Thanks, Tom, for your post. One of my best friends visited Ft. William about five years ago and noted the strong Scottish influence, which you noted. The Northwest Company, or "Nor'westers", were pretty much a Scottish company, with a few French Canadians and Metis thrown in -- William MacGillivray, Simon Fraser, Alexander Mackenzie are just some of the many Scottish names associated with the NWC. The Hudson's Bay Company also had some Scots working for them as well, including a number of boatmen from the Orkney Islands.

Incidently, the local Canadian Army regiment, the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, adopted the MacGillivray tartan back in the 1950's when the old Lake Superior Regiment decided to "go Scottish". The tartan was chosen for the Scottish connections at Ft. William:

http://www.lssr.ca/scottish.htm

Peter C. Newman's "Empire of the Bay" is a good read about the Canadian fur trade & he mentions the Scottish influence --also, "Great Scots!" by Matthew Shaw has a whole chapter on the trade.

Thunder Bay is on my "must visit someday" list!

Cheers,

Todd