Rainy Lake

Rainy Lake lies among the forests and rocky waters of the Canadian Shield. Its outlet becomes the Rainy River, which runs west to Lake of the Woods. The lake and its connecting waterways formed part of a much older Indigenous travel network, later used by traders travelling between Lake Superior and the northwest.

In 1688 the French trader Jacques de Noyon reached Rainy Lake and spent the winter there. French trading activity grew in the 1730s around Fort Saint Pierre near the lake’s outlet. The North West Company established a depot on the Rainy River in 1787, and later competed with the Hudson’s Bay Company until their merger in 1821. The posts relied on Indigenous suppliers, who provided food as well as furs to the traders.