HISTORY OF OUR TRAIL

The Boundary Trail Heritage Region

The Boundary Trail Heritage Region is a narrow strip of southern Manitoba that extends from the Red River to the Saskatchewan border and encompasses all the municipalities adjacent to the U. S. border.

The glorious history of this region stretches back to the prehistoric ocean of the Cretaceous era to the Mound Builders who came following the retreat of the glaciers of the last Ice Age and left their burial and ceremonial mounds throughout the area to mark their passage. Other aboriginal tribes who for untold generations successfully used buffalo jumps to turn herds of bison into food, clothing and shelter followed them.

It is through this area in 1783 Pierre Gaultier de Varennes; better known as the Sierre de La Verendrye traveled on his historic trip to the Mandan country of South Dakota and where his bones are believed to rest.

Before there were roads and railroads, a number of important trails criss-crossed the region. These included various Indian trails, the famed Missouri Trail, the Post Road of the early Mennonite settlers, the Pembina to Fort Garry Trail, the St. Hoe Trail, the St. Louis Fur Trail, the Yellowquill Trail, the Boiler Trail, and eventually the Boundary Commission/NWMP Trail that has become the backbone of the Boundary Trail Heritage Region.

By 1873, the government recognized the need to start opening up the Canadian West for settlement so Her Majesty's British North America Boundary Commission surveyors were sent to survey and map the official boundary between Canada and the United States. Their efforts helped make it possible for the newly formed North West Mounted Police to complete their historic March West in 1874 to bring law and order to the western frontier.

Few remnants of these original trails exist today but the spirit of those who traveled them is memorialized in the Boundary Commission/North West Mounted Police Commemorative Route which begins at Fort Dufferin (Emerson) and follows Highways 243, 32, 14 and 3 to Pierson at the Saskatchewan, Manitoba Border.

Driving along this route today you will find a progressive, vibrant countryside, its towns and villages exciting hubs of commerce and community activity. Scenery shifts from bountiful farm fields and rolling prairie to surprising vistas of lakes; hills, valleys and wooded parkland.

Tourists are drawn to the region for the enjoyment of our many golf courses, parks, camping facilities, fishing, hunting and boating opportunities, museums, summer festivals and other amusements. Recently a number of local projects have been completed to enhance local heritage sites and points of interest to make them more visible and accessible to visitors, and others are in the process.

Please use this guide to avoid missing anything. If you have any questions, you will find our citizens to be the friendliest and most willing to assist you to make your visit an experience to cherish.

Sites in US Territory along the BOUNDARY COMMISSION TRAIL
1. FORT PEMBINA, 18-163n-51w, Pembina Township, Pembina County, North Dakota. During the winter of 1869-1870 General George Sykes received orders to establish a new army post at Pembina and to make a survey of the border in the vicinity. In May 1870 he staked out a line 4,600 feet north of the previously accepted boundary. This placed the principal Canadian presence in southern Manitoba, the Hudsons Bay fort at North Pembina, well inside US territory.
After they became aware of this development, the British and American governments agreed to make a joint survey of the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. In March 1872 Congress passed legislation appointing $50,000 as its share of the costs and stipulating that regular officers of the army were to be assigned to the survey without an increase in pay. Fort Pembina was to become the headquarters of the US contingent of the Boundary Commission.


2. PEMBINA, 4-164N-51w, Pembina Township, Pembina County, North Dakota. The town of Pembina has the distinction of being the first permanent white settlement in the American Northwest. In 1780 a French Canadian free trader established himself at the junction of the Red and Pembina rivers. He wag followed a decade later by Peter Grant of the North West Company and, in 1797, by Charles Charboillezof the same firm. In September 1801 their posts were replaced by) - new one built by Alexander Henry the Younger. The Hudsons Bay Co. was trading at this site as early as March 1798 with its best known post being Fort Daer built in the fall of 1812. It was named in honour of Lord Selkirk who had recently secured a massive land grant from the Hudson's Bay Co. For several years following their arrival during the summer of 1812, most of his Selkirk Settlers wintered at Pembina. A Roman Catholic church built here late in 1818, the first west of the Great Lakes, was attended by some 300 people while a school with 60 pupils was the first institution of learning in this part of the world.

