A National Historic Site
Norway House was designated a national historic site of Canada May 30, 1932.
- The heritage value of Norway House is primarily in its historical associations as the Hudson’s Bay Company’s principal inland depot for the fur trade.
- Norway House was home to the Council of the Northern Department of Rupert’s Land meetings acoordinating all trade activities throughout western / northern Canada
- In 1875, Treaty No. 5 between the Saulteaux (Ojibwa) the Swampy Cree First Nations people and the Crown was made here.
- It was also the site where the Rev. James Evans invented the Cree Syllabic System.
Building of Norway House – The First Norway House
- In 1816 Lord Selkirk sent out a band of Norwegians west side of outflow to build a road from York Factory to Lake Winnipeg and a series of supply posts.
- They built Norway House at Mossy Point in 1817 replacing the former Jack River post at that location.
Norway House offers sanctuary for Refugees from The Seven Oaks Incident 1816
- Settlers from the RED RIVER COLONY found temporary refuge here in 1815 and 1816-17 after they were attacked by forces of the rival North West Company.
- On June 19, 1816 a group of Métis with Cuthbert Grant killed Semple and 20 of his men at Seven Oaks.
- 21 June 1816 – The Colonists left for the North by boat with the Sheriff Alexander Macdonell.
Treaty 5
- Signed at Norway House September 24, 1875
- Treaty 5 covered 100,000 Square Miles and took in parts of Northwest Ontario and Saskatchewan and included the largest number of First Nation communities under a single Treaty in Manitoba.
The First Nation communities that entered into Treaty No. 5 include:
- Norway House
- Chemawawin
- Berens River
- Black River
- Bloodvein
- Cross Lake
- Fisher River
- Grand Rapids
- Hollow Water
- Kinonjeoshtegon
- Little Black River
- Mosakahiken
- Opaskwayak and
- Poplar River
**From the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba
Norway House Importance to Western Canadian History
- Building Norway House ‘The Archway’ constructed 1839-1841
- Norway House Known for its arched portal over the central hall/walkway was established on this site in 1825-26.
Surviving buildings include:
- The Archway Warehouse 1825-26
- The Gaol 1855-1856
- The Powder Magazine 1837-1838.
- The Deane-Simpson party that stayed up in the Arctic three years 1837-39 and who mapped 1,284 miles of Canada’s Arctic coast was planned in Norway House.
- The Isbister Building at the University of Manitoba is named in honour of Alexander Kennedy Isbister an English Metis, son of Thomas Isbister Norway House Post Manager 1840-41.
The Existing Buildings
- The warehouse is the oldest warehouse of Red River frame construction in Western Canada and the oldest log structure in Manitoba on its style commonly used by the HBC incorporates a rare archway that cuts through the building doubling as the post’s riverside gateway.
- The Jail 1855-56 is Manitoba’s oldest extant lock-up, is a small structure built of local granite to the southeast of the ware-house
- The Powder Magazine Remains 1837-38 located some distance from the post are the oldest in-situ ruins of a stone gunpowder storage facility in Western Canada and also are notable for their cut limestone elements unusual for the building’s type, time and place.
