Chronology - Dawson Trail
10,000+ - What is known as Manitoba is covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet which is beginning to melt
3,000 - 10,000 years ago - Giant ancient glacial lake Agassiz covers most of what is known as Manitoba. Over time as she drains in Hudson Bay her expanse shrinks to the extent of present-day Lakes Winnipeg, Manitoba and Winnipegosis leaving in her wake many swamps and beach “ridges” or “côteaux” in the area representing the receding of Agassiz’s Campbell beach
Time immemorial to 1730s - First Nations are the first people to live here moving seasonally within their defined and sometimes overlapping or disputed territories. S-E Manitoba is part of the ancestral lands of the Dakota, Nêhiyawâk (Plains Cree) and Nakota (Assiniboine), Anishinaabe (Saulteaux, Ojibway) and Métis peoples. In 1200 A.D. or around 800 years ago, Dakota occupied what is now western Ontario and eastern Manitoba. In the 1700s and 1800s there were terrible outbreaks of epidemic diseases brought by Europeans that Indigenous Peoples were not immune to. These diseases had devastating effects on First Nations. After the war of 1812, the Dakota drew closer to their lands in the United States but never abandoned their northern territory. By the mid-1800s, there were little to no Plains Cree or Nakota left in this region, survivors moving further west and south west to join relatives where there was not yet any sickness. Métis people developed in this period around the forts of the pays d’en haut and the Nor’West. Métis people had familial connections to all of these First Nations through their mothers who were central figures in the fur trade. Saulteaux also went out onto the plains to hunt buffalo now, especially after Chief Peguis moved his people here.
1732 - 1738 - French fur trader and explorer LaVérendrye is in the region around Lake of the Woods where he builds Fort St. Charles before going on to Red River using the canoe route up the Winnipeg River system to Lake Winnipeg and south to The Forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers where he established Fort Rouge and Fort La Reine. During this period, everything directly east of The Forks was swampland and silty ridges up to the edge of the forest which was close to where Ste. Anne is today.
1740s - 1770s - Period of French fur trade until the defeat of the French on the Plains of Abraham in modern day Québec in 1759. French are now under British rule and second class citizens. Many French settlers move south to the American colonies and some eventually make their way toward the Great Lakes region and further west.
1763 - Royal Proclamation of 1763 affirms and guarantees “Aboriginal title to land and rights” of Indigenous peoples and is at the foundation of all treaties with First Nations
1770s - 1821 - The NWC comes on the scene and disrupts HBC’s trading model of North-South hauling and intercepts the trade east-west and gains a large share of the market. During this period of intense competition between fur trade companies forts were often built opposite each other or nearby and skirmishes ensued
1783 - Treaty of Paris mentions rights of the Lake of the Woods Saulteaux
1816 - La Bataille de la Grenouillère, also known as the Battle of Seven Oaks in the area around St. James near Grant’s Old mill in Winnipeg where the Métis Infinity flag was first waved. This ends the Pemmican Wars (the HBC’s proclamation on the banning of the selling of pemmican outside the colony) and affirms Métis pre-existing right to free trade
1817 - The Selkirk Treaty is signed by 5 Cree and Anishinaabe chiefs including Chief Les Grandes Oreilles, also known as Le Premier. Lord Selkirk’s land grant of 116,000 dq. miles from Fort William (Thunder Bay, ON) to Fort Ellice (St Lazarre, MB) and south as far as Pembina, ND (USA) known as the District of Assiniboia and included all of the forts that were eventually included in the NWC/HBC merger to be set aside for the “Half-breeds” in exchange for an annual payment or gift. Since the fur trade companies were more interested in making profit than in governing the country, the inhabitants were largely left to govern themselves after their victory. This Treaty would be superseded by Treaty 1 in 1871, 54 years later.
1820s - Roman Catholic missions begin to be established in the heart of the Red River Colony. Some Métis are wintering in the Ste Anne area
1821 - Merger of the Northwest Company (NWC) and Hudson’s Bay Company under the name Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). Many of the former employees of the NWC were Métis and French-Canadian and while some go to work for the HBC, others find themselves out of work and turning to agriculture or choosing to be freemen (Hommes libres), free to trade as they wished. NWC forts are renamed under the HBC. Fort Gibraltar II at The Forks is renamed Fort Garry.
