Canadian Dragonfly

Building Bridges between East and West through Education and Cultural Exchange

The Carlton Trail

Introduction to the Carlton Trail

[under development]

There is much early history of Saskatchewan that is fascinating to explore. For me, the location of one such site was on my grandfather’s early farm near the Touchwood Hills.

In researching family history recently, I learned that my grandfather’s farm was located on the famous Carlton Trail. This was the overland transportation route across the northern prairies from Fort Garry (Winnipeg), Fort Ellice (near present day …), through the Touchwood Hills, to Batoche, Fort Carlton, and on westward to Fort Edmonton. Details of our family connection was found only in a local community history book. It spurred my interest, and in the summer of 2020, I chose to visit some of the significant sites along the trail. This information, together with locating a very old photo of my grandfather’s property, uncovered fascinating connections in our family history that I was previously unaware of.

I will introduce here the Carleton Trail sites I chose to explore and photograph this past summer. (Links to some related family history will also be included below.)

Introduction to the Trail

While First Nations people traversed the Canadian Prairies long before Europeans arrived, it is the recorded history of “the settlers” that provides so much of our current understanding of the early history that we now choose to celebrate.

Waterways were the primary transportation routes for much early travel, especially by the fist Europeans who came to trade for furs. All of the Hudson’s Bay trading sites were on waterways, with one exception: the post located on the height of land known as the Touchwood Hills. It was in this area that the Hudson’s Bay Company established trade. An overland trail network connected the Touchwood Hills are in multiple directions, including the Red River settlements in Manitoba (later to be known as Winnipeg), The Qu’Appelle Vallegy area, and then further west and north to the South and North Saskatchewan rivers.

For our purposes here, I focus here on the route from Fort Garry (junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers) via Fort Ellice (all in present day Manitoba) to the Touchwood Hills (previously part of Assiniboine Territory in the Canadian Northwest Territories), on to a ford on the South Saskatchewan River (later settled by Metis people from Manitoba, as Batoche), then onwards west and north to a major HBC trading fort at Carlton. The trail did not terminate there, but continued westward into present day Alberta with a destination at Fort Edmonton.

Here I provide a brief introduction to stops along the way that are of significant interest to the history of my family, and of much of the early history of the North-West Rebellion of 1885.

Historical sites along the Trail

For each site visited this summer, I’ve created albums.

Lipton, a village on the Carlton Trail that later developed as a service centre when a CPR spur line reached here in ????. Today there is a historical marker located nearby that celebrates the passing of the Carlton Trail.

Eden, the location of Grandfather Stephen Richmond’s farm, most likely established at first as a “stopping place” on the trail. An early photo, possibly acquired at the time of purchase about 1905, had always intrigued me with its store-like structure and huge barn.

The Touchwood Hills Trading Post (Hudsons’ Bay Company) was located within ten miles or so beyond the Eden district, and was a significant juncture of branching trails serving the various First Nations communities and trade sites.

Kutawa and Round Plain, located just another few miles beyond the Touchwood Hills was the location of the government agent appointed to oversee the settlement of First Nations people in four nearby reserves. This location later housed a telegraph office and, nearby, the Round Plain settlement became established about 1880 with mostly immigrants from Britain.

At Batoche, the Metis people (mixed blood people from marriages of traders with local First Nations women) moved out from the Red River area of Manitoba to found a community at the site of a ford on the South Saskatchewan River. It was here that a Rebellion broke out and was put down by Middleton and his group that trekked here along the Carlton Trail in 1885.

Fort Carlton, was just 50 miles or so beyond this point and was an HBC trading post on the North Saskatchewan River.
From here, the overland trail passed through to what is now Alberta and another fort known then as Fort Edmonton (the site of Edmonton AB, today).

In 2020, I journeyed with family and friends to visit a number of stops along this trail.

Detailed photos of my visits can be found by following the links below:

First published: 2021/04/01
Latest revision: 2021/08/16