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Culture & Heritage
Culture
Heritage
Tale of Dawson Trail... Too Long Forgotten
by Roger Dupas
It has been dubbed the Forgotten Trail . . . yet the construction of the Dawson Route was one of the most significant events in the history of our country.
In the latter part of the 1860's, the new confederation government of Canada was faced with the formidable task of linking east to west to unite the country from sea to sea. There were obstacles everywhere . . . agreements had to be signed to purchase the Northwest Territories from the Hudson's Bay Company; Manifest Destiny was rearing its ugly head south of the border, with talks of annexation to the United States of all the territories West of the Great Lakes; Fenians were poised to cross the borders and seize the Red River settlement; threats were being made to impose heavy duties on immigrants to Canada travelling through Duluth and Minnesota. And the Canadian government was not yet in a position to proceed with its plan to build a national railway to the West Coast.
The obvious answer was to build a road through the muskeg and rock-strewn forests of the Precambrian Shield, a task so daunting that surveyors had almost unanimously discounted the possibility in the past. All except for Simon J. Dawson. In 1857, the government had appointed Dawson as a surveyor to the expedition being organized to explore the country between Lake Superior and the Red River. George Gladman was named director of the enterprise and geologist Henry Youle Hind was to conduct scientific studies en route. Gladman was soon dismissed as disputes developed and the organization was split into two autonomous divisions, one headed by Hind, the other by Dawson.
When their reports were tabled in the national assembly in 1859, it seemed clear that Dawson had adopted a much more positive view of the economic potential of the region than either Hind or John Palliser, head of the British expedition that had traversed the same ground in 1857. It appeared Dawson's experience in building what were called "corduroy roads" in Quebec had given him a better perspective of the possibilities of completing such a project. Dawson proposed a land and water route from Fort William to Fort Garry, following the voyageur trails to the Lake of the Woods and thence westward overland to the Red River. The plan involved an expenditure of considerable amounts of public money to build wagon roads over various portages, locks at Fort Frances and a 160-kilometre trail from the Northwest Angle to Fort Garry. But the size of the expenditures he advocated had doomed it for the time being.
The decision to proceed with the project was made in 1868, following a natural disaster that threatened the future of the Red River settlement. A plague of grasshoppers had partially destroyed the crops of the previous year. The eggs deposited in the ground bred a swarm of larvae which had devoured everything green the following spring. Relief for the Red River was pouring in and being distributed by a central committee. The relief scheme of the Canadian Government took the form of building the western end of the Dawson Route, from Fort Garry east to the Lake of the Woods, passing through a Metis settlement near the woodlands known as Oak Point, the Ste. Anne des Chenes of today.
It took nearly three years to complete the road. The construction was mostly done by local Metis and natives, assisted by immigrant workers from Central and Western Ontario. At one point the project was temporarily held up by a strike, instigated by Thomas Spence, the same individual who was later executed by the Riel Provisional Government. Spence and his Ontario friends resented the fact that local workers were paid the same wages they were. When they forced the issue by attempting to drown John Snow, the surveyor, in the Brokenhead River, a group of Metis came to rescue Mr. Snow. Discontent grew as well among the Metis. Payment for the workmen was made in goods, and the prices placed on the food by Schultz, the local shop owner, were considered exhorbitant compared with those prevailing at Fort Garry. Further trouble arose with the natives after Schultz and Spence had plied them with liquor and extracted a surrender of their title to the region in return for an agreed quantity of provisions. And when survey chains began to encroach on lands that were settled by the Metis, the problem escalated and eventually led to the Riel uprising.
These and other events soon pressured the government into speeding up the construction of the trail. In 1869, the slow pace quickened with news of Metis resistance at Red River, and Dawson was ordered to hire a larger work-crew . . . more than 1,000 men by the early months of 1870 . . . and to expedite the passage over of the military force led by Colonel Garnet Wolseley. Wolseley's men inched their way West and spent over 5,000 workdays to complete the roads and bridges necessary for their passage along the Northwestern Ontario portion of the Dawson Route. When the troops reached the Lake of the Woods, Wolseley decided to press on by the old Winnipeg River canoe route to the Red River. The overland portion of the Dawson Route from the Northwest Angle to Fort Garry, which is now known as the "Dawson Trail", was only partially completed and would further delay their arrival at the Red River settlement. A later contingent of some 200 soldiers eventually reached the Dawson Trail and marched on to Fort Garry.
Within a year, an emigrant transport service had been established under the auspices of public works, and settlers for the prairies were moving over the road named for the man who had selected it, had supervised its construction and was serving as its superintendent. For a few years, the Dawson Trail was the only Canadian route to the prairies. It is estimated that more than 3,500 settlers emigrated to Western Canada by the Dawson Trail in the 1870's. It was a difficult route to travel, however, and it soon lost its appeal, firstly, when the United States failed to apply the earlier threatened immigrant duties at Duluth and later when the railway was built.
Today, the Dawson Trail from the North West Angle to Winnipeg is a mere shadow of its earlier years. At the western end, starting at the corner of Plinquet Street in St. Boniface, the trail winds its way in broken stretches through the new suburbs of South Saint Boniface, the Villages of Lorette, Dufresne, Ste. Anne and Richer. Further East, it becomes a haphazard gravel road and woodland trails, cut off at the Whitemouth River, and eventually reaching the north-south highway #308 to Sprague, just south of East Braintree. From the 308, the last 25-kilometre portion to the North West Angle is a barely visible wood trail, whose swamps are impassable in summer and is partly used in winter as a portion of the Pan-Am snowmobile trail system. At the end of the trail, on Harrison Creek, you can still find the remains of the village that used to serve as a way station and rest area for the thousands of immigrants who had the courage to travel the Dawson Route to reach the land of their dreams (see box).
History has forgotten Dawson and his accomplishments. Yet in terms of historical
significance, the Dawson Route was as important to our country as the Oregon
Trail was to our neighbours in the U.S. It was the link that joined East and
West to form this wonderful country of ours. It is the road that brought many
of our ancestors here. And there it lies, neglected and forgotten, running
parallel to one of the most important tourist routes in the province, the
Trans-Canada Highway. Thousands travel next to it every day, yet visitors
drive by totally unaware of the location and the importance of this famous
route. Everyone is familiar with the Oregon Trail. Our American friends know
how to protect and promote their heritage. Why can't Canadians, particularly
Western Canadians, do the same.?
Above: Whitemouth River Bridge.
Why should it be developed? It's amazing that this question should have to be asked. There are so many opportunities to create points of interest for both local and long distance visitors along its route. The list is endless. The market is already there, visible and identifiable every time a vehicle drives by on the Trans-Canada Highway. All we need is a little imagination and the will to do something positive. Think of it! Can you help?
by Roger Dupas