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Carillon flashback February 22, 1957Steinbach pensioner C.F. Friesen at the boundary post marking the juncture of Manitoba and Ontario at the very northern tip of Northwest Angie in 1957.Discovering Dawson TrailWagon route is gateway to the westby Wes KeatingC. F. FRIESEN rests his hand on the boundary post marking the juncture of Manitoba and Ontario at the very northern tip of Northwest Angle, where the famous Dawson Trail hits the Lake of the Woods, and many a pioneer settler began a cruel trek through the swamps of southeastern Manitoba to start a new life in Canada’s newest province.The year is 1957, and Friesen is an 80-year-old pensioner. He delivers an interesting history lesson and urges families to take a trip through the area. While the swamps are frozen, the winter roads are in good condition all the way from Middlebro north to the Trans-Canada Highway, Friesen says.Conditions certainly were not like that when construction of Dawson Road was finally completed in 1871, more than a decade after the original plans were drawn up. In 1858 the Assini-boine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition appointed Simon J. Dawson, a civil engineer, to survey the best possible route of travel from Lake Superior to the Red River Colony. Dawson spent two years travelling across the prairies and finally recommended a route by land and water from Thunder Bay to Fort Garry.Details of Dawson’s wagon route called for a 28-mile stretch of road from Port Arthur to Lake Shebandowan. Another road was to be built across the Prairie and Savanne portages and past the 12 portages on the Seine River and then from Shoal Lake via Pointe des Chenes (Ste Anne) to Fort Garry for a distance of 91 miles. In all, a total of 131 miles of wagon roads were to be constructed.Water travel was to be across Lake Shebandowan to Lac des Mille near Thunder Bay and then down the river to Rainy Lake and up Rainy River to Lake of the Woods. Plans were to havea steamer convey passengers from the northwest angle of the Lake of the Woods up to Shoal Lake.This route of travel was approved but Dawson’s plans lay dormant until Confederation in 1867, and the federal government clamored to have the northwest join the union.Dawson Road construction began late in the summer of 1868 at Ste Anne des Chenes, but what should have been a mere public works project turned into political turmoil, and early in 1870 Colonel Garnet Wolseley was ordered west with 1,200 troops to quell a possible rebellion.Wolseley and his troops completed portions of the eastern end of the route, building the base of the road before arriving in Fort Garry in August, a month before the Province of Manitoba was created.By 1871 the Dawson Road was finally completed and in use from then until 1878, when Canadian Pacific Railway put a railway line through to Winnipeg. Although travel waned on the Dawson Road after 1878, the road was kept open for the conveyance of the militia.Segments of the Old Dawson Trail are still in use today in both Ontario and Manitoba. Ontario Highways 102 and 11 follow Dawson Road from Thunder Bay to Shebandowan. From there, Highway 11 follows the original water route west to Rainy River.In Manitoba, the stretch from Northwest Angle to Richer is no longer used but is still accessible via the Trans-Canada Highway from the north and Provincial Road 308 from the east. Between the communities of Lorette and Richer, Dawson Road has been incorporated into Provincial Road 207.A cairn and plaque commemorating the Dawson Road was erected by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1933, next to the municipal office in Ste. Anne.
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Steinbach Carillon
Steinbach, Manitoba, CA
Thu, Oct 30, 2014
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CA 08 Jun 2020
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