Henry House

Alberta. Former locality and railway point
Approximately 12 km north of Jasper on the topo map
52.9867 N 118.0628 W — Map 083D16 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
19 miles east of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1911
“Meeting of the Athabasca and Leatherhead Passes. Site of the ‘Henry House,’ an old trading-post of the Great North West Trading Company! — Indian grave— Rylatt p. 131

“Meeting of the Athabasca and Leatherhead Passes. Site of the ‘Henry House,’ an old trading-post of the Great North West Trading Company! — Indian grave— Rylatt p. 131


William Henry (1784-1864). From “Travels and Adventures” (Bain, ed., Boston, 1901

William Henry (1784-1864). From “Travels and Adventures” (Bain, ed., Boston, 1901 Red River Ancestry

On the Palliser map, “Miette or Henry Ho.” is at the confluence of the Miette River and Athabasca River , modern-day Jasper.

“Henry’s House” or “William Henry’s Old House” was a minor North West Company [1779–1821] trading post on the route to Athabasca Pass. In 1811, while David Thompson [1770–1857] was making the first recorded crossing the pass, William Henry, the eldest son of Alexander Henry [1739–1824], provided support on the eastern side of the mountains.

Henry built a post on the Athabasca River near the mouth of the Miette River, where the trails from the Athabasca and Yellowhead passes reached the head of navigation.

References:

  • Henry, Alexander [1739–1824]. Travels and adventures in Canada and the Indian territories, Between the Years 1760 and 1776. In two parts. New York: Riley, 1809. Internet Archive
  • Rylatt, Robert M. [fl. mid-1800s]. Surveying the Canadian Pacific: Memoir of a Railroad Pioneer. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1991
  • Still, Gary [1939–2018]. William Henry (1784-1864). 2014 Red River Ancestry [accessed 27 February 2025].
  • Karamitsanis, Aphrodite [1961–]. Place names of Alberta. Volume 1: Mountains, Mountain Parks and Foothills. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1991. Internet Archive
  • Bohi, Charles W., and Kozma, Leslie S. Canadian National’s Western Stations. Don Mills, Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2002
  • Still, Gary [1939–2018]. William Henry (1784-1864). 2014 Red River Ancestry [accessed 27 February 2025].
  • Wikipedia. Henry House

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