Fort Victoria, near present-day Smoky Lake, Alberta, was established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1864 on the North Saskatchewan River as a trading post with the local Cree First Nations. It had previously been settled in 1862 as a Methodist Missionary site, on the location of an aboriginal meeting place. It was named Victoria Settlement, after Queen Victoria. Today, it is a historical museum known as Victoria Settlement. The nearby rural residences are Pakan, Alberta. Metis Crossing Cultural Heritage Gathering Centre is nearby. Location and setting Fort Victoria (Victoria Settlement) is located on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River, downstream from Edmonton House between Edmonton and Fort Pitt, It was a stopping house on the overland route between the two, the Carlton Trail system. The fur trading post at Victoria was minor compared to Edmonton but soon attracted a small agricultural settlement around itself much like other Hudson's Bay Company posts at this time. History Established by colonists as a missionary site in 1862-63, Victoria was the home for the McDougall missionary family. This site was chosen because of its popularity as a Cree gathering and hunting area Land in the area was used according to the customary French riverlot system, and a mixed community of First Nations, Métis, and Europeans developed. For several miles on each side of the present-day museum the riverlot system is still in use, the official survey reflecting the fact that farms and land usage predated the Dominion Land Survey of the 1880s. (The DLS in most cases carved up large, square tracts as per Dominion Lands Act). Fort Victoria was an example of a community that shifted from subsistence on wildlife—specifically bison—and trade in furs to agriculture (crops and livestock). In 1864 George Flett was given the job of opening a Hudson's Bay Company trading post at Fort Victoria. Flett was of Orkney and Cree descent. Flett and John Norris led the first brigade of Red River ox-carts from Winnipeg to Edmonton, taking three and a half months on the journey. They passed through Victoria Settlement As clerk in charge of the post until 1866, Flett was responsible for arranging for construction of the buildings and for opening up trade with the local Indians. Flett quickly obtained a supply of good-quality furs, which Flett and his assistants took by horse and dog train to Fort Edmonton for shipment downriver to Hudsons Bay.