Located at the confluence of the Red and the Pembina rivers, the site of the city of Pembina became the first European settlement in the state when two Canadian traders, Alexander Henry Jr. and Norman W. Kittson, wintered here in 1812. By 1840, the site had become the center of a booming fur trade begun years earlier in the northern Red River Valley and southern Canada. The Pembina settlement was founded as a trading post by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1797 and later operated by Joseph Rolette for the American Fur Company. From 1843 to 1869, tons of furs were prepared in Pembina for shipment by oxcart to St. Paul, Minnesota. Today, Pembina is a port of entry on the Canadian-U.S. border.
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