Established by British royal charter in 1670, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) held a monopoly on the fur trade in all lands drained by rivers flowing into Hudson's Bay. This included about one-third of the present land area of Canada. In this huge empire the HBC conducted an extensive and profitable fur trade until the late 1800s.
Robert Campbell established the company's first Yukon trading post at Fort Frances in 1842. Three years later John Bell reached the "Youcon, or White Water River", reporting that the area appeared to be a rich fur trade district.
