Methye Portage - The Gathering Place

The Gathering Place

For two weeks every July the south end of the portage was the main staging area for transferring freight from each end of the trail.

In 1862 there were 400 people at the Portage according to Father Emile Petitot. There were the two Portage La Loche brigades with 7 boats each and the Athabasca and Mckenzie brigades with 5 boats each. They had 225 men as crew and over 30 passengers. One 'canot du nord' arrived with a crew of 6-8 Iroquois and two passengers. The Dene residents of Lac La Loche were camped at the Portage in a tepee village of 150 people. The Hudson's Bay Company had 10 employees at the fort who maintained the transportation depots at each end of the Portage and brought in horses, oxen and carts for the season. Petitot wrote "While there were no more than 400 people gathered at the time on the south side of the Portage they gave us a little understanding of the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel. There were people from French Canada, Scotland, Orkney, England, Norway. There were Woodland Cree, Swampy Cree, Chippewa, Chipewyan, Beaver and Metis of all kinds. Grouard and I represented the French."(translation)