| Traders from Fort
Benton in Montana Territory established Fort Hamilton in
1869, trading buffalo robes and fur for firearms,
ammunition, and illegal whiskey with the Blackfeet.
The fort, later dubbed Fort Whoop-Up because of its
illicit activities, quickly became the American trade
headquarters in southern Alberta. The Mounties began
their westward march to curtail the whiskey trade in
1874. |
|
| Their first stop was
Fort Whoop-Up. When the purchase price for the fort
was too high, the Mounties established a post by renting
one of the buildings from the American traders. Fort
Whoop-Up was the first stop along the western branch of
the Old Forts Trail from Fort Benton until the railroad
supplanted river traffic in the mid-1880's. The NWMP
remained at the fort until 1892, even after fire destroyed
their rented building in 1888. By 1915 only piles of
stones and depressions, where fireplaces and cellars once
had been remained at the site. |
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