Michipicoten to Moose Factory

The Hudson Bay Company’s Michipicoten Post on Lake Superior was a strategically important fur trade hub, located halfway between Sault Ste. Marie and Fort William and along the Michipicoten River route to Moose Factory on James Bay.

In addition to facilitating the lucrative flow of trade goods in numerous directions, Michipicoten became an important intersection point for numerous Métis family and trade networks along both the north-south and east-west travel routes on which it was located, including those of the Upper Great Lakes and James Bay regions.

Frances Robinson, for example, was a Métis woman from Michipicoten who married HBC trader William Swanson in 1821. Frances and William put down roots together in Moose Factory, eventually having eleven Métis children in the James Bay region. 

Many of the Swanson-Robinson children entered the fur trade as adults, marrying and travelling extensively within both the Abitibi and Upper Great Lakes regions. In doing so, the Robinson-Swanson family further contributed to the already rich Métis family and kinship networks in the two interconnected regions.

See Our Sources

• Swanson-Robinson Family Vignette

• 1905 Moose Factory Métis Petition

• Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s Submission to the MNC Expert Panel

• "Historic Trading Post Hudson Bay Company, Moose Factory, Visited", The Sun Times

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