Though having been in business on Hudson's Bay since 1668, it wasn't until nearly 90 years later that the Hudson's Bay Company felt it necessary to expand their trading territory to the then unknown and uncharted country to the west. In 1753-54 they seized upon a plan to send an expedition to the prairies to encourage the First Nations people of the area to periodically make their way down to Hudson's Bay to trade. It was Anthony Henday who volunteered to head the expedition.
A native of the Isle of Wight, Hudson's Bay Company employee Anthony Henday set out from Fort York on Hudson's Bay on June 26, 1754 with a cadre of Cree scouts on a voyage to the western edge of the Canadian prairies. Making contact with many First nations people of what are now Saskatchewan and Alberta, Henday invited them to trade with the Hudson's Bay Company in Fort York. With this 1,000 mile canoe and foot journey Henday became one of the first whites to venture into this territory, making it as far west as the upper tributaries of the Saskatchewan River, including the Red Deer & Battle Rivers. On its way eastward from its headwaters in the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies, the Red Deer River flows past just over 4 kilometres northwest of the location of this plaque.
Having ventured farther west than any European before him, Henday and his party camped and spent the winter of 1754-55 just west of present day Innisfail. Apparently Henday's journals weren't terribly descriptive in their accounts of geography or distance, but the best available interpretations put him here for the winter. This likely explains the placement of this monument at Innisfail.
Read a biography of Henday and of his journeys west at
Biographi Canada.
ANTHONY HENDAY
Departing from York Fort on Hudson Bay 26th June, 1754, and returning 20th June, 1755, Anthony Henday travelled with Indian companions 1000 miles inland by canoe, afoot and on horseback to invite the tribes to the Fort for trade. From his journal it seems that he reached upper tributaries of the Saskatchewan such as the Red Deer and Battle Rivers. It is certain that he visited the Indians of the Blackfoot Confederacy and gazed on the shining peaks of the Canadian Rockies. His intrepid journey foreshadowed the expansion of the trade and dominion of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Hudson's Bay Company
After incorporation by English royal charter in 1670, the company functioned as the de facto government in parts of North America for nearly 200 years until the HBC sold the land it owned (the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin, known as Rupert's Land) to Canada in 1869 as part of the Deed of Surrender, authorized by the Rupert's Land Act, 1868.
At its peak, the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of the English- and later British-controlled North America. By the mid-19th century, the company evolved into a mercantile business selling a wide variety of products from furs to fine home ware in a small number of sales shops (as opposed to trading posts) across Canada. These shops were the first step towards the department stores the company owns today.
From Wiki