Red Coat Trail - Red Coat Trail History

Red Coat Trail History

Sir John A. Macdonald read the bill to create the North-West Mounted Police in 1873, which was passed in May of that year. Recruitment of men for the police force began in September 1873 and they assembled at Fort Dufferin, Manitoba. The border between the United States and Canada was surveyed in 1872. On July 8, 1874, these trained men were despatched on their western journey. There is a museum and the 1884 NWMP Barracks Site at Fort Macleod which preserves the NWMP history at the Fort, supplemented by a RCMP musical ride which is held yearly in commemoration. Healy and Hamilton built Fort Whoop Up 8 miles (13 km) miles from the current location of Lethbridge near the confluence of the St. Mary and Belly Rivers. (Today the location of Fort Whoop Up is signified by a historical cairn marker.) Colonel Macleod of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNWMP) presented Healy and Hamilton with an offer to purchase Fort Whoop Up which they declined. RNWMP were established at Coal Banks in 1885 forming K Division under the command of Superintendent A.R. McDonnell. This site in the Porcupine Hills was the coal mining site of Lethbridge. The Red Coats of 1874 had the option to settle on ranches following their three-year term with the RNWMP. Grasslands National Park near Ponteix, Sk features NWMP trail markers amidst the Killdeer Badlands. Wood Mountain Post was established in 1874 to reduce cattle rustling, whisky trading, which was completed post haste, and the NWMP post closed in 1875. Following his victory against the U.S. cavalry in the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull and about 5,000 of his followers sought sanctuary in the Wood Mountain, Sk area. Superintendent James Walsh from Fort Walsh left the Cypress Hills area to talk to Sitting Bull. 22 NWMP police officer accompanied by Walsh set up a new Wood Mountain detachment, Walsh remained here with the men until his transfer to Fort Qu'Appelle in 1880. The Hudson's Bay Trading Post site was replaced with Chapel Coulee, Metis village of Chapel Coulee, which was later where the NWMP established a post in 1879 and small detachment from Fort Walsh. In 1887, the detachment moved to the banks of the White Mud River the current location of Eastend, Sk as many of their concernts were alleviated, the whisky trade had ceased, the North-West Rebellion of 1885 was over, and Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man surrendered to American forces and returned to the United States in 1881.

The town of Redvers, SK, along the Red Coat Trail, is named after General Sir Redvers Henry Buller VC GCB GCMG (1839–1908). The Boundary Commission Trail is an earlier route used from Winnipeg for travel east.