View source for Canadian Pacific Railway Development in Manitoba

==A Granite & Muskeg Wasteland: Building the Canadian Pacific Railway in Southeastern Manitoba==

This article was published by Jennifer Strassel in the 2024 Lac Du Bonnet Living Magazine and subsequently posted on Jennifer Stassel's website at https://jenniferstrassel.com/a-granite-muskeg-wasteland/.  Jennifer agreed to allow reposting of her original article on this website as a wiki entry that describes the evolution of the Canadian Pacific Railway Development in Manitoba.

==Preface==
[[File:CPR-Train-Pointe-line-Credit-City-of-Winnipeg-Hydro-Collection-Western-Canada-Pictorial-Index-University-of-Winnipeg.jpg|frame|CPR Train on the Pointe du Bois sub division, Photo Credit - City of Winnipeg/Winnipeg Hydro Collection, Western Canada Pictorial Index (University of Winnipeg)]]

Lac du Bonnet does not owe its existence to J.D. McArthur, or even to the Lac du Bonnet Mining, Developing and Manufacturing company. The community, and its neighbours, were only able to flourish because of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Lac du Bonnet’s history could have been very different. In the wake of Canada’s railway construction came bustling towns filled with promises for the future. Some survived, maybe even thrived. More often, they became empty, overgrown places. A forgotten name on a map.

Without the Canadian Pacific Railway, Lac du Bonnet would just be a widening of the Winnipeg River. Without the ability to transport the abundant natural resources to the rest of the world on a branch railway, the businessmen would have returned to the city and left the stockpiled cordwood, lumber and bricks to be reclaimed by nature. Without the businessmen to capitalize on the industry, immigrants from twenty-seven different nations would not have settled these lands and no community would have developed on the lakeshore.

This reality was avoided by the railway, nineteen miles away, that united Canada from coast to coast.

==Introduction==

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), Canada’s first transcontinental line, has a long, complex and, at times, controversial history. Entire books have been written about it and selections of this history are taught in every school across the country. At the time, it was the longest railway in North America.

In 1871, many considered the building of an all-Canadian railway to be “insane recklessness.” To connect with a number of small rail lines already in the East, railway builders would first encounter the Precambrian Shield, where they would have to “blast their way across 700 miles of granite wasteland,” and go over “another 300 miles of muskeg.” Then came the Prairie, an inhospitable grassland that required all construction materials and railway ties to be hauled in from elsewhere. Beyond it, a wall of mountains, before coming to the sparsely populated Pacific coast.

Critics said building a railway across Shield country was “one of the most foolish things” ever imagined. Consensus was for the rail line to divert south, through the United States to Duluth, before turning northwest into Manitoba and continuing across the rest of Canada. When British Columbia joined Canada in 1871, they were promised that, within ten years, a railway would connect them to the rest of the country. In 1872, civil engineer, Sir Sanford Fleming, organized a series of detailed surveys over multiple proposed routes across Canada.

***

The Canadian Pacific Railway was built in pieces from the east, the west and the south. Each section was completed in four stages. First, surveyors located the line, curves and gradients. Second, the line was graded: bush was cleared and rock blasted to sixty-six feet wide, bridges were put over creeks and rivers, and low spots were raised and leveled. Third, wooden ties were laid across the grade and steel rails were spiked to the ties. Finally, the line was ballasted: crushed gravel filled between the ties to prevent shifting.

***

The history of the CPR’s construction in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario appears largely forgotten, overshadowed by the challenges faced throughout the Rocky Mountains. In reality, the miles of muskeg and rock between Lake Superior and Beausejour matched the engineering difficulties of the mountains. North of Lake Superior, and through to Manitoba, nature went to “extremes to thwart the railway builders.”

Following the path marked by surveyors, the distance between Thunder Bay and Selkirk was just 435 miles, which encompassed two of the worst contracts on the entire line for natural obstacles: contract 14, from Selkirk to Cross Lake (Caddy Lake, in the Whiteshell), and contract 15, Cross Lake to Rat Portage (Kenora). While crews chiseled through rock and backfilled bottomless muskeg across the Shield, the first railway to reach Manitoba actually came from the south: the 85 mile Pembina Branch of the CPR that ran from the United States border at Emerson, through St. Boniface, to Selkirk.

[[File:Pembina-Branch-RR-to-TB-CPR-Mainline-scaled.jpg|frame|500px|Pembina to Selkirk Branch and Selkirk to Thunderbay CPR Mainline with Contract Numbers for various construction segments.  Sketch - Jennifer Strassel.]]

At the time of its incorporation in 1873, Winnipeg (which many still called Fort Garry) was a “muddy, disreputable village” with a population of 1,869 sprawled between Main Street and the Red River, that was isolated from the rest of the world.


By mid-August 1874, work had started on the long-awaited railway before determining where the Pembina Branch would intersect the main CPR line. Two weeks after CPR engineers located the line, well-known Ontario railway contractor, Joseph Whitehead, received the tender for grading the Pembina Branch between the “International Boundary and a point opposite the Town of Winnipeg.” Ground breaking took place on September 19, 1874. Red River steamships had to transport all construction equipment, including shovels, from the US.

[[File:Joseph-Whitehead-1877-Credit-Archives-of-Manitoba-Collection-Western-Canada-Pictorial-Index-University-of-Winnipeg-scaled.jpg|thumb|frame|left|200px|Joseph Whitehead 1877, Photo Credit Archives of Manitoba Collection, Western Canada Pictorial Index, University of Winnipeg]]

The Pembina Branch was to pass on the eastern side of the Red River, through St. Boniface to Selkirk, where it would connect with the proposed main CPR line. The idea was for the main railway to “run the straightest line from Rat Portage”, crossing at the mouth of the Red River at Lake Winnipeg, and angling northwest through the Lake Manitoba Narrows. Selkirk and Lake Manitoba provided vital access to the fishing and logging industries of the central and northern portions of the province.

St. Boniface was its own community and, without a bridge over the Red River, Winnipeg would not benefit from the railway. The citizens of Winnipeg formed a committee to persuade the government to alter the route of the CPR through Winnipeg, Portage la Prairie and the rest of Manitoba’s fertile western farmland. In December 1874, the committee determined that “scolding and threats” would do little for their cause, instead they “must appeal to the good sense and judgement of the government.”

While work on the main CPR line began, the debate between Selkirk or Winnipeg raged for years.

***

==1875==

While Whitehead’s crews continued grading the Pembina Branch, work progressed on the CPR main line.

A call for tenders was issued for grading the CPR eastward from Red River to Lake of the Woods in March 1875. Contractors Sifton & Ward received contract 14, the seventy-seven miles from Cross Lake to Red River. The thirty-seven miles of contract 15 between Cross Lake and Rat Portage required further surveys to ensure accurate assessments, which delayed progress.

It was “generally understood” that the last portion to be built would be the “very rough and barren” country north of Lake Superior. Anyone conducting business in the North West resigned themselves to using the Dawson Road or relying on American railways for “many years to come.”

On June 1, 1875, a sod-turning ceremony four miles from Thunder Bay, on the Kaministiquia River, marked the beginning of westward construction on the CPR main line.

In Manitoba, Assistant Engineer, Harry W.D. Armstrong, noted that the surveyors “began the work of constructing Canada’s great highway at a dead end.”

To divide the surveying workload, the engineers were located at intervals in contract 14 at Tyndall, Beausejour, Shelley, Rennie and Telford, and in contract 15 at Ingolf, Kalmar, Invez, Ostersund, and Keewatin (the “end of the Manitoba district”). These “resident engineers” staked out the line and made “estimates for contractors, sub-contractors and station men”, and maintained the telegraph wire on their thirteen mile section. Government rations came by oxcart from Winnipeg, where they “floundered through hay marshes with about 500lb loads.”