3. SMUGGLERS POINT, Neche and Felson Townships, Pembina County, North Dakota. A well-known ford across the Pembina River here is mentioned many times by Alexander Henry either as grand PASSAGE or the PEMBINA TRAVERSE. By the 1860s there was so much smuggling from Canada into the USA in this vicinity that Mr. Wm H. Moorehead was appointed customs inspector in an effort to curb this illegal traffic.

4. POINT MICHELLE, North Dakota, 30-164n-54w. Although the Hudson's Bay company had a post here as early as September 1801, the first permanent white settlers, Charles Bottineau and Charles Grant, did not take up land here until the 1860s. The latter settled on the north bank of the Pembina beside the trail linking Pembina with St. Joe. The arrival of the railroad in 1883 resulted in the establishment of the town of NECHE, "Friend"" in the Chippewa language.

5. ST. JOSEPH A LA MONTAGNE, Walhalla Township, Pembina
County, North Dakota, 20-163n-54w. 'The earliest names associated with this district refer to its trading posts; Charles Chaboillez's LITTLE HOUSE; Alexander Henry's LANGLOIS HOUSE, (later known as the HMR HILLS POST) and, in 1844, Antoine Gingas's post. In 1851 Fr. Belcourt relocated his mission here from Pembina and placed It under the patronage of St. Joseph. Built in 1853, Norman W. Kittson's American Fur Co. post, is the oldest building in North Dakota. The present name of the town, WALHALLA, "Home of the Gods", was given to it by its Icelandic settlers of the 1870s.

Sites in British Territory Along the Boundary Commission Trail
6. FORT DUFFERIN 13-2-1e, Montcalm Municipality. In the first years of the 19th century, Alexander Henry referred to this vicinity as the EAGLES NEST. During the summer of 1872 a site on the west bank of the Red River three miles north of the international boundary was selected as the location for the headquarters of "Her Majesty's North American Boundary Commission". As its marshalling point and principal supply depot, with the erection of several dozen buildings, Fort Dufferin soon assumed the appearance of a small town. In l873, as the Commission moved westward, guided by Metis scouts under the leadership of Wm. Hallett, (the figure on the left of
the Associations logo on the front cover), old fur trading routes west of the Red River became THE COMMISSION TRAIL. On 8 July 1874 the force of 274 NWMP left Fort Dufferin, lead by Lieut. Col. G. A. French, (also pictured on the Association logo), on their long march to the foothills of the Rockies.

7. L'ISLE DU PASSAGE 5-1-1w, Rhineland Mun. A grove of trees located here in Alexander Henry's time was known as L'ISLE DU PASSAGE or PASSAGE ISLAND. It was here that on the afternoon of Wednesday, 24 August 1881 the roadbed of the CPR line being built south from Rosenfeld junction crossed the "Mennonite Highway". GRETNA, the townsite at the end of this line laid out the following year, was originally known as HESPELER.

8. ALLARDS POINT 6-2-5w, Stanley Municipality.
Allard's Point is the finest lookout along the Pembina Mountains. The first homestead selected along the Trail was located here, that of Mr. Nelson Bedford who filed for it on 6 July 1874. Today only the foundations of his massive barn, burned in the 1920s, still remain to remind us of this first.

9. PEMBINA MOUNTAIN DEPOT, 4-2-5w, Stanley Mun. One of the finest campsites on the St. Joe Trail was at the ford of the St. Joe Trail through Plum River at the foot of Allards Point. Located 43 miles from Dufferin, in May 1873 this site was selected as the location for the first depot of the Boundary Commission west of the Red River.

Sites along the POST ROAD
10. EMERSON 1-1 -2e, In the spring of 1873 the founders of Emerson,
Wm. Fairbanks and Thom. Carney, initiated contacts with Manitoba's Lieut.-Gov. Archibald which soon led to their receiving a large land grant just north of the border on the east side of the Red River. in September 1874 the land office was relocated from Fort Dufferin to Emerson and the town's first buildings were constructed of 60,000 board feet of lumber purchased off a flatboat tied up to a stump on the bank of the river. 'The growth of the first town in southern Manitoba was gradual until November 1878 when the arrival from the south of a railroad link with the rest of the civilized world quickly made Emerson "the Gateway City" joined to all points west via THE POST ROAD, ("die Post Wajch" to the Mennonites of the West Reserve),
and the COMMISSION TRAIL.

