gathered for a 'summer mission'..
This photo is in the following book by Franklin Kitto published in 1919. The photo was probably taken during his visit between June 30-July 2, 1918. ...view Franklin Kitto's book Fur trading operation (wikipedia article)
In 1899 Revillon Frères opened a wholesale warehouse in Edmonton, Alberta and by 1903 had 23 stores across Canada. Revillon Frères eventually set up a network of fur-trading posts in northern Canada in direct competition with the Hudson's Bay Company composed of an eastern division and a western division.
The western division included posts mostly in northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In 1911 the company had 13 posts north and west of Athabasca Landing. Having acquired a depot in Prince Albert in 1904 they had an additional 10 posts from The Pas to Brochet and Nueltin Lake at the edge of the tundra.
Revillon Freres had a post in La Loche from 1906 to 1936. The company was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1936. The HBC used the old Revillon buildings until they built a new store on the property in the 1950s after a fire destroyed their post in West La Loche (Portage La Loche) in 1936. The first post office of La Loche in 1926 was located in the Revillon Freres post. The postmaster was Thomas Batchelor.
...from The History of La Loche "Fur Trade Posts" |
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Revillon Freres Post in La Loche January 1907. "The temperature is said to be 60 below."
From Les Oystryk comes this story; "On December 14, 1906 Jean Revillon left Prince Albert and embarked on a winter inspection trip to many of the Revillon Freres family fur trading posts across the north. When he wrote to his father in April of 1907 he commented several times about Portage La Loche. This letter was typed in French. Translated here.
"I stayed at La Loche for three days, and was very well received by Mr. Borwick, the Manager, and his wife. They were almost out of supplies so I shared whatever I had in the way of "fancy grub" with them. A cold spell (-55 to -60 degrees F) persisted the whole time I was there which prevented me from taking inventory in the store, as there was no stove there. I sorted out whatever furs there were and in order to do that I had to go back and forth ten times, taking five minutes to reach the store and then returning to the house to warm up for a quarter of an hour. When I could find time I checked the ledgers. They had not been kept up properly as Borwick had misunderstood our system of accounting." Further down. "Portage La Loche. It has only one inhabitable building, the manager's house, unfinished, so that the wind gets through from every side. We shall have to build a store there. We shall have to reduce the number of men there from three to two but keep the two 'Dumping Places' they have now." **Dumping Places are later described as "a locked shack where a small stock of staple goods is left which allows us to keep the 'dog runner' stocked up on his rounds." It appears that there was a RF manager's house and a fur storage building a ways away. It is totally unknown how long RF post manager Borwick was at Portage La Loche so it would be a guess to think that he may still have been there in 1919 when the Apsit brothers were there and photographed various people including RF clerk Frank Henderson."
Note:
The Canada Census of 1906 shows a Solomon Ballentyne (28 years old) as the agent of this post. He was
accompanied by his wife Mary (25 years old)
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Revillon Freres Post in La Loche January 1907. "Living house for men, Simon Bourwick on the right"
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Revillon Freres Post in La Loche January 1907. "Metis trader holding a silver fox fur."
A photo by Samuel Hubert Coward.
Note:
The four La Loche photos on this page were found at three different sites with 3 different dates.
Glenbow Archives shows a date of January 1907 for their two photos.
The McCord Museum photo is obviously part of this set.
The Canada Archives photo with the Dene/Chipewyan tents taken in La Loche
shows a building identical to the Revillon building in one of the Glenbow Archive photos.
This next photo shows La Loche in 1935. The Revillon Freres post buildings are on the right half of the photo and the Catholic mission buildings are on the left.  Revillon Freres financed the 1922 film "Nanook of the North". A small section of the 86 minute film can be viewed below.
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