Touchwood Hills and Fort Pelly Posts. - Newspaper clipping. - n.d.

Photocopied page showing a sketch of Touchwood Hills Post in 1861, and a sketch of Fort Pelly from [1876]. Photocopied page from Canadian Geographic Journal, n.d.

Historical note:

The village of Pelly, SK, is located on Hwys 8 and 49, 32 km N of Kamsack and 24 km W of the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border. Fort Pelly was established in 1824 near present-day Pelly as the headquarters for the newly-formed Swan River District. Its original location, on a site northeast of the elbow of the Assiniboine River, was subject to periodic flooding, so in 1857, the post was relocated about a 1/2 km southeast to a ridge overlooking the Assiniboine River valley. Fort Pelly continued as a economic and social centre until 1912, when it was abandoned because the railroad came through several miles to the north. While it was headquarters of the Swan River District, Fort Pelly was the centre for receiving all trade and for distributing goods to other posts. It was the centre at which trade goods such as traps, rat spears, trade points, and parts for boats were produced and the manufacturing centre for boats, barge-like batteaux, dogs sleds, and carts. During the 1837 smallpox epidemic, the HBC Factor taught the Cree and Saulteaux how to vaccinate each other, thereby reducing the death toll among them.