York Factory

York Factory was a settlement on the southwestern coast of Hudson Bay in the north-west Manitoba in Canada, at the mouth of the Hayes River, 220 km south-southeast of present-day Churchill. York Factory was until 1957 the headquarters of the Hudson 's Bay Company ( HBC) in North America, but is now no longer permanently inhabited.

With its closure, the indigenous community that was closely associated with the fur trade was the York Factory First Nation later relocated by the government. The building of the HBC are now owned by the Canadian government and are administered by Parks Canada as a National Historic Site of Canada. Today, no one is domiciled at the place, the buildings serve only as a summer residence for the employees of Parks Canada and is located near an accommodation for hunters. The wooden buildings were built in 1831 and are the oldest and largest wooden buildings in Canada's permafrost.

History

From the 17th to the 19th century the town was the base of the fur trade and other business of the HBC with the Indians of Rupert's Land, the vast drainage basin of Hudson Bay, which forms a large part of present-day Canada.

The first headquarters of the HBC, Fort Nelson, was built at the mouth of the nearby Nelson River in 1682. The inauguration of the fort provoked a quick reaction from France that its naval forces in 1684 to Hudson Bay sent to conquer the fort and destroy. The company built a second fort on the Hayes River and named it after the Duke of York. In 1697, the largest Arctic sea battle began in North American history, in which the French took the fort and renamed Fort Bourbon. The French forces had recorded heavy losses in the battle with the three British warships and took with her ​​last strength the fort. They gained the victory by successfully gave the impression to be the stronger force. Fort Nelson was returned to the British in 1713 as part of the Peace of Utrecht. After 1713 the headquarters were moved to the present location at the mouth of the Hayes River.