Fort Chipewyan is one of the oldest European settlements in the Province of Alberta.
It was established as a trading post by Peter Pond of the North West Company in 1788.
The fort was named after the Chipewyan people living in the area.

One of the establishers of the fort, Roderick Mackenzie of Terrebonne, always had a taste for literature, as was seen years later when he opened correspondence with traders all over the north and west, asking for descriptions of scenery, adventure, folklore and history.
He also had in view the founding of a library at the fort, which would not be only for the immediate residents of Fort Chipewyan, but for traders and clerks of the whole region tributary to Lake Athabasca, so that it would be what he called, in an imaginative and somewhat jocular vein, "the little Athens of the Arctic regions."
This library, built in 1790, held over 2000 books, and became one of the most famous in the whole extent of Rupert's Land.

From about 1815 to 1821 the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) maintained a competing Fort Wedderburn (named after Andrew Colvile's family) on Coal Island a mile and a half from the North West Company's fort.
This fort was established by John Clarke, and Sir George Simpson arrived here in 1820-1821, where he began to reorganize the fur trade.

Sir John Franklin set out from Fort Chipewyan on his overland Arctic journey on 1820.
In 1887 - 1888 there was a great famine.
Electric lights did not arrive in Fort Chipewyan until 1959.
Fort Chipewyan is one of the oldest European settlements in the Province of Alberta. It was established as a trading post by Peter Pond of the North West Company in 1788. The fort was named after the Chipewyan people living in the area.
One of the establishers of the fort, Roderick Mackenzie of Terrebonne, always had a taste for literature, as was seen years later when he opened correspondence with traders all over the north and west, asking for descriptions of scenery, adventure, folklore and history. He also had in view the founding of a library at the fort, which would not be only for the immediate residents of Fort Chipewyan, but for traders and clerks of the whole region tributary to Lake Athabasca, so that it would be what he called, in an imaginative and somewhat jocular vein, "the little Athens of the Arctic regions." This library, built in 1790, held over 2000 books, and became one of the most famous in the whole extent of Rupert's Land.
From about 1815 to 1821 the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) maintained a competing Fort Wedderburn (named after Andrew Colvile's family) on Coal Island a mile and a half from the North West Company's fort. This fort was established by John Clarke, and Sir George Simpson arrived here in 1820-1821, where he began to reorganize the fur trade.
Sir John Franklin set out from Fort Chipewyan on his overland Arctic journey on 1820. In 1887 - 1888 there was a great famine. Electric lights did not arrive in Fort Chipewyan until 1959.
Fort Chipewyan