1821 - 1860 - Period of relative peace in the Red River Settlement. It is a multilingual and multicultural community heavily involved in provisioning the forts of the fur trade with pemmican, meat, buffalo robes, and made goods for sale.
1827-1842 - During this time, the Red River Settlement or District of Assiniboia is equal to 2 miles on each side of the Red and Assinioine Rivers to their extent on both sides of what is today the international border between Canada and the USA. There are several disputes during this period between the USA and British North America over the boundary west of Lake Superior. Though the border or “medecine line” was established in 1818, the survey was not conducted west of Lake of the Woods until 1872, after Manitoba entered Confederation. First Nations and Métis were deeply affected by the border as their families and peoples were cut off.
1826 - Flood of the century of the Red River completely destroys Fort Garry. Flooding displaces many colonists from along the banks of the Red, Assiniboine and Seine to higher ground in the neighbouring regions
1830 - This is the first mention of settlers in the area known as Sainte-Anne-des-Chênes today. It was known as Mistamiscano to the Saulteaux, then Grande-Pointe-des-Chênes or simply Pointe-des-Chênes to Métis and French Canadian who settled there and as Oak Point to those who spoke English. It would not be changed to Ste-Anne-des-Chênes until 1867, 11 years after become the first community to formally organize as a parish in 1856. Many of its residents were employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and chose to winter in the area because of the good hunting and availability of wood for construction and firewood
1832 - HBC established La Compagnie de la Graisse, west of present-day Lorette: a shelter to protect 473 cattle.
1833 - La Compagnie de la Graisse closed after suffering the loss of many animals due to storms and 53 animals eaten by wolves. The business fails in 1834 after just two years of operation and the 800 acres of land is sold to Elzéar Lagimodière, among the first settlers to the area as son of J-B Lagimodière
1840s - Upper and Lower Canada are united under the “Province of Canada”. In the meantime, the Métis have developed an intricate network of Red River ox-cart trails throughout the North-West.
1842 - Father Belcourt had a camp on what he called the “Brokenhead River” (“Pashondabewsibi” in Saulteaux).
1850 - A large flood on the Red River convinced some families to move east and settle at Grande-Pointe-des-Chênes.
1852 - Another flood brings more Métis and French-Canadian settlers in Pointe-des-Chênes. There are about 20-40 families in Pointe-des-Chênes in a permanent settlement. It is said that they purchased the land from Saulteaux Chief Na-Sa-Kee-byness (Flying Down Bird), also known as Grandes Oreilles the second, son of Le Premier who was a signatory to the original Selkirk Treaty
1852 - Exploratory roadline from Fort Garry to Lake of the Woods located and plotted by not surveyed for a postal service. The dirt road between Pointe-des-Chênes and Saint-Boniface was known for a long time as “Le Chemin de Gaudet” after J.F. Gaudet surveyed it initially for the HBC and then again with Simon Dawson in 1857-58. The Hudson’s Bay Post in Ste-Anne was built in this period and possibly enlarged in 1872 to accommodate travellers.
1853 - The first Cathédrale de Saint-Boniface was built with oak sourced from Grande-Pointe-des Chênes and Petite-Pointe-des-Chênes (Lorette).
1856 - Parish of Saint-Alexandre is founded at Grande-Pointe-des-Chênes by Laurent Simmonet
1857- Jean-Baptiste Gauthier and Rosalie (Germain) Gauthier settled on a farm in Lorette where Rosalie began to teach both children and adults to read and write. Mr. Gauthier was a postmaster (acc. to Town of Ste. Anne website 2014, Rosalie did not start teaching until 1862). J-B ran the HBC post
1857 - William Perrault, the first child of Oak Point settlers, is born
1857 - The Government of Canada commissioned an expedition comprised of geologist Henry Youle Hind and engineer Simon James Dawson to explore and survey a route from Lake Superior to the Red River Colony. The intent was to create an all Canadian travel route from the east without having to take the existing routes through the United States.
