Red Coat Trail - History

History

Early travelers had two rivers to ford without bridge or ferry between Fort MacLeod and Coal Banks, one at Monarch and the other at Coal Banks. Pioneers travelled the pioneer trails across the grasslands during the 19th century created by travellers, first nations and fur traders. The grasslands area of today was still forested in the 19th century and land would need to be cleared and broken for agricultural homesteads and roads. In the 19th century southern Saskatchewan was known as an extension of the Greater Yellow Grass Marsh. The Dominion Land surveyors marked the quarter sections of Manitoba in 1874–1875 and of Saskatchewan in 1881 and homesteaders began tilling their homesteads and fencing their quarter-sections. Travel transferred from prairie trail to road allowances set by the surveyors. Rural municipalities set road bosses and crews to grade the roads and to fill in the low areas. Walking plows would till the soil that was to be moved by the fresnoes, which was a scraper pulled with two horses. Those who worked on roads would have lowered taxes. Later crews would work with four-horse scrapers followed by crawler tractors which could pull even larger graders and scrapers. The rural municipality would work out a system of road work for the various ratepayers, and pathmasters or road crew foremen were appointed to oversee the statute labour conducted. Road sections were constructed from one stopping place to the next, where a stopping place was a settler's home who had built additional accommodation for travelers. Ferries were primarily used to cross rivers and creeks, and these often afforded stopping places. Approximately 1890 the piers were set for the first highway bridge across the Belly River. The first car in Alberta was owned by F.W. Cochrane of Macleod in 1901. These first electric and steam driven cars were set with a high clearance and were able to travel a prairie trail and follow in ruts, soon cars were gasoline powered. Lethbridge was subject to flooding in the early 20th century, the years 1902, 1907 and 1908, uplifting houses, barns, bridges and trees. During the May 1902 flooding a house floating in the river removed the east span of the bridge which was under repair when the June 1902 flood removed the centre span of the bridge. The Territorial Department of Public Works decided upon a steel bridge set upon concrete piers and received a $50.000 grant for construction from the Dominion Government. The floor of the bridge was wood planking across the 16 feet (4.9 m) wide bridge. To the north of the Red Coat Trail is the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) trestle bridge or the CP Rail High Level Bridge. This 1,891 feet (576 m) long, 150 feet (46 m) high trestle bridge across the Oldman River was constructed between 1908 and 1909. In 1910, the Lethbridge Board of Trade was claiming that the government maintains the main roads and bridges and that the roads were good with few hills. The speed limit of this era for automobiles was 25 miles per hour, yet settlers still used horse and automobile for transport. In 1910, travel across the prairies was by rail, of which there were five branches of rail line branching out from Lethbridge, a divisional and terminal point. The Weyburn branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was under construction in 1910 as well, which eventually connected Winnipeg and Lethbridge. In 1910, taxes were set at six and a quarter cents per acre and homesteaders could work on the road crew to help with this payment. A driver and one team of horses could earn C$5.00 per day, and a driver with two teams of horses could earn $7.00 for a day's labour, where a day would be nine hours in duration. It was not until 1912 that the Board of Highway Commissioners was created to authorise road grants for improvements. One of the first traffic bridges across the Oldman River near Monarch, Alberta, was erected in 1913. Red shale can still be seen of the Taylor coal mine (1916–1925) constructed in the upper river bank north of the Lethbridge, Ab traffic bridge. By the early 1920s most residents had cars for transport. In the 1920s roads were gravelled, gravel loaded by shovel, and hauled with horse and wagon, so that automobiles would not become mired down in mud in the low-lying areas. However, the gravel was too thick, and loose gravel meant horses needed to be shoed and cars would careen wildly over the road, and so therefore the grass trail alongside the road was used instead. The Department of Public Works fixed this problem by mixing clay with the gravel. This era was followed by four-horse teams pulling a sulky plow across the roads, eliminating ruts and forming a hard and level surface to drive upon. The 1920s were indeed years of road work; however in these pioneering days there was little background or guidelines to go by. Early road work consisted of levelling roads and