“Today, the historic Dawson Trail from the NorthWest Angle to Winnipeg is a mere shadow of its earlier years. At the western end, starting at the corner of Plinguet 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, Sainte-Anne and Richer. Further East, it becomes 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-kilometer portion to the NorthWest 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 Road to reach the land of their dreams.
"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 neighbors 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.”
Roger Dupas, local resident and author, circa 1990s
Source: Dupas, R. (date unknown due to loss of archival records, circa late 1900s). Tale of Dawson Trail…Too Long Forgotten. Dawson Dispatch newspaper. Retrieved from the personal research collection of Norm Lavack, local resident.
Dawson road today in 2020 at the Musée Dawson Trail Museum (Église Enfant-Jésus) in Richer, Manitoba. Credit: Mireille Lamontagne
Dawson Road near Richer, Manitoba (2019). Photo Credit: Mireille Lamontagne
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