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Peter Fidler: Canadian Explorer
Peter Fidler was one of Canada's greatest exploratory surveyors, but also one of the least known. Trained by the Hudson's Bay Company, along with the famous David Thompson, Fidler went on to travel the length and breadth of western Canada, laying the framework for all future maps of the area.
With sextant in hand, he covered over 48,000 miles, usually as the first white man ever to set foot on the land. This fascinating story brings to life the adventures of this dedicated and seemingly tireless explorer.
J.G. MacGregor moved from Scotland to Canada as a young boy. His passion for western Canadian history inspired him to write some twenty books, many of which became bestsellers.
225 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1999
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August 13, 2021
Peter Fidler was an early explorer of western Canada. He was a contemporary of David Thompson. While Thompson is better known and covered more ground than Fidler, Fidler travelled an impressive 48,000 miles and surveyed 7,300 miles by canoe, horseback and snowshoe. Unlike Thompson, he worked his entire life with the Hudson Bay Company.
He was a hardy traveller. His early years he wintered with the Indians, learning to live off the land and acquiring a knowledge of their languages and customs.
Fidler left an excellent record of life in the West in his journals. He made the effort to determine the history of all settlements and is a unique source of information on early "houses" (trading posts) and who built them when. He notes the roles of the various people in the "houses" and the work they carried out.
The introduction of European trade items did much for the first Indians to meet the Europeans. They became affluent and set themselves up as middlemen, selling goods to the more remote tribes at inflated prices for skins which they eventually sold to the white men. However, this process disrupted native trade routes and friendships and introduced new frictions.
The introduction of new "technology" to the West is interesting. As early as 1730, the availability of some guns changed the relationships among the tribes. The tribes that got them first, such as the Crees were able to push other tribes away from traditional grounds. About the same time horses became available from the south, again changing the dynamics of the various tribes. The Indians called the horse "Big Dog" as like the dog, it was a slave to man. The prairie Indians - in particular, the Blackfeet - were squeezed between the Crees with guns and the Snakes in the south with horses. However, they did not buckle and evolved into a particularly fearsome nation.
In 1792, Fidler travelled from northern Alberta south to winter with the Piegans. Once south, his primary landmarks were Devil's Head and Mount Head. Of interest is the Old Man's Bowling Green near Livingstone Gap which was used for playing a hoop game. The Indians had no recollection of the origin of the field. It was swept away in a flood in the twentieth century.
In 1796, George Sutherland at Buckingham House implemented the idea of utilizing boats larger than canoes for freighting. He ordered the construction of the first York boats. The capacity of these boats is illustrated later in the book where a York boat is noted as having carried from York Factory to the new Red River Settlement "2 cows, 1 bull, 2 sows & 1 boar, and 22 CWT of Bar iron".
Travel in the north near Lac La Biche was difficult due to marshy drainages with poor flow. Fidler describes a process where they would dam streams in raise the water level for travel, then destroy them in favour of a new dam on a new stretch of river.
Much of the last part of the book reviews the history of the Red River Settlement, the first attempt to establish a self-sufficient village west of what was then Canada. The primary driver was Lord Selkirk who was somewhat of an idealist. Fidler played a major role in working with the early settlers to establish the colony. Unfortunately the NorthWest Company saw the colony as a threat to their trade and worked heavily to destroy the colony through both physical force, interference and coercion. Both companies had strong leaders - Colin Robertson for the Hudson Bay Company, and Cuthbert Grant of the NorthWest Company. They eventually met in a confrontation at Seven Oaks.
Fidler left many notes on the animal life of the West. He notes the regular increase in hares each eight to ten years, and the coincident increase in lynx ("Cats") which were found to be good eating.
In 1794 Fidler married a Cree woman by the name of Mary, "following the customs of the country". They eventually had fourteen offspring of which three died young. The family worked together. Fidler describes how a canoe would be provided for Mary to paddle during their travels. Her work would involve making shoes, cutting line, netting snowshoes and cleaning / stretching beaver skins. The older children would also have work in the paddling and portaging. Fidler and Mary had a registered marriage in 1821 to guarantee Mary rights after Fidler's death.
Fidler left an unusual will. While it left annual stipends for Mary and the younger children, he instructed that the majority be allowed to accumulate interest until 1969 at which time it would be paid out to the descendent of his son Peter. Interventions after his death resulted in the money being paid out to his children, but many of his hundreds of descendants wondered whether money would become available in 1969, still in the future when this book was written.
