NARRATIVES OF SASKATOON

1882-1912

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could be done here I started for Moose Jaw on 9th June, and thence to Ot- tawa, saw the Surveyor General, Sir J. A. MacDonald, Sir David McPher- son, the Minister of the Interior, and orders were telegraphed to them to lay the land out in square sections. On my arrival at Moose Jaw, on my way down from the Colony I went up to Medicine Hat on the 20th of June to see Kerr and his scows and lumber. He was almost ready to start on his wonderful and perilous journey down the river. I then returned to the Colony on 20th July, found the survey of the town site progressing finely; on Aug. 18th it was finished, and we had a holiday and raised the liberty pole (the longest pole we could find) (1), Had a general jubilation, all the settlers round and from the Crossing and below to the number of 30 or 40 people. On the 27th of August the lumber came and we all rejoiced. Started the Office and various houses, and on 20 Sept. I left for Moose Jaw again, and on to Toronto, leaving a band of earnest determined people to face a cold winter and tremendous difficulties. God and the people alone know how they pulled through. The following year I spent about a month in the Colony, arranging matters and left for home about the first of June, dropping out of all con- nection with the Company the following year, leaving about $8,000 of hard cash in the wreck. I paid one cheque in the spring of 1882, of $5000 on stock. I was worried by the interminable law suits, which I thought un- neccessary and unwise. However, I was vindicated by Hon. Justice Rose, who said if all had paid up like John N. Lake no lawsuit would be needed. The Moose Jaw-Saskatoon Trail Mr. Russell Wilson says: In 1883 there was an old trail running from the unknown north south to the Missouri. It passed through Prince Albert, Batoche and Fish Creek but did not touch what is now Saskatoon. Rather, it ran about six miles east. It touched the Saskatchewan River at the Elbow and then passed to and through Swift Current. A new trail was blazed by Mr. Geo. Grant and Mr. Frank Clark between Moose Jaw on the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Elbow. This made a shorter route from the east to the river than that of the old Swift Current trail (2). Mr. Gerald Willoughby tells of a caravan trip from Moose Jaw to Saskatoon: As a rule people who made up a caravan came from some eastern point or from over the sea. If they came from the East they had a carload of settler's effects, usually consisting of three horses and probably three or four cows, a lumber waggon. an eastern plough (which was no use to them after they got here), a harrow, a few household goods which the wife clung to, and a necessary adjunct was always a dog. When they arrived at Moose Jaw they had to be very careful of their money. Some of them stayed at a building put up by the Temperance Colonization Society in 1883, where they could store their effects, others had tents and lived outside. It was always a busy season getting ready for the trail. (1) James M. Ehy says: "In August there was a gathering of all the settlers on the site of the prospective city on which were two or three tents, but no buildings. There were prehaps a score, possibly a few more, of us all told. We raised a flag pole on which floated a Union Jack and amid speeches and merrymaking, celebrated the founding of the city of Saskatoon." (2) Traces of this track still exist: it will he identified by its triple line, the majority of vehicles being of the cart type, the centre track that worn by the single pony. Later trails were made by team traffic, and can be distinguished by the team's tracks throughout the course of the joint trail running south from point of meeting. (W. P. Bate.) Page 17

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