In the 1920s, A.N. Blake opened an independent trading post in Fort McPherson. Blake kept a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) ledger of 'Indian Accounts' for Indigenous traders who dealt with him. Blake may have had special trading arrangements with the Hudson's Bay Company, where traders brought furs to him and received chits to exchange at the HBC post for specified goods. Blake's post closed in 1935.
The Canalaska Trading Company Ltd. was formed in 1926 as a limited Canadian corporation with its home office in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its main business activity was the establishment of seasonal trading posts in Canadian Arctic coastal communities. C.T. Pedersen, the Manager, hired people to run the posts, where goods were sold or traded for furs. The company was associated with the Northern Whaling and Trading Company.
Bill Largent lived from 1920 to 1951 in the Yellowknife and Hay River area. Bill's parents were Charles Largent and Estelle [maiden name unknown]. In the summer, they travelled north and traded furs. In winter, they ran a trading post, the location of which is unknown to the donor.
Growing up in the north, Bill learned to speak a multitude of Aboriginal and Inuit languages, and often assisted the RCMP with translations. As a teenager he had his own dog team and worked a trap line. As an adult, he owned and operated a gravel truck out of Hay River. Here he met his wife, Judy Rabchak Geyer. In 1951, Bill and Judy sold the gravel truck and moved to Vancouver Island to be closer to family. They visited Yellowknife again in 1970, but resided in British Columbia for the rest of their days. Bill passed away in Nanaimo on July 25th, 1981.
Charles Victor Rowan was born in Guben, Germany in 1892 and arrived in Canada in 1911. During World War I, Charles was interned as an enemy alien at camps in Manitoba (1914) and Vernon, British Columbia (1917). He was granted a Certificate of Release in 1919. He entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company on May 15, 1926 where he traveled aboard the "Bay Maud" enroute to the Western Arctic and his first posting at Perry River, where he was Post Manager from 1926-1929. In 1929, he was transferred to Fort Collinson where he operated the Hudson's Bay Company post from June until October 1929, until resigning from the Hudson's Bay Company in October. He rejoined the Hudson's Bay Company in July 1930 and went to King William Land until 1932. He was then transferred to Fort Collinson until 1936. Between 1937-1938, Rowan was post manager at Fort Collinson, Tuktoyaktuk and finally ended his career with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1939 while post manager at Baille Island. He resigned from service on August 14, 1939 and became the owner and operator of the Boston Bar Hotel in British Columbia. He died in Vancouver, British Columbia 1978.