Documentary journeys into history of northern Manitoba's York Factory trading post

On a remote peninsula in northern Manitoba, where the Hayes and Nelson rivers empty into Hudson Bay, sits an almost-forgotten outpost that birthed the Hudson's Bay Company.

To get to York Factory — more than 850 kilometres north of Winnipeg — most people fly to Thompson, Man., then to Gillam, then charter a boat to take them along the Nelson River. Once they arrive, their eyes are almost immediately drawn to the massive, three-storey HBC depot where for centuries, furs from trading posts throughout North America arrived before heading to Europe.

In a new documentary called Journeys to York Factory, Winnipeg filmmaker Kevin Nikkel travelled to York Factory to explore the history that is literally written on the walls.

"The workers that would come up and spend a number of years there, one of the traditions would be to just write your name on the wall, and the names and the dates on the walls of this building is just stunning," Nikkel told CBC Radio's Weekend Morning Show.

HBC abandoned the site in 1957 and First Nations communities were relocated inland, but many still call it home.

"It's the connecting place of European people with Hudson's Bay Company, but even more importantly [to] the Indigenous people that have roots to that site and lived and worked on that site. And it's this place that shows the coming together of these people that make up our country."

In the film, Nikkel meets Parks Canada archaeologist Sharon Thomson, who is studying erosion at the site.

"It's hard to really overstate the presence of this place," said Thomson.

"It's the birthplace of the Hudson's Bay Company in North America. For well over a hundred years, all of the goods that were going to the inland western posts and all of the furs that were coming back from there came through this place. It influenced the development and settlement of western Canada."

Journeys to York Factory premieres Saturday night on CBC TV's documentary series Absolutely Manitoba at 7 p.m. in Manitoba. You can stream the full documentary online.