Henry House

Alberta. Former locality and railway point
Approximately 12 km north of Jasper
52.9867 N 118.0628 W — Map 083D16 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in Canada
19 miles east of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1911. Abandoned on grade in 1917. Turned over to Department of the Interior (Parks) circa 1923.

Appears on a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway train ticket, June 30, 1914, between Interlaken and Fitzhugh.

“Henry’s House” or “William Henry’s Old House” was a minor trading post near Athabasca Pass in Canada. In 1811, while David Thompson was making his way over the Athabasca Pass, William Henry, the eldest son of Alexander Henry, provided support on the eastern side of the mountains. He a built a post on the Athabasca River near the mouth of the Miette River, where the trail from the passes reached the head of navigation. At this point travellers coming over the mountains transferred from horses to canoes for the journey down river.

The normal route over the mountains was from Jasper House on the Athabasca River 120 miles west to Boat Encampment on the Columbia River. To save time one could take a light (non-freight) 50 miles more up the Athabasca River to Henry’s House and cross the mountains from there. George Simpson (administrator) and John McLoughlin used this route in 1824.

William Henry (1783?-1846?) was a fur trader in the service of the North West Company, and it was after him that this trading post and later locality was named in 1912.

References:

  • Karamitsanis, Aphrodite. Place names of Alberta. Volume 1: Mountains, Mountain Parks and Foothills. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1991
  • Bohi, Charles W., and Kozma, Leslie S. Canadian National’s Western Stations. Don Mills, Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2002
  • Wikipedia. Henry House

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