filling in low spots which would collect water to make travel easier by the first automobiles. Road ways and road allowances could either be purchased or leased from the homesteader who was proving up that farmland. A challenge to rural municipality councilors was the removal of rocks from the road allowance. Government grants were set out for road construction where the ratepayers of the rural municipality came together in road camps for improvements and there were also Road Day Competitions held. The road would divert around sloughs, hills, and other diversions to make the travel easier for horse and cart. In 1921 Highway 13 was graded up through the low areas around the Carlyle area. A foreman could earn between C$6.00 and 7.00 for a day, a graderman could earn between $4.50 and 5.00 per day, labourers in 1921 would earn $4.00 to 450 per day. A driver of a single team of horses could earn between $7.50 and 88.00 per day, and a driver with a double team of horses could earn up to $10.00 to 10.50 in a day. The Relief Roadwork Program of 1928 which initiated roadwork on Highway 13. Those local residents with four horses and a grader initially maintained the highway. During the depression years of the dirty thirties, roadwork continued and the highways were widened, gravelled and paved. Gravel was laid on highways in the early 1930s which alleviated being mired in the mud during rainy weather; however during dry weather, gravel roads produced great quantities of dust, reducing visibility. In 1930, the Manitoba provincial government constructed Highway 2 with hard surfacing to follow. Road crew wages changed to hourly in 1932, where a foreman of a road crew could now earn 35 cents an hour, a man with a two-horse team 45 to 50 cents an hour and a driver with four horses could earn 65 to 70 cents an hour, and labourers could now bring in 25 cents an hour. In Saskatchewan, Carlyle was established for example as the area headquarters which supervised six Department of Highway road crews along Highway 13. The crews would remove snow and ice during winter months, and during the summer months conduct road allowance mowing, ensure drainage, attend to sign and guard rail repair. During the 1940s Pearce, Alberta, was home to a CPR station, village, and the British Commonseath Air Training Program featuring the No. 36 Elementary Flying School. In 1943, tractor operator scrapers termed tumble bugs, were available to rural municipalities. After World War II, rural municipalities equipment such as crawler tractors, scrapers and graders could be purchased. As of 1949 the early steel bridge across the Oldman River in Lethbridge was replaced. Winter still proved a challenge in the 1950s and roads could be blocked. bombardiers, and early passenger ski doo could be employed for emergency transportation. In 1952, a general standard was established wherein the provincial government paid 60% and the rural municipalities the remainder for road planning and improvements. Bridges over 100 feet (30 m) in length would be paid entirely by the province; shorter bridge costs would be jointly shared. MB Hwy 2 was constructed to the modern highway able to carry high-speed vehicles, and steel culverts have replaced the early wooded bridges. A very narrow traffic bridge was constructed in 1957 across the Oldman near Monarch, Alberta, replacing the 1913 predecessor, and currently gives a route to cyclers while the truckers and vehicular traffic currently use the new four-lane bridge. It wasn't until the 1960s that these gravel highways were oiled to reduce the dust clouds; however these oiled surfaces could not bear heavy loads of commercial traffic. In 1968, the Department of Highways was established in the town of Cadillac. During the 1970s, the SK Hwy 13 was extended between Eastend and the Alberta border as part of the Red River Trail corridor. It was also in the 1970s that the highway was paved to withstand heavy loads as potash was being mined in Esterhazy and the oil highways were breaking under the added weight. "Extensive flood control programs have created reservoirs, parks and waterfowl centres along the Souris River." near Weyburn, Sk. Between 1988 and 1995, the Rafferty-Alameda Project was constructed to alleviate spring flooding problems created by the Souris River. The Red Coat Trail travels across the Oldman River near Monarch Alberta on a pre-stressed four-lane concrete bridge which was completed in 1997. "Highway 13, also known as the Red Coat Trail, has seen a significant amount of upgrading in recent years. The transformation of this highway between the Manitoba border and Cadillac, SK from a thin membrane surface (TMS) to a paved standard is nearing completion. In the 2004 construction season, 39 kilometres (24 mi) will be improved; in 2003 almost 70 kilometres (43 mi)was upgraded or resurfaced; and in the 2002 construction season 70 kilometres (43 mi) of Highway 13 was upgraded or resurfaced."