Echimamish

The Echimamish River connects the Nelson and Hayes river systems in the interior west of Hudson Bay. Its waters flow outward in both directions, and travellers can pass between the two river systems with short portages. Cree knowledge of these waterways helped later traders find a route through the country.

By the eighteenth century, the Echimamish formed part of a canoe route between the Lake Winnipeg country and York Factory on Hudson Bay. The route used the Hayes rather than the difficult lower Nelson, linking inland Indigenous trade networks with a major Hudson's Bay Company post. Boats, portages and the knowledge of local travellers made movement across this network possible.