An archaeological dig performed last summer near the confluence of the Pelly and Yukon rivers unearthed the remains of the original Fort Selkirk Hudson's Bay Company post.

The announcement was made Tuesday by Selkirk First Nation Chief Darin Isaac and Tourism and Culture Minister Elaine Taylor.

The project, organized by the first nation and the tourism and culture department, was headed by archaeologist Victoria Castillo. She is in her second year of PhD studies in anthropology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

'My thesis is on interaction between Northern Tutchone people and the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Selkirk,' Castillo said in a statement.

'Some historians actually believed that the original site was lost to flooding and erosion by the Pelly River. The fact that we actually found it is very exciting.'

The original Fort Selkirk was built on the banks of the Pelly River in 1848 by Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) trader and explorer Robert Campbell.

The site was not well-chosen, and the post was damaged every spring by floodwaters. In early 1852, Campbell moved the post to a nearby site on the Yukon River the location of today's Fort Selkirk Historic Site.

The discovery of 'Fort Selkirk 1' goes back to 1988, when Yukon archaeologist Ruth Gotthardt, along with archaeologists Greg Hare and Norman Easton, discovered a small, well-defined depression in the ground.

It was the remains of a cellar, and Gotthardt guessed that it might be Campbell's original HBC post. The location was marked, but no further investigations were made.

Castillo was assisted on the dig by Morgan Ritchie, a recent archaeology graduate from Simon Fraser University, and by Curtis Joe and Lauren McGinty from the Selkirk First Nation.

The crew included two Student Training and Employment Program (STEP) students, plus four Selkirk First Nation youths.

'This project is of great interest to Selkirk people,' said Isaac. 'By encouraging our young people to be involved in archaeology, we contribute to their understanding of our history.

'The results of this year's work show promise for more exciting discoveries, and we look forward to continuing the investigations.'

'We are very pleased to be a partner with Selkirk First Nation on the exploration of a very significant historic site,' said Taylor.

Funding for the project was provided by the federal government's Historic Places Initiative, a nation-wide program designed to conserve Canada's historic places, and by the territorial archaeology program.