The junction with the C. P. R. was at Dunmore, six miles east of
Medicine Hat. After the C. P. R. secured the road and made it uniform
with the main line, the junction was moved and Dunmore from being a
thriving village with a brigade of coal shovelers, had only a few houses
occupied. Being in Dunmore and finding the place unrecognisable I
went to a cottage that showed signs of being inhabited and rapped at
the door. A woman came, a comfortable commodious-looking German
woman. I said to her "What's the matter with this place? Can this be
Dunmore?" "No," she said, "I think it is Done-up." Not a bad bit of
impromptu wit. When Dunmore was prosperous Mr. Blackburn, who
had been manager at Balgonie for one of Sir John Lister Kaye's farms,
kept a store at Dunmore. He afterwards had a horse ranch down in the
Cypress Hills country where I was his guest for a day or two....
A local line of more recent date was the Souris Extension line from
Manitoba to the coalfields of Southern Saskatchewan. It was anticipated
in 1882 that the railway would get in, in a year or two, but year after
year rolled by and the settlers were still marooned a hundred miles from
the railroad. What they endured can be found out by turning to our
pioneers' stories. At that time politics seemed to enter into everything.
In the federal election of 1891 Hon. Edgar Dewdney, then Minister of
the Interior, was for the second time seeking election for the enormous
constituency of Eastern Assiniboia, which extended from the Interna-
tional Boundary to away beyond Yorkton in the north. Mr. (now Sena-
tor) Turriff was the Liberal candidate, and he naturally expected a great
support on account of the broken railway promises. But Dewdney took
the wind out of the thing by pledging himself at Moosomin, at the com-
mencement of the campaign that if the railroad was not extended within
a year he would resign his seat. Next year (1892) the line was extended,
we think, as far as Alameda. These branch lines, as is the case today,
opened up to business with a very modest train service. The Souris
Extension started with two trains a week and picked up and deposited
way freight; and things went along in a happy-go-lucky manner, not con-
ducive to the good temper of any man who was foolish enough to be in a
hurry. We remember a train stopping between stations on the open
prairie. A man went out to see what was the matter. A wild wind was
blowing and he lost his hat. The train, by this time was backing up.
What had happened was this. The conductor and brakeman would do
some cooking in the caboose (there was no baggage car). The brakeman
went to empty a pail when the wild-wind aforesaid blew it out of his
hands. The conductor was now backing the train up to recover the pail.
He got it. A 50 cent pail was more to that conductor just then than all
the rules and regulations of the Company. These twice a week trains
were worked in connection with a similar branch line running north-
westerly out of Brandon. Presently there was a train every other day
except Sundays, but it was not till after the lapse of 12 or 13 years that
the C. P.R., who leased the line, had the courage to run a daily train into
this part of Southern Assiniboia. The story of C. P. R. branch lines is
one of settlers shouting for years in vain. They are doing it today.
Numbers of farmers have pulled out and left in despair owing to the
dilatoriness of this wealthy company in supplying railroad accommoda-
tion to districts where the company had no fear of opposition. The cry
for branch lines is as insistent as ever, and no member of parliament
can do the west better service than by using his "vote and influence" so
that settlers may not be left in poverty and isolation any longer than is
absolutely necessary.