Alex and Phyllis Robertson moved to a small community in northern Saskatchewan with little more than dust in their pockets, big dreams and dedication.
They started up a tiny general store and fur trading post, not knowing that Robertson Trading would still be running strong 56 years later in La Ronge, Sask., or that it would come to be regarded as a gem of the north.
Their son Scott Robertson has worked at the store since he was a child and has been managing the iconic shop for decades. He’s tormented by his decision to shut the store down.
“It’s misery. This stuff keeps me up at night. I do not feel good about this in any way, shape or form,” said Scott Roberston.
“My head says do it. My heart says don’t.”
Despite his inner-turmoil, he will close the iconic shop and retire at the end of December.
The store, known locally as the Trading Post, is technically a general store, but it’s also an Indigenous art gallery, a genuine Canadian antiques show, a bucket-list destination for tourists, and an outfitter for camps and people heading into the bush.
The unofficial museum operates on the town’s main street across from Lac La Ronge, which is on the edge of the Canadian Shield.
“If you want a taste of what Northern Saskatchewan was and has been, you would come to Robertsons and have a look around,” said Scott Robertson.
“To have a trading post last almost six decades, [that’s] pretty much unheard of.”
Every nook and cranny, from the red-white checkered floors to the ceiling, is filled with animals, wood and bone carvings, paintings and portraits. There are old traps, beaded buckskin jackets, a birch bark canoe and a bald eagle hanging above the dried goods and toiletries.
Wildlife found in the boreal forest and northern waters is mounted on the store walls.
The carvings, beadings, leatherwork and other artwork has all been created by local Indigenous artists.
“We like to display some of the best that we think Northern Saskatchewan has to offer. We’re not just buying it and selling it to make a buck,” Scott Robertson said.
“You’ll see 100 ‘Not for Sale’ signs on stuff in the store, and the reason for that is we think that stuff should get some attention.”
Scott’s dad, Alex, started collecting the pieces more than half a century ago. He worked as a professional fur trader and prioritized forming strong relationships with Indigenous trappers, artists and community members
Alex could read beaver skins like the pages of a book.
He first developed his skills with the Hudson Bay Company. The fur-trading giant trained him in Montreal and then he worked at posts across Canada.
He spent summers as a relief post manager in different communities.
Scott said that in Saskatchewan, Alex was stationed northwest in La Loche, northeast in Pelican Narrows and pretty much everywhere in between.
An ad showing Alex Robertson, a 'friendly fur buyer at the Bay.' (Kendall Latimer/CBC)
After 22 years with Hudson Bay Company, Alex Robertson struck out on his own and became an independent trader.
In 1967, Alex and Phyllis Robertson moved to La Ronge from Prince Albert with their four young children.
They purchased a tiny shop called La Ronge Grocery. It doubled as their home.
“We lived in the back of it. No running water, bad heat, full of mice,” said Scott.
That “plywood shack” was the start of something special.
About seven years later, the couple was finding success as general merchants who also bought fur. They built a bigger shop on the land right beside the grocery store and named it Robertson Trading.
The fur trade was booming at that time. Northern trappers would take their parcels to the four fur buyers in town in search of the best price. The competition was cutthroat, but Alex had the upper hand because of his training. If there was a flawed skin, he could spot it.
“People would walk into the store with big bags of fur. They’d be dressed in their best beaded jackets, their best moccasins,” Scott said.
“There were days we would fill that warehouse full of fur. We would ship 100 bales of fur. We would buy hundreds of wolf skins, thousands of beaver skins.”
Alex and Phyllis worked side-by-side for 12 hours a day, seven days a week for years to keep the shop running well.
“You eat, breathe and sleep the store. You have everything tied up in this business, so you want it to run well,” said Scott, who understands that dedication intimately.
“Just like my father and mother, I have worked six days a week, 70-plus hours a week.”
Scott has always been drawn to life in the north, but he never intended to make the store his life’s work.
As he says, sometimes life is funny.
He left La Ronge with his high school sweetheart Karen after graduating. They went to university, with Karen becoming a teacher and Scott obtaining a commerce degree.
They dreamed of heading west to Calgary, but ended up back in La Ronge.
“My father was getting older and the stresses of running a business and working seven days a week was a lot. The fur business at the time was very competitive,” Scott said.
“[Alex] had borrowed lots of money to expand and to buy fur. Interest rates were double digits. Help, as always, is hard to find and so you lean on family members.”
Scott has managed the store since he was in his 30s, but the truth is it’s been his life since childhood.
“My husband has lived and breathed this store for the last 56 years and we’ve been together almost for 50 years, and so I’ve lived it and breathed it too, kind of in a different way but in the way that a wife supports her husband,” Karen said.
While Scott navigated long days at the store, Karen taught at the school and took care of their three children. For years, Karen would tuck the kids into bed before Scott got home, have dinner ready when he did arrive, and put the kids back to bed when Scott woke them up coming home.
She was patient because this was the life they had chosen.
“It’s been a hard life for him. [He’s] a very hard working man. But it’s been a good life and it’s provided us with a very good life for our children,” she said.
“Our kids all worked here and they know the value of hard work.”