1858 - The first mass in the mission of St. Alexandre (Pointe-des-Chênes) was held in 1858 (was this Simmonet?). From the period 1859 to 1868, Father Lefioch was in charge of the mission of La Pointe des Chênes. Once a month one resident of La Pointe des Chênes would travel to St. Boniface for him. He would stay at the house of J.B. Pérrault dit Morin. (Clincke, D.J., 1997)
1858 - An attempt was made in 1858 by the Canadian Government to organize a mail service between Canada and Red River Settlement over the route surveyed by Mr. Dawson. The attempt was persevered in for two years. The mail bags arrived very irregularly, and invariably. Otherwise mail came via the USA to Red River
1858-1859 - Simon James Dawson explored the region around the Lake of the Woods (Fort William to the Red River) and produced a report on the proposed land route from «Lac Plat» to Red River. Dawson’s initial report proposed a land route from Lac Plat (Shoal Lake). This would later change to Lake of the Woods
1860 - The community of Petite-Pointe-des-Chênes (later Lorette) was formed by descendants of voyageurs and hunters (Métis) who earned a living by cutting wood and trapping in the region
1861 - Msgr. Taché has a chapel built at Pointe-des-Chênes that opens in 1866 followed by the church built in 1867. It was to serve those who had moved there from St. Bonifaœ after the flood of 1861 as well as the Métis who had settled there in the late 1950s.
1861 - 1862 - A number of woodsmen arrived in Richer, then called Côteau-de-Chênes, to find the wood necessary for the construction of the third Cathédrale de Saint-Boniface. M. Thibeault sets up his business near Richer – “Le Vieux Hourd” and “le Four à chaux”)
1862 - 1872 - Rosalie Gauthier, who had 14 children of her own, opened a school in Ste-Anne. She moved back to Lorette in 1872.
1864 - The first chapel was built in the summer of 1864 on the land of J-B. Perrault dit Morin (the lot was owned by M. Carrière in 1967) by Lefloch on the western side of the Seine River
1865 - Beginning in 1865, people from Ste. Anne, St. Boniface, St. Vital and St. Norbert would spend the winter cutting down trees along Dawson Road and as far as Lake of the Woods. It took these people an entire winter to trace their path to Lake of the Woods, as they had to erect small bridges over rivers and reinforce the trail that they had rode over muskeg and swamps according to Alexis Carrière in a letter dated 1935
1865 -The Desautels and McQuade families took up homesteads at Prairie Grove; Mr. Desautels was the postmaster for many years.
1867 - The mission of St. Alexandre was first called Sainte-Anne-des-Chênes. The Confederation of Canada was born with four eastern provinces on July 1. Blessing of the first chapel, named Saint-Alexandre Chapel. Msgr. Taché entrusted the parish at Oak Point to Sainte Anne, patron Saint of Breton and Canadians. The title chosen was Ste. Anne after the grandmother of Jesus. The chapel was thirty feet by fifteen feet (Tremblay 1967).
1868-1869 - In 1868 Canada purchased Rupertsland from Hudson’s Bay Company for £300,000 (pounds Sterling) or the equivalent of about $1.5 million dollars for all the land from Thunder Bay to the Rockies, keeping land holdings in the hands of the British, but the payment and official sale did not take place until 1869. This took place without any consultation with First Nations or Métis despite the existing Selkirk Treaty and governance structure in place. It was the appearance of surveyors on the land in 1869 which would ignite the western resistance among the Métis. A drought and grasshoppers two years in a row wreaked havoc on the small thriving colony. The buffalo hunt also failed. Lake fisheries had also failed. Taché sent emergency calls for relief to Ontario and Minnesota. People were starving.
