History of the Robe Trade

The permit stipulated that they were not to undertake any trade including alcohol on the Blackfeet Reservation. Once across the border, they were no longer subject to American law. Once more, Western Canada, at this time, had no effective form of law enforcement. Healy and Hamilton and about thirty men with six wagons of supplies arrived at the junction of the St. Mary’s and Belly River, a favourite winter camping area of Blood and Peigan.

Here construction of Fort Hamilton and trade with the Blackfeet Confederacy began. The trading was enormously lucrative. By the time, Healy and Hamilton returned to Fort Benton six months later, buffalo robes and furs worth almost $50,000 had been collected. Word of their success reached other traders and soon the robe trade in Southern Alberta was in full swing. Healy and Hamilton returned in the company of former Hudson’s Bay company employee and carpenter, William S. Gladstone and rebuilt Fort Hamilton.