Tomorrow we will drive the last 50 miles to Cumberland House where we will begin the adventure. Cumberland House is the oldest permanent settlement in Saskatchewan. In the early 1770s, the Hudson's Bay Company realized that they would need to establish a series of forts in the Interior of Canada, further from Hudson Bay. And since the highest quality beaver pelts were coming from west of Hudson Bay, the Hudson's Bay Company had to follow.

So in 1774 the great Samuel Hearne selected a site. The place had Pine Island Lake in front (AKA Cumberland Lake), Big Stone River to the west, the Saskatchewan River to the south, and the Tearing River to the east. It was the perfect "Hub" that the Hudson's Bay Company was looking for.

It took only 4 days to build Hearne's first log fort, which was about 28x14 feet in size. At first they used stretched thin deer hide for windows due to lack of glass (parchment windows). Because Cumberland House is situated too far from buffalo, the first hivernants and company men lived off duck, geese, deer, moose and lots o fish. After a year Hearne was replaced by Matthew Cocking. Then in 1778 William Tomison took control of the fort. Under Tomison Native relations were good, which meant better trade. Eventually gardening became an important part of the fort, and later milk cows were even brought to the fort! The first fort at Cumberland House was a success.

Around 1790, the rival North West Company began building a fort site in Cumberland House. Because of the fierce competition between the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, often forts were built right next to each other. The North West Company post evolved into a "pemmican supply house." The fort began to supply most of the northern-going canoe brigades with the necessary pemmican. So much pemmican was needed for the canoe brigades, that in 1808, Alexander Henry (the younger) brought 300-500 bags of pemmican to Cumberland House. Each bag weighed 90 lbs, and traveled from Grand Portage. Pemmican has been known to last for seasons, even years. In fact, farmers in Manitoba and Minnesota have reported finding bags of pemmican left over from the later part of the fur trade. When historians opened the bags, they found that the pemmican was still safe to eat even after being buried for over 100 years!