North West Co.

North West Co.

(1783–1821) British-Canadian fur-trading company. Its operations were centred around the Lake Superior region and the valleys of the Red, Assiniboine, and Saskatchewan rivers. It later spread north and west to the Arctic and Pacific oceans. When its competitor, the Hudson's Bay Co., established a colony on the Red River (1811–12), North West workers destroyed the colony in the Seven Oaks Massacre. Hudson's Bay workers retaliated by destroying the North West post at Fort Gibraltar. The British government pressured the two companies to merge in 1821 as the Hudson's Bay Co.