1868-1869 - Despite warnings from HBC Governor William McTavish to Minister William McDougall not to send surveyors in to Red River until the sale of Rupertsland was official and discussions had been had, surveyors were sent in to plot out the Dawson Road from Lake of the Woods to Red River. John Snow arrives at the Red River colony and establishes a headquarters for the construction of the Dawson Road at La Coulée near Ste. Anne where the edge of the forest meets the prairies, with the help of Jean-Baptiste Desautels who had a farm and sawmill there. He advertises his need for labourers to build the road in the Nor’Wester. Snow paid his local labourers $15 a month, not in cash, but in “purchase orders” in the HBC survey store, where the prices were high compared to Fort Garry and where he is is said to have been colluding with Charles Schultz who was a promoter of the Canada West movement that believed they had a birthright to the North-West. The road from Pointe-des-Chênes east came to be known as “Snow’s Road” during this period. Snow constructed a house spacious enough to accommodate the immigrants he foresaw flooding along the Dawson Trail. This house, on Côteau Pelé, he thought would be the nucleus of a town he would call “Redpath”. Côteau Pelé is now known as Lake Riviera. Snow’s road builders, specifically those from Ontario, eventually got frustrated with the deal they were getting and demanded a raise in pay and backpay to cover missed days while the workers were on strike. When Snow refused their demands, a group led by a troublemaker named Thomas Scott marched up Snow’s Road and attacked him, roughed him up and “dunked” him in La Coulée (“dunked” being the term Scott would use in court to describe what they did to Snow). Thomas Scott was tried for this and fined for assault along with George Fourtney. It was some local Métis men that came to Mr. Snow’s assistance.
1869 - In August, a survey party was sent by the Canadian government to survey for the Dawson Road and to divide the prairie into sections and quarters; sections for homesteading settlers arriving from the east and south of Red River. In September, the surveyors were stopped on the property of Mr. Olivier Ducharme (lot #8) in Ste. Anne where Major Boulton’s party was told not to ever step foot on his land again if he wanted to keep his head on his shoulders. On October 11, a second incident; the surveyors were stopped again on André Nault’s river lot in St. Vital. Riel (or someone) is said to have stepped on the surveyor’s chain, effectively chasing the surveying party of Lt Col Stoughton Dennis and Mr. Webb. On October 16, 1869, the “Comité national des Métis de la Rivière Rouge” was organized in Saint-Norbert with Louis Riel elected as secretary. On November 3, Louis Riel’s troops captured Upper Fort Garry without firing a shot. In December, a provisional government was formed.
1870 - On February 3, Louis Riel’s provisional government adopted its List of Rights, guaranteeing language and education rights for Métis and French-Canadians, but also guaranteed the rights of everyone in the North-West. It was the first bill of rights in Canadian history.
1870 - On March 4, Thomas Scott was tried and executed by firing squad for his ongoing belligerent and discriminatory behaviour and for his many acts of lawlessness, including looking for Riel to kill him. On March 23, Father Noël Joseph Ritchot and two other delegates from the Provisional Government left Red River for Ottawa. Louis Riel advised that a new province be created and called either “Manitoba” or “Northwest”. John Snow is charged for selling liquor to “Indians” for their land at La Coulée. He is found guilty and is made to leave the territory, no longer welcome.
1870 - Canada responds by sending in “volunteer” military forces known as the Red River Expedition. In April, Colonel Garnet Wolseley set off for Red River with the 60th Rifles and volunteers from the Ontario militia to “reinforce Canadian authority” in the transfer of power. The militia could not find a way through the forest to the prairies at Lake of the Woods so Wolseley went around with most of his troops via the old voyageur route 100 miles north, up the Winnipeg River system to Lake Winnipeg, west then south to the Red River Settlement. On May 14, the province of Manitoba was created (the Postage Stamp Province), only 100 miles square. The area around Brokenhead formed the eastern boundary of the new province. In June, Col. Wolseley requested in advance of his arrival that the people of Red River complete the Dawson Road and while they advertised for 250 axemen and labourers to make a cart road from the east end of Snow’s Road to the north-west angle of the Lake of the Woods, little had been done as the Resistance meant it was hard to find workers. Many Anishinaabe labourers (“Ojjibbeways” as they called them in their reports) were employed on the line of the Dawson Road and this sometimes caused clashes between them and Métis. By August 22, the Red River Expedition troops reached Upper Fort Garry to find that Louis Riel had fled to the USA, leaving his still-hot breakfast behind. The fort was taken without a single shot being fired.
1870 - One company of troops under Captain Redvers Buller was sent west over the Dawson route, building corduroy roads through the swamps, and “with much energy and determination” succeeded in getting his men safely through. Packhorses carried their supplies but had to be lightly loaded to enable them to get over the spongy muskeg. They picked up a cub along the way and made a pet of it. It was rumoured that they lost a brass cannon, which toppled into the swamp and sank out of sight. They struggled but eventually found a way through, happening on the small settlement of Ste. Anne in late summer.
