The North West Co. post was built on or near the site of the old French Fort Bourbon in 1790 and was abandoned in 1802. The old French fort was destroyed in 1775, or a little earlier, and the Hudson's Bay Co. was almost immediately established in the locality. Their first post seems to have been built at the mouth of the Saskatchewan river below Grand Rapids and was called Grand Rapids House. In 1856 the Company built a fort, known as Cedar Lake House about half a mile below the main Cedar lake on the right, or west bank of the river. This fort is shown on the Johnston map 1877 (No. 16) and is included in all lists of the Hudson's Bay Co. posts to 1925. It was built to compete with free-traders from the Red river region. A description of these posts is given in Hind's Canadian Expedition. The Hudson's Bay Co. had also another post at the entrance of Cedar lake, west end, shown on Johnston map of 1894 (No. 37).