He was a hardy traveller. His early years he wintered with the Indians, learning to live off the land and acquiring a knowledge of their languages and customs.
Fidler left an excellent record of life in the West in his journals. He made the effort to determine the history of all settlements and is a unique source of information on early "houses" (trading posts) and who built them when. He notes the roles of the various people in the "houses" and the work they carried out.
The introduction of European trade items did much for the first Indians to meet the Europeans. They became affluent and set themselves up as middlemen, selling goods to the more remote tribes at inflated prices for skins which they eventually sold to the white men. However, this process disrupted native trade routes and friendships and introduced new frictions.
The introduction of new "technology" to the West is interesting. As early as 1730, the availability of some guns changed the relationships among the tribes. The tribes that got them first, such as the Crees were able to push other tribes away from traditional grounds. About the same time horses became available from the south, again changing the dynamics of the various tribes. The Indians called the horse "Big Dog" as like the dog, it was a slave to man. The prairie Indians - in particular, the Blackfeet - were squeezed between the Crees with guns and the Snakes in the south with horses. However, they did not buckle and evolved into a particularly fearsome nation.
In 1792, Fidler travelled from northern Alberta south to winter with the Piegans. Once south, his primary landmarks were Devil's Head and Mount Head. Of interest is the Old Man's Bowling Green near Livingstone Gap which was used for playing a hoop game. The Indians had no recollection of the origin of the field. It was swept away in a flood in the twentieth century.
In 1796, George Sutherland at Buckingham House implemented the idea of utilizing boats larger than canoes for freighting. He ordered the construction of the first York boats. The capacity of these boats is illustrated later in the book where a York boat is noted as having carried from York Factory to the new Red River Settlement "2 cows, 1 bull, 2 sows & 1 boar, and 22 CWT of Bar iron".
Travel in the north near Lac La Biche was difficult due to marshy drainages with poor flow. Fidler describes a process where they would dam streams in raise the water level for travel, then destroy them in favour of a new dam on a new stretch of river.
Much of the last part of the book reviews the history of the Red River Settlement, the first attempt to establish a self-sufficient village west of what was then Canada. The primary driver was Lord Selkirk who was somewhat of an idealist. Fidler played a major role in working with the early settlers to establish the colony. Unfortunately the NorthWest Company saw the colony as a threat to their trade and worked heavily to destroy the colony through both physical force, interference and coercion. Both companies had strong leaders - Colin Robertson for the Hudson Bay Company, and Cuthbert Grant of the NorthWest Company. They eventually met in a confrontation at Seven Oaks.
Fidler left many notes on the animal life of the West. He notes the regular increase in hares each eight to ten years, and the coincident increase in lynx ("Cats") which were found to be good eating.
In 1794 Fidler married a Cree woman by the name of Mary, "following the customs of the country". They eventually had fourteen offspring of which three died young. The family worked together. Fidler describes how a canoe would be provided for Mary to paddle during their travels. Her work would involve making shoes, cutting line, netting snowshoes and cleaning / stretching beaver skins. The older children would also have work in the paddling and portaging. Fidler and Mary had a registered marriage in 1821 to guarantee Mary rights after Fidler's death.
Fidler left an unusual will. While it left annual stipends for Mary and the younger children, he instructed that the majority be allowed to accumulate interest until 1969 at which time it would be paid out to the descendent of his son Peter. Interventions after his death resulted in the money being paid out to his children, but many of his hundreds of descendants wondered whether money would become available in 1969, still in the future when this book was written.
August 25, 2024
I have a family connection to Mr. Fidler, so I am quite invested in learning anything I can about this great Canadian explorer and surveyor. I was extremely impressed by the amount of research J. G. MacGregor must have done in putting together this account of Peter Fidler's life and times. I found it an extremely readable account. It is harrowing at times I must say, but it is a thorougly immersive literary experience. Highly would recommend, unless you arent interested in the exploration of Western Canada.
December 28, 2021
I learned a lot more in the pages of this book than I ever did in history classes, even growing up within spitting distance of one of the forts often mentioned within its pages. However, the author waxed poetic far too often for this to be a truly reliable account of Fidler's life.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews