The Carlton Trail

Indigenous peoples, early explorers, fur traders and later pioneer settlers traversed the Western Assiniboine on a trail which connected the lakes area of western Manitoba with the rocky mountains.  Assiniboine was originally called  Rupert's Land and owned by the Hudson's Bay company from 1670 until confederation in 1867.  The area was renamed the North-West territories the year Canada was born and in 1905 was divided into the Western provinces.

Over the years the trail was called by various names depending on what area was traversed, what time period, or on what end one started out on. The Eastern end was originally called the Red River Trail because it started at the Red River settlements of Fort Garry and Winnipeg. The western terminus of the trail was at Fort Edmonton (Edmonton House) on the North Saskatchewan river.  Fort Edmonton linked with Fort Assiniboine on the Athabasca river and Rocky Mountain House at the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan river by the foot of the Rocky Mountains.  This western end was named the Carlton Trail after Fort Carlton which was located on the North Saskatchewan river Southwest of Prince Albert. Some early pioneers called the section to the Northwest of Fort Ellice the Battleford trail.  Fort Ellice was located just east of the present Manitoba-Saskatchewan boundary at the junction of the Qu'Appelle and Assiniboine rivers.  Fort Ellice was mainly a provisioning post along the Carlton Trail, as the distance from Fort Gary to Fort Edmonton was over 900 miles.

The section of the Carlton Trail that traversed the land south of the Quill Lakes was know as the Old Telegraph Trail because a telegraph line was strung through the area in 1885.  Many pioneers took this route on their way to their homesteads at Foote-Copeland.  This part of the trail ran North West from Fort Qu'Appelle and passed through the Touchwood hills until it crossed the correction line near Saline Creek before continuing on to North Battleford.  Homesteaders who rode the Pleasant Hills branch of the CPR railway to Lipton, took this 100 mile route to their homesteads.  This was the same route the RCMP took on their way North in 1881 to quell the Riel Rebellion.