Description:
The earliest known European to pass through St. Norbert is Pierre La
Verendrye, who in February 1737 snow-shoed down the Red River to
the mouth of the Assiniboine, where he looked over the site of the
‘future’ Fort Rouge.
La Fourche des Roseaux
On his 1732 expedition to the Red River region, which concluded with the
construction of Fort Maurepas, Christophe Dufrost de La Jemeraye is said to have
constructed a small post near the junction of the Roseau and Red rivers.
While there is some debate as to when it was constructed and how long it might
have existed, there is evidence a Fort Roseau was constructed in the area of the
mouth of the Roseau. During its short lifespan, it is likely that this structure was
used primarily as a halfway house on the route connecting Fort St. Charles on
Lake of the Woods and Fort Maurepas I.
The post is more importantly remembered as the site where Christophe Dufrost
de La Jemeraye died on May 10, 1736 on a trip between Fort Maurepas and Fort
St. Charles. He was buried somewhere opposite the mouth of the Roseau on the
west bank of the Red River. His is the first recorded burial site of a European on
the Canadian prairies.
On February 8, 1737 Pierre La Vérendrye left Fort St. Charles on snowshoes and
followed the Roseau through to the Red and stopped at Fort Roseau. From Fort
Roseau, the party trekked down the Red River to the mouth of the Assiniboine,
where they looked over the site of the future Fort Rouge and continued their
journey via the Red River on to Fort Maurepas. The trip took 18 days. Pierre
reported hundreds of kindly Indians living along the rivers. Big game was said to
be plentiful and they shot several moose and deer.
Pierre stayed at Fort Maurepas for about three months and then headed back to
Fort St. Charles. Stopping again at Fort Roseau, they located the grave of La
Jemeraye. A priest, who accompanied the party, blessed the grave and they were
all able to pay homage and last respects. Christophe Dufrost de La Jemeraye was
a friend to the natives and European explorers alike, and he was the first
European to die and be buried in western Canada. The village of Dufrost,
established in the area many years later, commemorates his memory.
Fort Maurepas was the name of two forts, or one fort in two locations, built by
the French in the Lake Winnipeg area in the 1730s. They were both named after
Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas who, as Minister of Marine, was in
charge of French colonies.
First Fort Maurepas
(on the Red River, St. Andrews RM, north of Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada)
In 1734 two explorers returned from Lake Winnipeg to Fort Saint Charles on Lake
of the Woods and reported that they had found a good site for a fort near the
mouth of Red River of the North, or Maurepas River as they called it. While
returning to Montreal La Vérendrye sent from Fort Kaministiquia Sieur Cartier, a
merchant, with 12 men in 3 canoes to build a fort on the river. When he reached
Fort Michilimackinac he ordered La Jemeraye to relieve his son Pierre at Fort Saint
Charles so that Pierre assist at the new post. Since his son Jean-Baptiste had
returned from the Indians, Jean-Baptiste went instead. The fort was five leagues
up the Red River on high ground where the marshes end. The site has not been
identified. Morton[1] thinks it was on Nettley Creek which was called Riviére Aux
Morts from a massacre of Saulteurs by the Sioux.
They explored the river from Lake Winnipeg almost to Pembina, North Dakota and
opened a route from the Red River to Lake of the Woods via the Roseau River
(Manitoba-Minnesota) and the Portage de la Savanne. In 1735 the fort produced
600 packages of furs. La Vérendrye himself arrived in February 1737 after
traveling overland and held council with the Indians. In May of 1737 it was
reported that all the Indians at the fort had died of pox. In 1738 La Vérendrye
returned, passing the fort on his way to found Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine
River. By 1739 the fort was abandoned in favor of Fort Rouge upriver (south) at
the present site of Winnipeg.
Second Fort Maurepas (Winnipeg River):
is poorly documented. One source [2] says
that the fort was moved from the Red River
to the Winnipeg River in 1739, but other
sources do not repeat this. It was on a high
round knoll on the right bank of the Winnipeg
River about six miles above its mouth across
from the modern Powerview-Pine Falls,
Manitoba. In the winter of 1749-50 it was
rebuilt by Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye
after it had been burnt by the Indians. By
1793 nothing was visible but the clearing. On
the opposite side of the river at Otter Point
the North West Company had a storehouse.
About two miles downriver was Fort Bas de la
Rivière and further downriver was the later
Fort Alexander, Manitoba. The region was
known as Bas de la Rivière.
Map of the Red River Colony
showing Fort Maurepas
HTTP://NETLIBRARY.NET/ARTICLES/CHRISTOPHER_DUFROST_DE_LA_JEMERAYE
CHRISTOPHER DUFROST DE LA JEMERAYE
Christopher Dufrost de La Jemeraye (also known as Christophe Dufrost de La
Jemerais with various variations on the last name),(b. December 6, 1708 – d.
May 10, 1736), was the lieutenant and nephew of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et
de La Vérendrye in the exploratory party which headed west from Fort
Kaministiquia in 1731. He and Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye established Fort St.
Charles on Lake of the Woods in 1732. In the spring of 1733, he and Jean
Baptiste headed down the Winnipeg River to set up a post in the Lake
Winnipeg area. They were stopped by ice and La Jemeraye returned to Fort St.
Charles while his cousin established a small temporary fort named La Barrière.
La Jemeraye continued as an important participant in La Vérendrye's exploration
and fur trading activities. He and Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye built Fort
Maurepas about six miles north of present day Selkirk, Manitoba in 1735.
Traveling from there to Fort St. Charles via the Red River/Savanne Portage route,
La Jemeraye, who was very ill, died at the junction of the Red and Roseau rivers.
The date of his death gives us proof that, in 1736, La Jemeraye and one of La
Vérendrye's sons passed The Forks. The Forks is the site of present
day Winnipeg.
An interesting and important contribution of Christopher Dufrost relates to his
skill as a cartographer. He produced the first French map of the west in 1733. It
was of high quality and the final copy was produced, at a later date, by the
engineer, Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry.