Portage La Biche the forgotten portage.

For a long time--from 1811 until 1825--this traffic [The Western Fur Trade] passed along the Beaver to the Athabasca River at Lac La Biche, by-passing Edmonton. (1)

The Beaver River was used for many years in transporting supplies to and from the Columbia and posts on the Athabasca and Lesser Slave Lake. (2)

The intense rivalry between the Hudson's Bay Company (HBCo) and the North West Company (NWCo) at the beginning of the 19th century included the search for a direct entry point into the southern Athabasca country, and for a travelable North West Passage. This eventually led fur traders to the Churchill River system and up the Beaver River into present day north-eastern Alberta.

About 1768, William Pink of the HBCo apparently ascended the Beaver River, "a noated River for Beaver," (3) to its source, namely, the picturesque Beaver Lake, which is situated about 5 km. south-east of the present town of Lac La Biche. (4) Apparently Pink was unaware that he was only a short distance from the height of land between Beaver Lake and Lac La Biche that divides the Hudson Bay and Mackenzie River watersheds. It was renowned explorer and geographer, David Thompson of the NWCo, who in 1798 discovered the carry over this height of land which later became known as Portage La Biche. (5) Thompson had instructions to find a route that crossed this "almost imperceptible height of land" dividing the two systems (6) for it marked the north-easterly boundary of Rupert's Land and the limit of the Company's exclusive territory.

Thompson's brigade, consisting of three North canoes and one "light canoe," had set out from Sault Ste. Marie on June 1, 1798. (7) In the final leg of this journey it was Thompson's guide, J.B. Laderoute,