1871 - With the assistance of the Red River Expedition and accompanied by Dawson himself, the road construction was completed that year and opened to immigrant traffic. As a result, 2739 immigrants passed through Ste-Anne between 1871 and 1873 on their way West, many of whom were among the Red River expeditionary forces who were given 160 acre land grants for their service. A number of businesses sprang up around the road traffic, in particular hotels to feed and accommodate the travellers. Going west the Dawson road started at the North-West Angle, through to Harrison Creek, then Coulée de la Perdrix (Partridge Creek), Birch River, Côteau de Cyprès (Cypress Ridge), Whitemouth River, Brokenhead River, St-Onge Creek, Lac Bossé, Côteau à Cheval (Richer), Côteau Pelé (Lac Riviera), La Coulée-des-Sources (La Coulée), Grande Pointe des Chênes (Ste Anne), Petite Pointe des Chênes (Lorette), Prairie Grove and finally St Boniface. From St. Boniface, a ferry was often taken across to Fort Garry.
1871 - On June 29, a party of Saulteaux objecting to the steamboats carrying immigrants across the Lake of the Woods, chased away the builders of these boats, stole their tools and burned some boats being built and others already finished. This was around the time of the Canadian government began negotiating with First Nations with the aim of extinguishing ‘Aboriginal title’ to the land to facilitate “orderly” westward expansion, supposedly free from the violence that beset the American West. The resulting series of treaties are collectively known as the “Numbered Treaties.” Manitoba is comprised of either whole or parts of Treaties 1, 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10 which were signed between 1871 and 1907. During Treaty 1 negotiations at the Stone Fort in 1871, the “right-of-way for the Lake of the Woods road” is mentioned by chief Na-Sa-Che-Byness (Flying Down Bird) and George Kasias for which none of the compensation promised had yet been received. The Dawson Route throughway is, of course, a major part of the negotiations for Treaty 3 which was not settled until 1873 and which is founded in the initial agreement made on the right-of-way for the Dawson Route and the railway, whereby settlement was discussed later.
1871 - There is a well-known legend of a lone soldier carrying the payroll for Wolseley’s troops, 40 ounces of gold, reached Fort Garry without the gold. He claimed hostile “Indians” along the Dawson Trail chased him and as they started to gain on him he was forced to throw the gold in its leather bags into the bush at the side of the trail to “lighten the load” on his horse in order to get away with his life. Rumours immediately circled that the soldier was lying and hid the gold for himself, never to be found again.
1871 - Surveyor General Lindsay Russell completes the first map to show the province of Manitoba as established under the Manitoba Act (1870). The map also shows the beginning of the township surveys that would divide the Prairies into homesteads for settlers that would immigrate to western Canada from Europe. The lands of the original province of Manitoba were granted to settlers in quarter-section parcels for homesteading purposes under the Dominion Lands Act of 1872.
1872 - The British and American governments appointed the North American Boundary Commission to survey the Forty-ninth Parallel, the boundary between Canada and the United States, from Lake of the Woods to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. A road was laid for the surveying parties from a base camp at Fort Dufferin, near Emerson, west to the present town of Cartwright. From there it followed an established trail long used by First Nations (known then as the “Sioux warroad”) and fur traders. Together, these two segments became known as the Boundary Commission Trail.
1872 - A government emigrant transport service, under the management of an Orillia firm, established the rate of passage to $15 for each person and $2 for each 100 pounds of extra baggage. From July 29 to 31, Sir Sandford Fleming’s survey group travelled along the Dawson Route. The botanist exclaimed over the rich variety of plants (two or three distinct floras) and over four hundred different species in one day’s ride. Their first glimpse of the prairies in Ste-Anne was remarkable! At Brokenhead River, the expedition’s diary notes: “somewhere hereabouts is the eastern boundary of Manitoba.” Fleming was commissioned to find a route for the proposed Canadian Pacific Railway (it went further north of the Dawson Road through Rat Portage known today as Kenora, Ontario).
