Henry Kelsey heads to the Prairies

March 11, 2017

Charles William Jefferys. © HBC Corporate Collection

1690

Henry Kelsey joined the Hudson’s Bay Company as an apprentice in 1684, and spent the next several years posted to a company fort near the Nelson River. In 1690, Native guides led him up the river into the interior. By 1691, Kelsey had made it as far as Saskatchewan, making him the first European to see the Northern Plains.

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