La Loche: History
Fur trade posts were built on Lac La Loche soon after Peter Pond came through the Methye Portage in 1778. The Atlas of Canada
shows four posts of the North West Company beginning in 1780 to 1819 and three posts of the Hudson's Bay Company beginning in 1819.
Another map by the archaeologist Don Steer in 1972 shows the locations and the dates of seven of these posts. North West Company posts were located on the large peninsula called 'Big Point' (circa 1789-91) and on the south west side of the lake (1819–21). A Hudson's Bay post was located at the mouth of the portage in 1810. Transportation depots were located at each end of the portage from the 1820s to 1880s. In 1857 a permanent trading post was built on the south end of the Portage. This post moved to nearby West La Loche in the 1870s until it was destroyed by fire in 1936. The HBC relocated their post across the lake at La Loche in the newly purchased Revillon Frères buildings where they remained until they sold their northern stores in 1987. The Revillon Frères post had been in La Loche since 1906.
Missionary priests have been coming to La Loche since 1845. In 1860 the separate La Loche Mission of Notre Dame de la Visitation was established. Father Jean-Marie Pénard O.M.I. (the first resident priest of La Loche from 1895 to 1917) wrote in 1895 that the population of La Loche at the Mission was around 100 people and the population at the fort in West La Loche (6 mi (9.7 km)s from the Portage) was 60 to 70 people. In 1911 he wrote that La Loche had 200 people with another 80 to 100 people living in two communities across the lake. He added that during the autumn of 1911 most residents left for winter camps to the north to hunt leaving only 60 or 70 people around the lake.
In 1922 Father Jean-Baptiste Ducharme O.M.I. wrote that there were 500 people in the La Loche Mission area. The Mission included other communities such as Bull's House (at the end of the La Loche River), Turnor Lake, Descharme Lake and Garson Lake.
In the 1940s a convent was built for the Grey Nuns (now a private residence) along with the first hospital and the first school of the community. In 1953 a new Roman Catholic Mission church which is still in use was constructed.
The first road (Highway 155) reached La Loche in 1963. Water/sewer and electricity became available to most homes in 1974. Direct dial telephone came in 1974, television in 1976 and a skating arena in 1978. In 1979 a new high school was opened, Highway 955 to the Cluff Lake uranium mine site was completed and the Clearwater River Dene Nation was officially created.
In 1820 George Back while travelling through with Franklin's Coppermine expedition of 1819–1822 stopped at Lac La Loche House (the HBC trading post). He described this post as "logs piled one above the other with mud and moss to fill up the crevices - there is a single partition which divides the Master's room from that of the men. - the former has half a roof to it - some parchment windows make up the whole". The NWC Post, he wrote was "a square and flat roofed hut just seven feet high - neither wind nor weather tight in which are stowed - Master, men, women, children, dogs and sledges".
Back provides an early indication of settlement on Lac La Loche when on his return journey in 1822 he wrote in his journal: "We touched at the houses on the borders of the lake and embarked a man in each canoe". …