[[File:CPR-Mainline-between-Beausejour-Ingolf-LdB-Branch-scaled.jpg|frame|500px|CPR Mainline between Beausejour and Ingolf with Lac du Bonnet Branch. Sketch - Jennifer Strassel.]]


Armstrong was based at Stoney Prairie, a “dry ridge sixteen miles east of Selkirk.” (This place would be renamed “Burgoyne”, and, in 1877, Beausejour.) He was accompanied by a “rod man, axe man and a cook”. They lived in tents until permanent houses were built near the end of summer.

Armstrong’s thirteen miles included poplar to the west, and to the east, beyond the Brokenhead River, was spruce and tamarack swamp. They walked seven to eight miles daily, “wet to the knees in mud and water” as they “waded knee deep among the stumps.” A “foot of moss” covered everything and below that, four feet deep, was a layer of ice that lasted through the summer.

Armstrong recalled that the “mosquitoes, black flies and bulldog flies were very thick.” On one occasion, while he walked through the swamp, carrying his level over one shoulder, his hand was covered with mosquitoes, “their bills sunk to the hilt” and “equally thick” on any exposed skin.

***

==1876==

Very little actual work happened on either line in 1876.

On the main line, Sifton & Ward were looking for 200 men to grade contract 14, and more surveyors were sent out on contract 15.”

In Beausejour, surveyor Armstrong continued to slog through the muskeg, marking out drainage and side ditches. The excavated material would be redistributed to make embankments upon which the rails would run. The subcontractors, “mostly from US railroads,” complained that they “didn’t come here to dig canals.”

By August, the tenders for contracts 14 and 15 were reissued to include not only grading, but track laying and ballasting. This meant “rapid completion” of the railway between the Red River and Rat Portage. Early estimates were that the main line, especially from Thunder Bay to Red River, would cost, on average, $25,000 per mile.

Politics and profit schemes surrounding the tender process caused major delays that continued to the end of the year.

In the meantime, work on the Pembina Branch reached a standstill. The Canadian government declared that the railway “would not be finished until the Americans finished theirs.” It seemed the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company was in no hurry.

***

==1877==

By mid-January, on the main CPR line, crews were blasting rock “10 miles from the east end” of contract 14, about halfway between Rennie and Telford. The telegraph line was finished and a “considerable number of poles” were up in contract 15.

Joseph Whitehead received contract 15 and the tracklaying portion of contract 14. In January, he was looking for “300 men and a number of axes” so that railway ties could be cut for contract 14. His sawmill at St. Boniface also produced ties and other timber needed for the rail line.

By February, Whitehead started work on contract 15 with “less than 250 men.” Transporting equipment and supplies came at “great labour and enormous expense.” Winnipeg’s “exorbitant prices” for supplies meant that on contract 15, “it was like dining on gold dust and diamonds.”


[[File:Corduroy-over-Muskeg-Credit-Hist-Folklore-Whiteshell-South-scaled.jpg|thumb|left|Corduroy over Muskeg Rail Bed, Photo Credit - History & Folklore Whiteshell South]]


In May, Whitehead “received orders to proceed at once with the grading and track laying on the Pembina Branch” from St. Boniface to the main CPR line at Selkirk and “over it as far as the Whitemouth River.” As a result, Whitehead wanted the locomotive he’d purchased “sent in as soon as possible” for use as a “supply train” for contract 15.

Sifton, Ward & Co. had already constructed temporary bridges over creeks and “a nine mile corduroy over the Julius muskeg.”

The Julius Muskeg, northwest of Whitemouth between Shelley and Molson (approx. four miles south of the Sun Gro peat farm on present day hwy. 44) was the “most infamous bog of all”: peat moss six miles wide, “depth unknown.” The surface was “deceptively level”, filled with the stumps of dead tamaracks, “their roots weaving a kind of blanket over a concealed jelly of mud and slime.” Long sections of interlaced log timbers were floated on top for quick passage.

