DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION - A link to the history of Fort Resolution recently paid a visit to the community.

George Pinsky, the son of the man who established a trading post and general store in Fort Resolution in 1919, stands in front of what the store has evolved into today – Stan's Quick Stop. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

George Pinsky - the son of the man who established a trading post and general store in Fort Resolution in 1919 drove into the community, along with his wife and daughter, for a brief visit on July 22.

His father's store - known as George Pinsky general merchant - was the forerunner of what is now Stan's Quick Stop. Although the store has changed owners and expanded over the years, the basic structure of the first log building is incorporated into the existing business.

Pinsky said Fort Resolution has a lot of meaning for his family.

His father ran his business there for nearly 50 years before retiring to British Columbia in 1968. He later died in 1971.

"My dad and my mother were very happy in Fort Resolution," Pinsky said. "They enjoyed the people and the town. It was everything they could have wanted."

Pinsky said his father was planning to travel further north when he happened to first come to Fort Resolution.

"It really was by luck," he said.

Pinsky said his father had been buying and trading for muskrat pelts around Lake Athabasca in northern Alberta when he heard great things about furs in the Mackenzie Delta.

So, Pinsky's father loaded up a barge with trading supplies near Peace River and headed north by river. Eventually, he made it to the north end of the Slave River, but had to stop because Great Slave Lake was still mostly covered with ice.

That's when he heard about Fort Resolution and took his barge into the community.

"In a couple of days, he had everything sold," Pinsky said.

At the time, there were two other trading operations in Fort Resolution, but Pinsky said a Roman Catholic priest wanted more competition and encouraged his father to stay, even offering space in an old convent. The business operated for a short time in the old convent before moving to its own building.

Pinsky said his father's business was a classic trading post and general store - buying and trading for furs and selling and trading a variety of goods and supplies.

Pinsky, who is now 81 and living in Calgary, spent his childhood in Fort Resolution from the time he was six months old to when he was 12, at which time he and his sister were sent away to school.

"As a kid, I don't remember anything but good times," he said.

Before being sent away to school, he and his sister attended day classes at the residential school in Fort Resolution.

Pinsky, who left Fort Resolution for university in 1950, had not visited since 1974, but returned because his daughter, Mary-Jean Burrows, wanted to see the community.

She was born in Yellowknife when he worked as a mining engineer at Giant Mine and had only visited Fort Resolution once in the mid-1950s when she was just three years old.

Fort Resolution has changed a lot over the years, Pinsky said. "I got lost trying to find my way around."