Red Rock Post

 

Red Rock House

The first permanent trading post  in the area was established by Claude Greysolon Dulhut  in 1678 near the location of the present railway bridge. Some 180 years later , the Hudson’s Bay Company  built Red Rock Post  to stop independent  fur traders from heading upstream.  Archaeological  evidence indicates  that this early post may have  consisted of three small log cabins.

In the early 1870’s, Chief Trader Robert Crawford, believing that red Rock Post would become  the terminus  of the Canadian Pacific Railway, set about an ambitious building program.  By 1872 he had overseen construction of a wharf 350 feet long by 52 feet wide.  Soon followed a farm with  house, stable and out buildings , a powder magazine, a men’s house, a trade store complex, boat houses, warehouse, machine sheds and a large eight-room officer’s living quarters.  The living quarters were built in Gothic Revival style with ornate gingerbread designs under  the eaves of the high peaked roof, complete with veranda,  attached kitchen, summer kitchen and wood shed.

Although Red Rock House did not become the railway terminus, it became increasingly important as a cargo trans-shipment point, with goods shipped by steamboat to be distributed throughout the Lake Nipigon hinterland.

B. Satten 2003.  A Historical Walk Through Nipigon