Laurent
Leroux: Founder of Two Forts
Of the few non-aboriginals who became well
acquainted with Great Slave Lake in the
late 18th century, trader Laurent Leroux
was perhaps the most productive. From 1796
– 1789, Leroux established trading
posts on behalf of Gregory, MacLeod &
Company at Fort Resolution,
on the lake’s south shore, and on
behalf of the newly-amalgamated North West
Company at Fort Providence,
near modern-day Yellowknife, on the north
shore.
The
Old Fort Providence Historic
Site
Located near Wool Bay, just
outside the city of Yellowknife,
the archaeological site of Old
Fort Providence contains the
remains of at least 4 log buildings
spread over 1 hectare. While
only the stone fireplaces of
the structures are visible through
the overgrowth, excavations
conducted from 1969 –
1971 have revealed that the
post included post-on-sill living
quarters and a main trade building.
Established by North West Company
employee Laurent Leroux, the
post housed 10-20 people, including
women and children, during the
last decade of the 18th century,
but dwindled to a 2-person operation
by 1822. Although the explorer
John Franklin used the post
as a stop-over point during
his first expedition to the
Arctic in 1820, the fort was
abandoned in 1823. Today, Old
Fort Providence is protected
from disturbance by the Northwest
Territories Archaeological Sites
Regulations. Name Note:
Old Fort Providence, near Yellowknife
at the north end of Great Slave
Lake is not be confused with
the modern-day community of
Fort Providence, west of Great
Slave Lake on the Mackenzie
River.
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In 1786, Leroux was a 27-year-old clerk
with Gregory, MacLeod, based at Michilimackinac,
when he received orders from his superior,
John Ross, to set up a trading post far
to the northwest, on the south shore of
Great Slave Lake. The frontier post was
a direct response to fierce competition
from Nor’Wester Peter Pond, who had
sent Cuthbert Grant (Senior) down the Slave
River on a similar mission. En route to
the lake, both Grant and Leroux faced the
rigours of the Slave River rapids between
Fort Fitzgerald and Fort Smith; Grant lost
5 men to the “Rapids of the Drowned.”
(Although Grant and Leroux managed to conduct
business side by side, bitter rivalry between
Pond and Ross led to the fatal shooting
of Ross; for the second time in his career,
Pond was accused of murder. He was not convicted,
but his reputation was irretrievably tarnished.
As cooler heads prevailed, the decision
was made to merge Gregory, MacLeod with
the North West Company.)
Leroux remained at his Great Slave post
for 2 years. In June of 1789, Leroux joined
Alexander Mackenzie in his journey from
Fort Chipewyan, down the Slave River, and
across Great Slave Lake in search of the
“great river” to the west. According
to a pre-arranged plan, Leroux parted ways
with Mackenzie, heading northwest to trade
at La Martre Lake, while Mackenzie headed
southwest. When Leroux met up with Mackenzie
on the explorer’s return trip from
the Arctic Coast, it was decided that Leroux
would winter at the lake. During the fall
of 1789, he built Fort Providence, now known
as Old Fort Providence, and remained there
for at least another year.
Leroux retired from fur trading soon after
leaving Great Slave Lake, and returned to
his birthplace of L’Assomption, Quebec.
The rugged young adventurer became a highly
successful merchant, industrialist, property
owner and politician, and lived to the age
of 95.
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