Somewhere along this dotted line lies a legendary treasure waiting to be found. Dawson Trail - treasure trail? Story by Michael Posner in Blom, R.R. (1980, April). Taché Rural Municipality 1880-1980 (P.36). Commissioned by The Council of the Rural Municipality of Taché. Derksen Printers, Steinbach: Manitoba. Retrieved from University of Manitoba digital collections June 3, 2020, http://hdl.handle.net/10719/3055598
There are at least three stories of treasures lost along the Dawson Trail. Two stories concern the payroll for Col. Garnet Wolseley’s Red River Expedition troops.
According to one version, a soldier was travelling on horseback along the Dawson Trail with about $10,000 worth of gold, the payroll for the troops with Wolseley’s Red River Expedition of 1870-72.
First Nations, who did not appreciate the presence of the army in their territory and had launched several complaints already by this point that they had not received the compensation promised to them by the government for the right of way through their territory for the road, started to trail him around Brokenhead.
While the soldier was able to keep ahead of them for a bit, they were quickly gaining on him as the horse began to tire from the heavy load. It is said that he threw the gold in its leather pouches into the brush at the side of the trail which allowed the horse to outrun his pursuers, arriving safely at upper Fort Garry without the gold.
Illustration of Canadian soldier getting away from his pursuers without the gold. Manitoba Regional Tourism Network. (2007). Tales of the Dawson Trail. Eastern Manitoba Tourism Guide. Print
It has always been suspected that the soldier had thrown the gold into a swamp where it would have sunk to the bottom. Others have speculated he hid the money in a log cabin along the trail intending to come back for it.
Period British gold coins. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Sovereign_Victoria_1842_662015.jpg
In another version, the soldier is killed by his pursuers with a blow to the head with a hatchet giving the place its name - Brokenhead River, or Tête-Ouverte, as a result, but this version of the story ignores the fact that it has been called Brokenhead since at least 1842, or “Pashandibewsibi” in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway), meaning “river of the scalped head”.
In yet another version, a Mr. Lawson of England stole a gold bullion worth close to one million dollars, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Canada and made his way westward by following the trail of the Wolseley Expedition. The legend goes that he buried the barrel of gold bullion every day and travelled in the night only for English detectives to catch up with him on the banks of the Whitemouth River where he slashed his wrists not to reveal to his captors where he had buried the gold.
Various sources
Sources:
Blom, R.T. (1980, April). Taché Rural Municipality 1880-1980 (P.37-39). Commissioned by The Council of the Rural Municipality of Taché. Derksen Printers, Steinbach: Manitoba. Retrieved from University of Manitoba digital collections June 3, 2020, http://hdl.handle.net/10719/3055598
Dornez-Laxdal, D. (1993). « Reflets d’un passé au lac Bossé ». No publisher. Godard (and Bourgouin) Family. Print
Manitoba Regional Tourism Network. (2007). Tales of the Dawson Trail. Eastern Manitoba Tourism Guide (P.22-24). [Note that the date for the lost treasure story of 1868 in this article is wrong. Wolseley’s army did not come through this region until 1870-72.] Print.
Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA, August 20, 1966 (P.114), “Dawson Trail – treasure trail?” by Michael Posner. Retrieved June 8, 2020 from http://hdl.handle.net/10719/2291440
Example of a soldier’s uniform in the 1860s. The style combines elements of British Dragoon and Light Dragoon. The soldier who lost the treasure in the legend may have been dressed like this soldier since the NorthWest Mounted Police were not created until 1873, two years after construction of the road was completed. Department of National Defence Library. Retrieved June 20, 2020 from http://silverhawkauthor.com/canadian-intelligence-corps-c-int-c_327.html
Story about the Dawson Trail treasure published in the Winnipeg Tribune. University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, The Winnipeg Tribune, August 20, 1966, Page 16. Author: Michael Posner. Retrieved June 8, 2020 from https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3A2291440/manitoba_metadata
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