Prince of Wales Fort

Welcome to the stark, windswept shores of Hudson Bay. We are standing at the dock at Fort Prince of Wales, a place where history and the unforgiving sub-Arctic landscape collide in dramatic fashion. …

To understand the genesis of Fort Prince of Wales, we must look to the powerful commercial forces of the era. The Hudson's Bay Company, a titan of the global fur trade, already operated a smaller, modest wooden fort further down…

The construction of Fort Prince of Wales was not a swift undertaking; it was an agonizing, multi-generational marathon. The first stones were laid in seventeen thirty-two, but the structure would not be considered complete until…

Let us examine the architecture of the walls themselves. Reach out and touch the rough-hewn stone. …

Why go to such extraordinary lengths to build a stone leviathan in the middle of a frozen wasteland? The answer lies in the geopolitical anxieties of the eighteenth century. …

To stand here is to grapple with the profound human suffering etched into these stones. We must think of the extreme hardships faced by the men who lived and worked here. …

Before we depart the interior of the fort, let us turn our gaze outward, over the ramparts, to the spectacular and terrifying landscape that envelops us. It is the history that draws visitors here, but it is ultimately the…

As our time at Fort Prince of Wales draws to an end, take a final moment to place your hand against the cold, weathered masonry. We have journeyed back to the seventeen hundreds, tracing the forty-year struggle to raise this…