Built on site in 2002 by volunteers, the replica log outpost demonstrates the type of shelter that would have been used by the North West Mounted Police when they crossed Manitoba (circa 1874). It is located on the actual historic March West Trail, with logs cut using the sawmill at the museum.
The North West Mounted Police were established in 1873 to maintain law and order in the northwest part of Canada, a fairly new country at the time.
Planning of the NWMP had already been underway, but was expedited by parliament after the massacre of 22 Assiniboine in the Cypress Hills by American wolf hunters seeking revenge for stolen horses.
The newly formed NWMP embarked on their “March West” in 1874 to bring law and order to the western frontier. The boundary commission/NWMP trail runs from Fort Dufferin in Emerson, Manitoba, to Fort McLeod in Lethbridge, Alberta. Parts of the trail used by the police were originally a buffalo path, also historically used by Indigenous peoples.
