York Factory

Photo: York Factory in the 1770s, by Samuel Hearne, courtesy of Parks Canada.

York Factory was built at the mouth of the Hayes River in 1684. What we know today as The Bay began as the Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay.

In 1697, after a protracted French-English struggle, Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville captured York Factory and renamed it Fort Bourbon.

After 1760, Scottish and Metis traders took control of the Montreal based fur trade and worked from York Factory, where many Aboriginal people exchanged pelts for European goods. The trading post finally closed in 1957.

Today York Factory in contemporary Manitoba is a Parks Canada National Historic Site.