This "preliminary" is a massive document detailing the history and important locations in the Fur Trade. The purpose of the paper is to outline these elements of the Fur Trade so that they might be commemorated by the Canadian government. The paper is divided into four main sections: Part one is a brief history of the western fur trade lasting as late as 1870. The author notes that that narrative in this part assumes that the users of this study should be familiar with the general term of reference for this subject. Regardless the narrative should help to place sites and events in their historical contexts. Part two describes the logistics of the western part of the fur trade, the locations of relevant post and their context within the fur trade system. These posts are divided into functional categories: wintering posts, district posts, provision post, and depots. Part three describes the construct of the Fur posts. Part four is the largest part of the paper, where the details of over 250 specific sites are given for posts in western Canada.