11. WEST LYNNE 2-1-2e, Montcalm Municipality. Laid out in 1879 on the land surrounding the NORTH PEMBINA Hudson's Bay Post, West Lynne was incorporated as a town in 1882 and the following year became part of Emerson. Since 1889 it had been, once again, part of the 5,000 acres officially constituting the Emerson town property.

12. HALBSTADT 4-1-4e, Rhineland Municipality. Because on its original site this village was often inundated by the spring flood waters of the Pembina and Marais Rivers, it was relocated to its present site two miles north.

13. EDENBURG 2-1-1w, Rhineland Municipality. This settlement was well known to English-speaking travelers as the TWELVE MILE VILLAGE. Rev. Heinrich Wiebe, one of the original Mennonite delegates to America in 1873, was one of the pioneers of Edenburg.

14. NEU ANLAGE 4-1-1w, Rhineland Municipality. One first store of the reserve was located in Neu Anlage, a village that was also the home of Mr. Franz Kliever, from 1884 until 1889 clerk of the RM of Douglas which later became the RM of Rhineland.

15. NEUHORST 1-1-3w, Rhineland Municipality. Among the principal claims to fame of this village is its association with Obervorsteher Isaak Mueller, "Kaiser Mueller", who directed the secular affairs of the West Mennonite Reserve during its formative years.

16. KRONSTHAL 1&-l-2w, Rhineland Municipality. One of the first Mennonite homes to accept travellers along the Trail on a regular basis was located in this village. Modest rates were charged; bed and breakfast for as little as 5 cents per person or 60 cents for an entire family with feed for their team included.

17. BROWNS GRAND CENTRAL HOTEL 11-1-3w, Rhineland. in
March 1881 Mr. Wm. Brown, previously manager of the Davis House in Winnipeg took over management of this establishment and it soon became a great favorite among the more affluent travellers along the trail who did not care to partake of the hospitality offered in the nearby Mennonite homes.

18. SCHONWIESE 17-1-3w, Rhineland Municipality. This was one of the largest villages of the West Reserve and in 1881 was the home of forty-three families.

19. RED 24-1-4w, Rhineland Municipality. This village was the "capital" of the West Reserve; among its most prominent residents was Bishop Johann Wiebe. Western Canada's oldest Mennonite Church, an oak log building erected in 1876, is located in Reinland and presently serves as a community centre.

20. HOCHFELD 33-1-4w, Stanley Municipality. One of the original villages of the reserve, Hochfeld was founded in 1875 or 1876 and in 1881 it had 20 resident families.

21. OSTERWICK 6-2-4w, Stanley Municipality. According to local tradition, it received its name, "Easter Vetch" from the flowers brought to the first Easter service in the newly established village.

22. STODDERVILLE 10-2-5w, Stanley Municipality. Many of the original pioneers of this district were natives of the Emerald Isle. In 1978 James Stodder became the postmaster of the post office opened in his home, a well known stopping place along the Trail.

Sites along the BOUNDARY COMMISSION TRAIL
23. MOUNTAIN CITY 24-2-6w, Stanley Municipality. In July 1877 F. T. Bradley, Collector of Customs in Emerson, had his land along the St. Joe Trail surveyed as a townsite. 'My first business, a general store, was opened later that year. Since the Pembina Hills are only a gentle rise at this point, it was almost certain that any railroad from the east would pass through Mountain City. In 18K, in anticipation of the arrival of the Southern Manitoba Colonization Railroad, more than $25,000 was spent on construction.

24. ALEXANDRIA 20-2-6w, Stanley Municipality. In July 1877 Alexandria became the site of the first post office west of West Lynne opened in the home of Mr. John Elliott. That same year Thomas McInrue opened a store and stopping house and in 1881 the Bible Christians, (members of an early branch of the Methodist church), completed the Ebenezer Church.

