[LEGACY] Methye Portage - Fort McMurray, Alberta
Posted by: 
Bon Echo
N 56° 43.888 W 111° 22.339
12V E 477220 N 6287555
Plaque commemorating the important portage during the fur trading era
Waymark Code: WMYGVJ
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 06/14/2018
Views: 2
Update: The Cairn has been trashed and the plaque is missing.
The plaque, located along the Cleawater River just east of the confluence with the Athabasca River in Fort McMurray Alberta is somewhat out-of-place given that the portage it commemorates is well over fifty river kilometers to the east. Having been most of that way up the Clearwater, I can confirm that there is little out there but forest and river and so the location of the plaque does make sense.
"The Methye Portage or Portage La Loche in northwestern Saskatchewan was one of the most important portages in the old fur trade route across Canada. The 19 km (12 mi) portage connected the Mackenzie River basin to rivers that ran east to the Atlantic. It was reached by Peter Pond in 1778 and abandoned in 1883 when steamboats began running on the Athabasca River with links to the railroad. It ranks with Grand Portage as one of the two most important and difficult portages used during the fur trade era." (source: (
visit link) )
The text on the plaque reads:
THE EARLIEST TRADE ROUTE BETWEEN EASTWARD AND NORTHWARD FLOWING WATERS FOLLOWED THE CLEARWATER RIVER AND THE METHYE PORTAGE.
DISCOVERED BY PETER POND IN 1778 AND USED CONTINUOUSLY FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY BY FUR-TRADERS AND EXPLORERS, INCLUDING SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, AND SIR GEORGE SIMPSON.
ERECTED 1937