1872 - In the third Expedition of Wolseley’s troops over the Dawson Route in September and October 1872, a Private wrote of their experiences; meeting Chief Blackstone, surviving storms on the Lake of the Woods, eating “slapjacks” (recipe included) and marching through white sand on the Dawson Trail in boots that were three sizes too big, as well as Métis with their carts hauling the lion’s share of the supplies, munitions and provisions across the prairie. It was discovered many years later that the anonymous “private” was Colonel Garnet Wolseley himself (See his biography Canadian Dictionary of Biography)
1872 - Enlargement of the Hudson Bay Store in Sainte-Anne-des-Chênes.
1873 - Treaty 3 is signed with the Saulteaux at the NorthWest Angle on the eastern terminus of the Dawson Road to eliminate what the settlers saw as “an annoying toll system” for the road. Simon Dawson and Mgr Provencher are remembered for their role in these negotiations. Between 1873 and 1883, 3,500 settlers came to settle in the “postage stamp” province of Manitoba via the Dawson Trail
1873 - Winnipeg incorporates as a city
1874-1875 - The majority of French Catholics in western Canada lived in sparse patterns according to the riverlot system which helped maintain family ties rather than church communities. An Order-In-Council by the federal government set aside bIocks of land on which group colonists, Mennonites, homesteaded in the years 1874 and 1875 in the nearby East Reserve. The next group settlers shortly thereafter were more French from Quebec and Massachusetts who took up land in the reserves in the Letellier, St. Pierre-JoIlys, and St Malo areas, as well as the old settlements of Ste. Anne-des-chênes, Ile-des-Chênes, and the reserves set aside for the Métis (Friesen 1984). It was the French Colonization Aid Society, in St. Boniface, which is credited for attracting the French from Quebec and Massatchusetts (Morton 1967). (Clincke, D.J., 1997, P.11)
1875 - Saulteaux of Treaty 3 lodge complaints about Mr. Pitcher, their agent not meeting obligations of the Treaty. Treaty 3 negotiation is re-opened and a certain number of issues are dealt with, including that Métis of eastern Manitoba are included in the adhesion, the only example of Métis being included in a treaty as a group at the request of the Saulteaux
1876 - The monument marking the North-West Angle and border between Manitoba, Ontario and the USA is placed at Lake of the Woods by a survey party. The angle is not reachable on land today though efforts are being made to clear the trail once again
1876 - The Indian Act is passed in Canadian Parliament consolidating a number of “civilization laws” marking the beginning of life on Reserves for First Nations.
1877 - Visit and ride on the Dawson Road by the Governor General Lord Dufferin. Lady Dufferin, wife of the Governor General, wrote in her journal about the “jogging” of the wagon on the corduroy roads “made with rough-hewn trunks of trees” as they travelled on the Dawson Road from Winnipeg to the North-West angle.
1878 - The second church in Ste-Anne was constructed, then another in 1898 which is still standing.
1878 - The Canadian Pacific Railway reached Winnipeg (Selkirk).
1879 - The first church was built in Lorette, another in 1894
1880s - The federal government embraces the Indian Residential School model (formally, though there were mission schools before this). An Indian Residential School is established at Fort Alexander and Winnipeg
1880 - The first school, called École Lorette Est, opened to serve the families in Dufresne. Also the first larger hotel was built (according to the Town of Ste. Anne website 2014)
1881 - In 1881, after years of political wrangling with the federal government, the boundaries were extended to their present western position, as well as being extended farther east, and to 53° N lat. It was not until 1912, however, that the current boundaries of the province were set.
1898 - The Canadian Northern Railway reached Ste-Anne, Giroux and LaBroquerie, making the Dawson Trail east of Brokenhead River unnecessary.
1883 - The Grey Nuns arrived to teach the children in Ste-Anne.
1884 - Arrival of the first doctor in Ste. Anne, Dr. François-Xavier Demers
1885 - Louis Riel is hanged for treason in Regina, SK for the death of Thomas Scott and Métis disperse out of fear following the North-West Resistance which came to an end at Batoche in present-day Saskatchewan
1885 - CP rail completed to Winnipeg relegating the Dawson road to mainly local traffic
1895 - The cornerstone for the first church is blessed. Church opens in 1898 (according to the Town of Ste. Anne website 2014)
1897 - A huge forest fire swept through LaBroquerie, Richer (Thibaultville), and La Coulée St-Onge. The Nault family at La Coulée St-Onge escaped by covering their children with sheets dipped in the river. Mrs. Godard rushed to rescue the animals and hid her children in a cellar. An Indian named Kashawa was passing along the Dawson Trail and rescued the Godard children, taking them to safety at Lac Bossé. Houses and cattle were lost in the flames. In LaBroquerie, the priest rang the church bells to warn the people.
