This monument is located on the west side of the Fraser River near the community of Alexandria in the Cariboo Region. Despite there being no known above-ground remains of the fort itself, the location of Fort Alexandria is valued for its beginnings as a trading post by the North West Company in 1821. The fort was built as the northern terminus for the company’s Pacific Brigade Trail. North West Company relied in large part on the work of guides, paddlers and interpreters who had been hired in Quebec before being sent west. These employees included French Canadians, as well as Métis, Iroquois and members of other Indigenous communities who spoke French and had participated in earlier trading expeditions on the Canadian Prairies.

Following the merging of the North West Company with Hudson’s Bay Company, HBC relinquished the property in 1881 and, in 1915, the buildings were demolished. Fort Alexandria was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1925 because it is connected with the economic development of the country.