25. CALF MOUNTAIN HOTEL 34-2-7w, Pembina Mun. In May 1877 Mr. Spencer Bedford filed for a homestead at the junction of the Missouri and Commission Trails where his home was described by an early visitor as "of modem architecture with something of a rustic appearance".

26. LA VERENDRYE CAIRN, 33-2-7w, Pembina Mun. An engraved stone picked up a mile north of Manitou in July 1938 was believed to have been left by La Verendrye as he passed through the district on his way to the Mandans. Interest in commemorating this probable visit to the area by the La Verendrye Park and cairn was spearheaded by Mr. Adolph Dack of Morden.

27. CALF MOUNTAIN 5-3-7w, Pembina Municipality. This ancient burial mound is the landmark most frequently mentioned in all the early records of southern Manitoba. Pioneers attributed its construction to the extinct race of Mound Builders and opened it several times during the first years of settlement in the hopes of discovering some clue as to the fate of its builders. In addition to copper from Michigan and shells from the Gulf of Me doc and Vancouver Island, more than 20 skeletons in a sitting position were uncovered.

28. DARLINGFORD 6-3-7w, Pembina Municipality. In July 1880 Mr. W. C Alderson of Mountain City put up a stopping house beside the ford of the Commission Trail across the little Pembina River. Its original name was DARLINGTON but soon after it was changed to Darlingford. Less than a year later EAST DARLINGFORD was laid out on an adjoining quarter.

29. PEMBINA CROSSING 25-2-9w, Pembina Mun., Pembina Crossing's first resident, John E. Adamson, established a small store a few hundred yards from the Commission Trail's ford through the Pembina River. It soon became the Pembina Crossing Post Office and a well known stopping house. In 1880 the land was purchased for a townsite by Rev. L. 0. Armstrong, rector of St. Luke's Church of England in Emerson.

30. RUTTANVILLE 24-2-10w, Pembina Municipality. In April 1879 Mr. W. D. Ruttan built a sod shanty along the Trail which he replaced in December 1880 with a two story frame building, the first store and post office in the district. In 1886 it was taken apart and rebuilt on Manitou's Main Street.

31. TREBLE'S HALFWAY HOUSE 22-2-1 lw, Louise. In a sod house eight miles west of Ruttanville and four miles east of Crystal City many tired travellers along the Trail enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel T. Treble.

32. CRYSTAL CITY 13-2-12w, Louise Municipality. In April 1880 Mr. Thomas Greenway brought the first of more than 300 settlers to the Rock Lake Country and selected the ford of the Commission Trail ford through Crystal Creek as the townsite for Crystal City. By 1884 Crystal City had several hundred residents but during the winter of 1885-1886, after being bypassed by the railroad, the entire town was moved to the newly constructed CPR line.

33. CLEARWATER 16-2-12w, Louise Municipality. In 1873 the Boundary Commission established their LONG RIVER DEPOT at the CYPRESS CROSSING. In March 1880 Rev. Armstrong laid out the townsite of Clearwater. Today the distance between Clearwater and Crystal City is four miles but prior to the arrival of the railroad, the survey of each had been so enlarged that their suburbs were just a mile apart. Today Clearwater is the only town along the Trail remaining on its original location.

34. CARTWRIGHT 34-2-12w, Roblin Municipality. The first settlement at the Badger Creek ford of the Commission Trail was known as WAUGH TOWN after Mr. J. C. Waugh. In 1880 the property passed into the hands of the town's namesake, Sir Richard Cartwright, Minister of Finance during the Liberal regime of Alexander McKenzie. Cartwright's rival townsite was ROCK LAKE CITY.

35. PANCAKE LAKE 6-2-16w, Turtle Mountain Mun. Local legend credits a pioneer resident, Harry Coulter, with christening this lake as he sat on its shores enjoying his evening meal cooked over a fire of wild willow scrub. Early in 1880 the federal government placed four portable shelters here for the convenience of travellers along particularly open stretch of the Trail.