A “large gravel ridge,” which Whitehead had been searching for, was discovered a mile north of Shelley, and east of Whitemouth “sub-contractors Ross and Rideout” were building a wagon road with ties. An “abundance” of hard pan (a dense soil layer below topsoil) and rock was the next obstacle.

In July, there were “more men at present working on contract 14 than any previous time since it was opened.” Wages were $2 per day.

***

==October 1877 – The First Locomotive==

[[File:Arrival-of-Countess-of-Dufferin-Credit-Archives-of-Manitoba-Collection-Western-Canada-Pictorial-Index-University-of-W-1.jpg|thumb|frame|500px|center|Arrival of the Countess of Dufferin Steam Engine, Photo Credit - Archives of Manitoba Collection, Western Canada Pictorial Index, University of Winnipeg]]


The first train to enter Manitoba, and the Canadian West, did not arrive along the rails. The steamer Selkirk and three barges transported the “pioneer locomotive”, a caboose, and six flat cars marked with “Canadian Pacific in white letters” along the Red River from the United States.

On October 9, 1877, at nine in the morning, the Selkirk arrived in the city, “handsomely decorated” with “Union Jacks, Stars and Stripes,” CPR banners and “her own bunting.” The barge with the locomotive and cars, decorated with “flags and evergreens”, was flanked by two barges “laden with railway ties.” Joseph Whitehead had “steam up in the engine and notified the inhabitants that the iron horse was coming by the most frantic shrieks and snorting.” They were welcomed by large crowds on the riverbanks as “mill whistles blew furiously and bells rang out.”

They landed at No. 6 Warehouse (at the end of present day Lombard Ave.), where the “crowd swarmed on board” to inspect the engine. Two hours later, the Selkirk took the barges across the river to St. Boniface “where a track had been laid to the water’s edge.” The CPR Engine #1, the Countess of Dufferin (named for the Canadian Governor General’s wife), was unloaded, bound for work in eastern Manitoba, the only place in the province with rails upon which it could run.

On contract 14, crews were busy getting the line ready for the train. By late October, the CPR’s bridge builder, Major Bowles, had reached Whitemouth, and a Mr. Clarke followed, straightening the “path of the locomotive.”

“In anticipation of increased business during track laying”, the Keewatin House at Shelley was expanded and a general store, operated by “Paddy the Pedlar” was opened near the Whitemouth River.

***

==1878 – CPR Mainline==

While work on contract 14 (Selkirk to Cross Lake) was winding down, the contractors were beginning to realize the immense difficulties of contract 15 (Cross Lake to Rat Portage), which included “heavier operations” than contract 14 and required “more energy, skill and capital than any portion of the CPR between Red River and Lake Superior.”

In January 1878, new labourers were arriving daily for contract 15, drawn by Whitehead’s offer of $2 a day wages. To capitalize on the influx of people, a Mr. Wright, “better known as Paddy the Pedlar,” opened a “house of entertainment” at Whitemouth that was “perhaps the best on the line.”

By the beginning of February, the Countess of Dufferin was “within three miles of Shelley station.” A temporary track was being laid across the Julius Muskeg so that the engine could cross and “proceed east.” A “few patches of rock and a ridge of hard pan” about six feet deep were the only obstacles remaining on contract 14. “Large quantities of ties and cordwood” were cut along the line.

On March 19, the bridge over the Whitemouth River was finished and the Countess of Dufferin crossed it for the first time that morning. Ten days later, the track was “several miles east of Whitemouth.” Crews were laying track at a rate of “about three-fourths of a mile per day.” They anticipated reaching Rennie station by June 1.

[[File:Whitemouth-River-Bridge-circa-early-1900s-Credit-Western-Canada-Pictorial-Index-University-of-Winnipeg-scaled.jpg|frame|thumb|100px|right|Whitemouth River Bridge, circa early 1900s, Photo Credit - Western Canada Pictorial Index, University of Winnipeg]]


On contract 15, rock excavations and heavy cuts were “well advanced.” “Twenty-two gangs of men”, with forty to fifty men in each, blasted rock on either side of a narrow section of Cross Lake. Work had also started near Ingolf.