Scott and Karen have been married for 40 years and together since high school. They want to travel and spend time with their grandkids. (Kendall Latimer/CBC)
It wasn’t always easy. Not only were the hours long, but money was tight, interest rates were high and— at times — they had the bank breathing down their necks like a wolf, Scott said.
But they kept at it. The store has done well financially, even as the economy of the north has changed. Scott said there is much less commercial fishing these days, and logging is much more machinery intensive — requiring fewer people.
The fur trade has plummeted, becoming a sliver of what it once was. Even the Hudson Bay Company announced its departure from the trade in the early 1990s.
But Scott continues to work with what’s brought in, having learned the tricks of the fur grading trade from his dad. He speaks “storekeeper Cree” so he can deal with the trappers in their language.
“We still sell all kinds of tanned skins. I don’t think I’ve ever been more than arms length away from a pile of fur in my lifetime since I was a child,” Scott said.
Robertson Trading has its own scent, a rich smokiness from the hides around the shop.
It’s often remembered by travellers coming through, but Scott is accustomed to it. It’s the way work should smell.
“I can hardly walk by a pile of Beaver skins without petting them.”
Karen said the Trading Post has been woven into the fabric of the community.
“When it’s gone, I can’t even imagine the hole that it’s going to leave, not just for us but for some other folks, too,” Karen Robertson said.
The closing announcement sparked feelings of sadness, nostalgia and gratitude.
“Alex always said he loved to see people come here and visit and then leave smiling,” said Diane Robertson, who helps manage the store. She’s Scott’s sister-in-law, married to Phyllis and Alex’s oldest son Ivan, and has worked at the store for 27 years.
Alex stayed as close to the shop as he could until his death in 2010 and his partner Phyllis died in 2017, but their legacy of kindness carries on.
“I always remember Alex, he was always kind to everybody. I think that’s probably what I would stress about Robertson Trading, is that it was a place where Alex helped out lots of people and then Scott took over and he does the same thing.”
The Robertsons have watched the community evolve and people grow up. They know their customers’ children and grandparents.
The store has always had a way of drawing people in.
“It’s like a meeting ground,” said Glenda Olsen. She only planned to stay for a couple of months until she got back on her feet, but has now worked at the store for two decades.
The first time she entered the store was for her interview. She had followed her parents to the community from Edmonton with her daughter.
Olsen, assuming it was a regular business office, experienced sensory overload walking into the shop. But she took the job and came to find the atmosphere calming.
She’s most appreciative of her visits with elders who come through.
“Some other places you go to. It’s always rush, rush, rush, and here [customers] just stand around and they chit-chat and talk to each other, catch up and they’ll say, ‘OK, we’ll meet again in a year or so.’”
Long-time staffer Perry Schaefer agreed, saying it’s a space for people to connect and swap stories.
“Once this place closes, then a lot of folks are going to realize it and it’s going to really sink in. They’re going to miss this place,” said Schaefer. “This place leaves an indelible mark on your soul.”
While the shop has made its mark on community members, it’s also counted local celebrities, politicians and musicians among its visitors.
“We had Stephen Harper here…Governor General Michaëlle Jean. We’ve had lieutenant governors from the province,” said Schaefer.
“Johnny Cash and his wife June, just before my time, they came and did a benefit concert and they got a tour of the store.”
Local legend and long-time CBC radio host Tom Roberts, who was known as the voice of the north, broadcasted his stories from an office in the building.
Award-winning butcher Guthrie Winn has worked in the back for decades.
“He is the best butcher in northern Saskatchewan,” Scott Robertson said. “He ships bacon all over the country for people that can’t seem to find anything as good.”
All good things seem to come to an end. With the end of December getting closer, the staff have been busy clearing out the general store: the camping gear, the produce and pantry items, the merchandise, the moose hide scrapers, the children’s boots and the snowshoes.
Scott is uncertain about the future of the authentic artwork and antiques.
The collection is important to their family’s legacy and the history of the north. Scott thinks it could be sold off quickly, he’s not interested in parsing it out to the highest bidders.
The Robertsons will remain in the town after the store is closed. They want to see the collection remain there, too.
Scott is hopeful someone in town will transform the unofficial museum into something more permanent.
No one has stepped forward yet, but Scott said he plans to drag his feet on selling anything for a few years to see if something develops.
Even as Scott is in the process of shutting the store down, it’s hard for him to process.
It’s been “50 years of bastards and beaver skins,” Scott said. The store has drawn in an eclectic clientele where everyone’s a character and he knows them all.
Scott told Karen he would retire at 60 and has continued for five more years after that. However, they have a family that’s growing with grandchildren, and they want to travel while they still have their health.
“What’s the alternative, you know? Do you work till you’ve had your first heart attack? Or do you manage the closing of this while you’re still healthy?” Scott said.
“I have done really nothing else in my entire lifetime except work in this store, and I just think there’s got to be more than working six days, seven days a week ‘til you die.”
So it truly is the end of the Trading Post.
Scott will eventually list the building, although he’s in no rush. He’s been asked why he’s choosing to shut it down rather than sell the business itself, but in his mind having a stranger take over was never an option.
He’s got family members capable of running the store, but they’ve made their lives elsewhere and aren’t interested in coming back to take it on.
“It’s hard to sell a legacy like this,” he said.
“This is not probably a rational decision, it’s just, it’s better for me to close the store. Robertson Trading dies with me.”