In May 1996 the first volume of our sketchbook on George French was presented by my grandson, Daniel Koskowich to directors of the Fort Whoop-Up Interpretive Centre.
Fort Whoop-Up, situated at the junction of the Oldman and St Mary rivers, near present-day Lethbridge, Alberta, was established in 1869 by John J. Healy and Alfred B. Hamilton of Montana for the sole purpose of gaining a quick profit through an illicit trade in whisky with the native people of the unpoliced southern prairies of western Canada.
It was the most formidable and notorious of the several American whisky posts located in southern Alberta,but was abandoned with the arrival of the North West Mounted Police in 1874. Later, Fort Whoop-Up served as an outpost for the Mounted Police.
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