On June 7, 1878, the steamer Cheyenne and two barges brought a second locomotive and twenty-five flat cars up the Red River for use on the Pembina Branch and contract 15. The engine arrived with no fanfare and was taken directly to the rails at St. Boniface.

By October, the track was progressing at a rate of “half a mile per day” and was nearing Cross Lake. Barges of nitro glycerine and dynamite were arriving throughout the month for contract 15. A devastating number of blasting accidents occurred throughout the year. Bits of clothing and flesh were often all that remained of the men.

In late November, the entire force of 1,500 men at work on contract 15 went on strike. A reduction of wages and inferior food quality were causing “considerable dissatisfaction.” It was a peaceful strike, without violence, and was over in a few days, allowing work to continue.

Cross Lake was “rapidly attaining” village status. In addition to Whitehead’s two camps, there were four hotels, “a number of private dwelling houses” and Colclough & Co. operated a store.

On December 6, 1878, Sifton, Ward & Co. finished their work on contract 14 and “discharged the last of their men.” The iron rails reached Cross Lake and a portion had been ballasted. They held an auction in Winnipeg selling everything from horses and oxen to shovels and axes, and even log houses and office furniture.

***

==1878 – Pembina Branch==

By mid-February, a call for tenders was issued for “grading, bridging and track laying” on the sixty-three miles from “St. Boniface station southward to the International Boundary at Emerson.” By July, steel rails were arriving on “almost every boat.”

In mid-September, the American St. Paul & Pacific Company was laying track at a “rate of a mile and a half to two miles a day.” They expected to reach Pembina by mid-October. On the flat Manitoba prairie, crews were able to lay “two miles of iron a day.”

On December 3, 1878, “after many vexatious delays” the Pembina Branch was finished. The first regular train arrived at the St. Boniface station with twenty passengers on December 9. Winnipeg, and the rest of Manitoba, was now connected to St. Paul, Minnesota by 487 miles of railway.   

***

==1879==

Cross Lake was becoming known as “a resort, which if not fashionable, affords every opportunity of enjoyment on its crystal waters,” boating or fishing. Rideout’s Hotel boasted that they were the “largest hotel in the North West, outside of Winnipeg” with accommodation for tourists and travellers, and a first class restaurant. Nearby, the Railroad House had accommodation for up to seventy-five boarders and had large attached stables and outhouses.

Meanwhile, railway workers toiled away on the Cross Lake trestle where “quicksand” continued to “absorb tons of material with no immediate prospect of elevating the track” to grade. The “shallow expanse of water” deceived engineers. At times, the embankment was built six feet above the water, until the lake took “a gulp and the entire mass of stone, gravel and earth” vanished, and they would have to start again. Some were having second thoughts: it might have been cheaper to “have built iron bridges across the lake and bay.”

In addition to the slow progress of work, Whitehead was faced with worker strikes in May and October over unpaid wages, a reduction in the amount of wages and inadequate food. Throughout the year, large numbers of men quit the line and returned to Winnipeg. By December, Joseph Whitehead was forced to take on two more partners and replace his son, Charles, as manager.

Despite continued delays at Cross Lake, they were optimistic that the rails would reach Kalmar (Lake Deception) by January and Rat Portage by the following summer.

***

==1879 – First Locomotive in Winnipeg==

Winnipeg’s persistence had paid off: the CPR mainline was being rerouted, and on December 29, 1879, the first locomotive crossed into the city. There was no bridge across the Red River yet, so, John Ryan, contractor for the first 100 western miles of the CPR, laid rails across the frozen Red River to transport construction materials from the Pembina Branch into Winnipeg.

The CPR was now working from all directions. Construction had begun at Port Moody, BC eastward towards the Rockies. Winnipeg was the supply depot for the Prairies, where crews, on long summer days, laid up to five miles of track per day.

