While the story of the Dawson Trail has been explored by many over the years, you will find none quite as diverse as the one that we have compiled here for you all to enjoy.
Months of research from literally thousands of sources have provided us with fresh insights into this age-old story. As a road that has been recognized for its historical and cultural significance at all three levels of government, we hope you’ll agree that the Dawson Trail is a story worth exploring and sharing anew.
We reach beyond colonial narratives on its role in linking together a new nation to bring you some lesser-known “nuggets” about the coming of the road, and its impact, that foregrounds community knowledge as well as Indigenous and women’s experiences. These more diverse perspectives highlight the need to bring this story into the era of national reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
The Dawson Trail may never have become the preferred route for settlers to the west, but its story has long since been celebrated by its communities for the pivotal role it had in the shaping of Manitoba and Canada. It is my hope that these stories, or “treasures of the Dawson Trail”, will excite, intrigue, inspire and educate. May the stories be told, at the very least, as a testament to the resilience of our ancestors who valiantly upheld their own values in the face of adversity and always demonstrated the warmth and generosity toward visitors that has come to be the hallmark of the communities of the Dawson Trail.
Pierrette Sherwood, Chair, Dawson Trail Arts and Heritage Tour
List of "Nuggets":
- The Sale of Rupertsland
- Simon J. Dawson: Surveyor, Civil Engineer, and Politician
- Anishinaabe Chief Showed Dawson the Way
- Lumber for the “Mother Church of Western Canada”
- Troubles at the Red River Colony: Surveying Gives Rise to Tensions
- Women in the ‘New West’
- “Compagnie de la Graisse” Early Animal Shelter
- Eagle Bus Lines
- Métis Kinscape
- Métis Women Entrepreneurs
- Hauling for the C.P.R. on the Dawson Road
- Métis Carts Carry the Burden for the Wolseley Expedition
- First Reeve of Taché Signed his Name with an “X”
- The Legendary Midwinter Tramp of a Famous Lorette Resident
- Louis Riel Land Claim East of Lorette
- Rich Floras Leading to and past Pointe des chênes
- A Trip to Manitoba or “Roughing it on the Line”
- Canadian Pacific Railway Supersedes the Dawson Trail by 1885
- The River Lot System
- Early Surveyors Meet with Resistance
- Last Survivor of the Old West: Alexandre Bériault
- Call To The Grey Nuns (Soeur Grises)
- A Long History of Health Services
- “A Most Beautiful Country”
- Mennonite Delegates in Sainte-Anne (1873)
- Bison Hunting
- Majestic Beaver Dam
- Of Mud and Straw
- Dawson Road Construction: Plagued with Troubles
- John Snow: Foreman of Road Building
- Workers Revolt: The “Dunking” of John Snow
- The Rise of Political and Social Turmoil
- The Governor-General’s Visit (1877)
- The Lost Treasure
- Corduroy Roads
- The Caribou Bog
- First Nations Employed on the Line (1868-1871)
- Working on the Dawson Road (1926-1928)
- A Naturally Abundant Landscape
- Forest Fire of 1897
- Plight of a Luckless Traveler (1874)
- Harrison Creek: Gateway to Manitoba
- Birch River Station for Weary Travelers
- Manitoba Industrial Prison Farm
- Clean Water for Winnipeg
- East Braintree G.W.W.D. Worker Camp
- Scrip - ‘essentially the largest land swindle’
- Red River Military Expeditions
- Dawson Route and Treaties No. 1 and No. 3
- Chief Na-Sa-Kee-by-Ness and Road Negotiations
- Impact of the Homestead Act (1919)
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