36. WAKOPA 29-1-18w, Turtle Mountain Municipality. In 1873 the Boundary Commission established their TURTLE MOUNTAIN DEPOT at the Long River ford. Its pioneer settler was Mr. Bernard B. La Riviere, who purchased the depot and its remaining supplies in 1874 and established a trading post and farm. By 1880, LA RIVIERES was one of the best known stopping places along the Trail with Mr. La Riviere also being the proprietor of the townsite of WAKOPADOSA. The present name came into use in 1881 with the establishment of a post office. STANLEY CITY, a rival townsite, was laid out on an adjoining quarter by its proprietor, Rev. Armstrong.

37. ADELPHA 4-2-19w, Morton Municipality. The first business on this site was a store opened in 1880 by a Mr. Dodd. Local tradition recalls that Adelpha was named after the farm of Mr. John R. Stuart who chose as the name of his property a word from ancient Greek meaning "brotherly".

38. DESFORD 15-2-20w, Morton Municipality. In 1880 Desford was the site of the first Dominion land office in the Turtle Mountains, a tent in which Mr. Alfred Codd registered the first homesteads.

39. WASSEWA 19-2-20w, Morton Municipality. Mr. George Morton, the owner of the local store, thoughtfully kept a beacon burning above his place of business. Local Indians soon came to refer to the place as Wassewa, "White Light".

Sites along the BORDER TRAIL
40. WHITEWATER 4-3-21w, Morton Municipality. In 1880 Rev. Armstrong purchased property at the ford of the BOILER TRAIL through Waubeesh Creek. The following year he put up a store and stopping house and surveyed the adjoining property for the townsite of Whitewater. In 1882 the TURTLE MOUNTAIN CITY post office opened in this townsite. A rival townsite by the name of WAUBEESH, just a half mile to the north, was the property of Mr. John A. Brondgeet.

Sites along the BOUNDARY COMMISSION TRAIL
41. DELORAINE 30-2-22w, Winchester Municipality. Of the more than a dozen former townsites along the Commission Trail none has a more impressive monument than Old Deloraine, the vault of the Cavers and Stuart private bank. In March 1882, Mr. James Cavers, the original resident of this town, gave the post office opened in his store the name of his birthplace in Roxburgshire, Scotland. However, in 1886, because it was 130 feet above Whitewater Lake, when the CPR built their line through the district it went along the lake rather than into Deloraine.

42. TURTLE MOUNTAIN LAND OFFICE 19-2-22w, Winchester Mun. In April 1880 an Order-in-Council established the first land office in the Turtle Mountain Country with Mr. George F. Newcombe in charge of a territory that extended over 100 miles into what is now Saskatchewan. Several months later he selected the site for his office, the junction of the Commission Trail, Turtle Head Creek and a trail linking the Souris River with North Dakota.

43. MONTEFIORE 20-2-24w, Brenda Municipality. The Scottish settlers of this district, when called upon to select a name for their post office in 1885, chose to honour an Englishman, Sir Moses Montefiore, the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London who had just celebrated his 100th birthday.

44. SOURISFORD 26-2-7w, Arthur Municipality. One of the most historic sites along the trail, this site has been known by many names; HE-A-PA-WA-KA, (translated as HEAD AND HORNS),and the RED DEERS HEAD CROSSING. Mr. Walter Thomas, one of the earliest settlers, arrived here in 1879. SOURISBURG was a name in use by the summer of 1881 but when a post office was opened in December 1883 it received the name Sourisford. Other townsites in the immediate vicinity were SOURISAPOLIS, and SOURIS CITY. Today the area is best known as the site of western Canada's oldest pioneer picnic dating back to I July 1882.

45. BUTTERFIELD 36-1-29w, Edward Municipality. The last principal historic site in Manitoba along the Trail is Butterfield, the location of a post office established in 1884 with a local pioneer, Mr. Joseph Dunn, as postmaster.

 

For more information contact:
Boundary Trail Heritage Region Inc.
Box 64, Cartwright, Manitoba, Canada, R0K 0L0
Cartwright, Manitoba, Canada R0K 0L0
Phone: 204-529-2590 Fax: 204-529-2288
web site: www.bthr.ca
email: pennyburton61@hotmail.com

 

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR REGION