***

==1880==

By January 1880, Cross Lake was considered an “expensive blunder.” No one had bothered to measure the depth of the silt, but after years of work and “making no visible progress” enough sand and gravel had filled in between the rows of pilings (driven into the silt) to form a triangular embankment with “300 feet on one side and 200 feet on the other two sides.” It still required “a few thousand yards [of gravel] a week to keep it up to grade,” but it was usable.

On January 22, the first engine across the Cross Lake “trestle work” was the Sitting Bull, bound for track laying at Ingolf. Several gravel trains also went over that day, “thoroughly testing” the work.

By this time, Joseph Whitehead had run out of money “in the muskegs along the Manitoba-Ontario border.” In February 1880, Michael J. Haney took over contract 15. He arrived to find the unpaid workers on another strike and promptly left for Winnipeg to get the wages. Provisions for the 4,000 men were also scarce, so Haney, with his legendary ability to scrounge, hired every available horse team to distribute 1,000 tons of supplies “over some of the roughest country in Canada” before the snow melted. Haney “accomplished the impossible” by mid-March.

Despite his failure, Joseph Whitehead did not leave Manitoba. In June 1880, he moved his St. Boniface sawmill to Whitemouth. With the abundant timber resources in the area, Whitehead and his son in law, David Ross, acquired numerous timber berths to capitalize on the demand for railway ties. The Ross sawmill operated at Whitemouth until 1905.

***

==1881==

Throughout 1881, work on the CPR east and west continued slowly. In the east, delays due to muskeg and rock were commonplace. In mid-July, the fill and pilings at Lake Deception gave way, fifty feet deep and 100 feet long. Until it was repaired, all traffic between Cross Lake and Rat Portage was suspended.

By December, advertisements were placed in newspapers across Canada for an auction sale of Whitemouth town lots. Land speculators believed Whitemouth was destined to be eastern Manitoba’s “future great city.” They boasted of being “beautifully situated” on the Whitemouth River, among a “splendid agricultural country” with high quality soil for growing “grain and vegetables.” Whitemouth station was the best of “the whole eastern division” and included a ticket and telegraph office. The post office moved 4,000 letters and countless newspapers a week.

There were hotels, general stores and a few private residences. A “large, private lumbering enterprise” had plans for railways southeast to Lake of the Woods, and northward to Lake Winnipeg to access more timber.

The advertisements stated “now is the time to invest” before Whitemouth became “one of the greatest railway centres” in Manitoba, and the North West. What they neglected to mention was that Whitemouth was surrounded by miles of impassable muskeg and peat bogs. This resulted in hoards of biting insects throughout the summer months, effectively cancelling out their potential.

***

==1882 – The Last Spike on the Red River to Thunder Bay Line==

In February, the 135 mile line to Rat Portage was finished and in operation by the CPR.

Four months later, on June 17, 1882, the last spike on the Red River to Thunder Bay line was driven near Feist Lake, about 28 miles east of Rat Portage. Seven years after construction began, these 433 miles of CPR mainline was completed, and the event barely received a passing mention in the newspaper.

Lake Superior’s “armoured” northern shore prevented Winnipeg from being fully connected to the east by rail. In the meantime, steamships brought supplies by water to Thunder Bay, where they were transported by rail to Winnipeg, and into the North West as far as Regina.

***

==1882 – A Trip by Rail to Rat Portage==

In July 1882, a reporter from Toronto’s Globe newspaper took a trip over the newly-opened line to Rat Portage.

 The train ran three times a week, “returning from the east on the alternating days.” The trip took over nine hours, with long waits at some stations.

From Selkirk, the line ran “almost due east…through dense brush, for the timber is so small that it hardly can be called a forest.” Further east, the soil was poor for “agricultural purposes” and Whitemouth was the end of “arable land.”

