- For other uses of the name "Prince of Wales", see: Prince of Wales (disambiguation).
The Prince of Wales Fort is a historic fort on Hudson Bay across the Churchill River from Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. The European history of this area starts with the discovery of Hudson Bay in 1610. The area was recognized as important in the fur trade and of potential importance for other discoveries. This fort began as a log fort in 1717 by James Knight of the Hudson's Bay Company and was originally called the "Churchill River Post". In 1719, the post was renamed Prince of Wales Fort but is more commonly known today as Fort Prince of Wales. It was located on the west bank of the Churchill river to protect and control the Hudsons Bay Company's interests in the fur trade. Construction on the fort, a structure still standing today, was started in 1731 near what was then called Eskimo Point, but work was never truly completed. It had forty-two cannons mounted on the walls with a battery across the river on Cape Mary meant to hold six more cannons. In 1782, with only 22 men manning the fort, three French warships took over the fort without a single shot being fired. The fort returned to the HBC in 1783 after the French had partially destroyed the fort. There after, its importance began to wane with the decline in the fur trade. When the Hudson Bay Railway to Churchill was completed in 1929, the labour and equipment used for the railroad construction was then used to restore Fort Prince of Wales in the 1930s.
