Prince of Wales Fort

This fort began as a log fort built in 1717 by James Knight of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and was originally called the Churchill River Post. In 1719, the post was renamed Prince of Wales Fort. It was located on the west bank of the Churchill River to protect and control the HBC's interests in the fur trade.[2]

The original wooden fort was replaced by a massive stone fort, probably to abide by the Royal Charter which required that Rupert's Land should be fortified.[3]

Construction of this fort, a structure still standing today, was started in 1731 near what was then called Eskimo Point. It was in the form of a square, with sides 90 m (300 ft) long and walls 6 m (20 ft) tall and 9 m (30 ft) thick at the base.[3]

It had forty-two cannon mounted on the walls.[3] There was also a battery across the river on Cape Merry meant to hold six more cannon.

Work on the fort continued almost without break until 1771, but it was never truly completed.

In the 1780s, the French government launched a Hudson Bay expedition to damage HBC activities in that bay. Three French warships of the expedition, led by Jean-François de La Pérouse, captured the Prince of Wales Fort in 1782. The fort was manned by only 39 (non-military) men at the time, and the fort's governor, Samuel Hearne, recognised the numerical and military imbalance and surrendered without a single shot being fired. The French partially destroyed the fort, but its mostly-intact ruins survive to this day.

The fort returned to the HBC in 1783. Thereafter, its importance waned with the decline in the fur trade although the post was refounded a little way up the river.

Map of Prince of Wales Fort prepared in black ink by R.I. Ruggles, from original manuscript (map G. 1/19) in the Archives, Hudson's Bay Company, London.