The reporter described Whitemouth as a small village with “one sawmill, a tavern or two, and three or four houses.” He had a “tolerably capable meal” in the dining room of the boarding house near the station, but overall, he did not agree with previous representations made “in roseate hues by Mr. Corrigan and his associates.”

Past Whitemouth, and all the way to Rat Portage, “millions upon millions of railroad ties, and thousands upon thousands of cords of wood” were piled along the line.

Beyond Cross Lake, the train “rode high upon an embankment” with “little lakes, dotted with islands, luxuriant with green foliage” on either side. At certain points, the curves were “so sharp” that, from the time the train left Cross Lake until it reached Rat Portage the end could hardly be seen.

***

==1883 to 1885 – A Slow Roll to the End==

In the west, by the end of 1883, the CPR mainline was near the Kicking Horse Pass of the Rocky Mountains. Trains passed regularly between Winnipeg and Calgary. 1884 and 1885 were spent in British Columbia’s mountains.

On the Lake Superior line between Lake Nipissing and Thunder Bay, in 1884, fifteen thousand men and four thousand horses chipped away at the Precambrian cliffs with “staggering” amounts of explosives. There was “no single continuous line of track,” so supplies were brought in by boat.

On May 16, 1885, the CPR line north of Lake Superior was finished. After ten years, Winnipeg was connected to Montreal and the rest of Eastern Canada by an all-Canadian railway.

Six months later, on November 7, 1885, the ceremonial last spike was driven near British Columbia’s Eagle Pass. The first passenger train from Montreal arrived at Port Moody, BC on July 1, 1886. The Canadian Pacific transcontinental railway was finally completed from coast to coast.

==Conclusion==

The Lac du Bonnet branch of the CPR was built from Molson, along the gravel ridges and high ground of Milner Ridge, between 1900 and 1901.

At the same time, there was discussion of “double tracking” the CPR mainline across much of the country due to increased railway use and demand. The double tracking between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg started in 1902 and, due to the same problem spots as before, finished eleven years later in 1913. Along Southeastern Manitoba’s main CPR line, towns flourished, stagnated or disappeared completely. Beausejour became an agricultural centre after the land around it was drained. Molson and Shelley are empty place names along the rail line. Whitemouth endured as a small farming and logging community. Cross Lake was renamed (South Cross Lake on the northern side of the CPR tunnel, and Caddy Lake on the southern portion) and, since the 1930s, is popular for canoeing and cottaging.

==References==

===Books===

Harry W.D. Armstrong, “Chapter IV,” in The East Side of the Red: A Centennial Project of the Rural Municipality of St. Clements 1884-1984 (St. Clements Historical Committee, 1984), 33-39. https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm:2239834#page/36/mode/2up

Pierre Burton, The National Dream: The Great Railway 1871-1881 (Anchor Canada, 2001), 6-7, 9, 225, 283-85, 287-89.

——, The Last Spike: The Great Railway 1881-1885 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 1971), 9-10, 16-17, 29, 99, 104, 270, 279, 426, 428.

David Butterfield, Railway Stations of Manitoba: An Architectural History Theme Study (Winnipeg, MB: Historic Resources Branch, 1987), 5.
https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/internal_reports/pdfs/railway_stations_intro.pdf

Karen Nicholson, The Lumber Industry in Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB: Historic Resources Branch, 2000), 32. https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/internal_reports/pdfs/Lumber_Industry_Mb_Nicholson.pdf

===Online Sources===

“Connecting Canada Since 1881,” Canadian Pacific, https://cpconnectingcanada.ca/

Mario Creet, “Fleming, Sir Sandford,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–,  
https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/fleming_sandford_14E.html

Daniel Francis, “The Last Spike,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, January 23, 2017. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-last-spike

“Last Spike at Feist Lake,” Ontario Heritage Trust, https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/plaques/last-spike-at-feist-lake

Omer Lavallé, “Canadian Pacific Railway,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, March 06, 2008, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-pacific-railway

T.D. Regehr, “Sir Sandford Fleming.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, February 21, 2008, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-sandford-fleming

“Winnipeg’s History,” City of Winnipeg, https://www.winnipeg.ca/people-culture/winnipegs-history

===Newspaper Articles===

Canadian Pacific Railway Advertisement, “Tenders for Grading the Pembina Branch,” Daily Free Press (Winnipeg, MB), August 12, 1874.