1898 - The Canadian Northern Railway reached Ste-Anne, Giroux and LaBroquerie, making the Dawson Trail east of Brokenhead River unnecessary.
1901 - The village of Côteau-de-Chênes was rebaptized as Thibaultville to honour the first missionary in the area.
1901 - The Sisters of “St-Joseph de Saint-Hyacinthe” opened a mission in Lorette. They taught and opened a boarding school.
1901 - The Municipality of Taché, at the recommendation of Dr. Paul Joyal, opened the first hospital in Lorette.
1903 - The first chapel at Thibaultville was constructed.
1905 - The population of Thibaultville wanted their own post office. Until then, Isaïe Richer, postmaster of Ste-Anne, delivered their mail. The new post-office (and village) was renamed “Richer” in his honour.
1913 - The new church, l’Enfant-Jésus, was built in Richer. Today the church is The Dawson Trail Museum
1916 - A Red Cross Nursing station opened in Ste-Anne to serve the people of neighbouring municipalities
1917 - Construction of the Redemptorist Monastery begins (where???)
1917-1918 - A parcel of land along the Dawson Road is considered for a prison farm at Birch River
1918 - There was a church built in St-Geneviève
1926-1928 - The Dawson road was prepared for motor traffic and paved from Winnipeg to just past Ste. Anne municipality
1936 - The Sisters of “St-Joseph de Saint-Hyacinthe” arrived in Richer.
1930s - Dawson Road bridge at the Whitemouth River approximately eight kilometres south of Hadashville was destroyed by flooding waters in the late 1930s and was never rebuilt.
1933 - Dawson Route is nominated to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada for historic designation
1939 - Caisse Populaire of Sainte-Anne founded (acc to the Town of Ste. Anne website 2014)
1939-1940 - Dawson Route is designated a national historic site and marked with a cairn in the centre of Ste-Anne at the old municipal office building. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada unveiled the cairn on August 5, 1940 to a large crowd and several speeches from politicians, local leaders and historian R.O. McFarlane. The first 36 minutes of the event were audio recorded by CKY. Following the formal ceremonies and speeches an outdoor picnic was held where oldtimers shared oral histories. The designation commemorates the Dawson Route as, “Canada’s first all Canadian Highway linking the East with the prairies”
1940 - The Côteau Pelé was turned into a resort of Lake Riviera.
1954 - Blessing and official opening of the Sainte-Anne Hospital
1959 - June 11, 7pm: The worst flood in Sainte-Anne's history. Water rises at a rate visible by eye. The hospital is evacuated. It passes quickly. By morning, all danger is past.
1960 - Completion of the Seine River diversion project (acc to the Town of Ste. Anne website 2014)
1960s - There are still buildings standing on the north side of Harrison Creek at the North-West Angle
1962-1868 - Winnipeg Floodway Diversion is constructed and the Trans-Canada Highway completed. The change in the angle of the Trans-Canada highway cuts off the community of Prairie Grove and diverts traffic around the towns of Lorette and Ste-Anne rather than through them, changing the main flow of traffic in the region
1963 - Incorporation of the Village of Sainte-Anne
1963 - The City of Winnipeg renamed Lamont Street to Dawson Road in honour of Simon J. Dawson, planner and engineer of the original Dawson Road to Saint-Boniface
1964 - Blessing and official opening of the Villa Youville
1971 - A monument of 2 road signs is erected on Lagimodière Blvd and the Trans-Canada highway to celebrate the Dawson Trail for Canada’s and Manitoba’s centennial
1971 - Blessing and official opening of the Seine Medical Centre
1996 - Community marks 125 years since the construction of the Dawson Road
2010 - Dawson Trail is named a provincial heritage highway and road signs are erected along the eastern end of the road by Roger Godard