The Dawson route is often spoken of, seldom described. When Ru-
pert's Land passed into the hands of Canada, the only way of reaching
it through Canadian territory was by this road. It was the route fol-
lowed by the Wolseley expedition in 1870. It is called the Dawson road
because Dr. Dawson, the great Canadian surveyor and engineer, was so
prominently connected with its construction. By it uninterrupted com-
munication with the west could be secured through the Lakes to the head
of Lake Superior (Prince Arthur's Landing or Fort William). From
that point to Fort Garry (Winnipeg) was 451 miles of forest, rock, lake
and river, a very desolate and forbidding country. Wolseley had to get
through as best he could, and it must be confessed he got through very
well. Manitoba having become part of Canada it was evident that this
Canadian road must be kept open, as it would be a humiliating state of
affairs for Canada to be dependent entirely on a foreign country (U. S.
A.) for access into one of its own provinces. And so we find Dr. (then
plain Mister) Dawson busily at work making a wagon road over which
emigrants could travel to Manitoba, and the farther west. The idea
was that of a continued route to the Rocky Mountains and into British
Columbia. The C. P. R. was in contemplation, but was still in the air
and might be many years before it provided rail connection; hence the
importance of the wagon road, an importance heightened by the fact
that gold had been discovered in British Columbia, and that a way in
was needed from the east. This would be provided by continuing from
Fort Garry by the Red River to Lake Winnipeg into which the Great Sas-
katchewan River emptied itself, only to emerge again as the Nelson River
and continue its way to Hudson Bay. By the Saskatchewan access could
be gained to the Rocky Mountains. We have it then that the Dawson
road was the means of getting from the head of Lake Superior (Fort
William) to Winnipeg, and it follows as a matter of course that it was
the only all Canadian road into Saskatchewan. It was by this road that
the advanced guard, or rather, the pioneer body of the famous Mounted
Police entered in 1873 being succeeded in 1874 by the main body.

When we consider the easy and luxurious manner (relatively) in
which the immigrant of today makes his entry into the prairie country, it
may not be without interest to describe the conditions say of 1874. The
Dawson route of 450 miles comprised 140 miles of wagon road; miles
of portaging, and the rest of the way by water carriage. The road was