“Beginning the Railway,” Daily Free Press, September 21, 1874.

“The Railway,” Daily Free Press, October 5, 1874.

“Railroads: Important Meeting…” Daily Free Press, December 19, 1874.

“Dominion Parliament: The Canadian Pacific Railway,” Daily Free Press, March 6, 1875.

Canadian Pacific Railway Advertisement, “Tenders for Grading,” Daily Free Press, March 10, 1875.

“Present Position of the Canadian Pacific Railway,” Daily Free Press, May 14, 1875.

“Steel Rails: Arrival if the first installment for CPR,” Daily Free Press, June 28, 1875. 

“The Steamer Alpha…” Daily Free Press, July 5, 1875.

“The Pembina Branch,” Daily Free Press, April 1, 1876.

“Mr. Carre’s party…” Daily Free Press, June 13, 1876. 

Sifton, Ward & Co. Advertisement, “Two Hundred Men Wanted,” Daily Free Press, July 19, 1876.

“CPR Construction,” Daily Free Press, August 14, 1876. 

“The Canadian Pacific Railway,” Daily Free Press, September 8, 1876.

“There has been some trouble at Ottawa…” Daily Free Press, October 25, 1876.

“On Tuesday Mr. Swayze…” Daily Free Press, January 4, 1877. 

“Reports have been current in the city…” Daily Free Press, January 11, 1877. 

“The telegraph line…” Daily Free Press, January 12, 1877. 

“Good News,” Daily Free Press, May 2, 1877.

“CPR Line Items,” Daily Free Press, June 1, 1877.

“CPR Line Items,” Manitoba Free Press, June 2, 1877.

“CPR Items,” Manitoba Free Press, July 28, 1877.

“The First Locomotive,” Manitoba Free Press, October 13, 1977.

“CPR Items,” Manitoba Free Press, October 26, 1877.

“Messers John C. Logan…” Manitoba Free Press, January 24, 1878.

“Calling for tenders for 160,000 ties…” Manitoba Free Press, January 25, 1878.

“CPR Items,” Manitoba Free Press, January 28, 1878.

“CPR Items,” Manitoba Free Press, February 6, 1878.

“The rails on the main line…” Manitoba Free Press, February 12, 1878.

“Tenders for grading, bridging, tracklaying…” Manitoba Free Press, February 13, 1878.

“It was expected…” Manitoba Free Press, February 15, 1878.

“Contract 15,” Manitoba Free Press, February 20, 1878.

“CPR Items,” Manitoba Free Press, February 21, 1878.

“The bridge at Whitemouth River…” Manitoba Free Press, March 19, 1878.

“CPR Items,” Manitoba Free Press, March 29, 1878.

“The Iron Horse,” Manitoba Free Press, June 8, 1878.

“Steel rails for the Pembina Branch…” Manitoba Free Press, July 6, 1878.

“The Work Goes On,” Manitoba Free Press, September 13, 1878.

“Tracklaying on the main line…” Manitoba Free Press, October 2, 1878.

“A barge of nitro-glycerine…” Manitoba Free Press, October 21, 1878.

“Over twenty miles of the Pembina Branch…” Manitoba Free Press, October 31, 1878.

“A shipment of one hundred cases…” Manitoba Free Press, November 4, 1878.

“Interesting Notes from Manitoba,” Manitoba Free Press, November 7, 1878.

“Sifton, Ward & Co. will sell in Winnipeg…” Manitoba Free Press, November 11, 1878.

“Strike on Contract 15, CPR,” Manitoba Free Press, November 23, 1878.

“At Last! Rail Communication Established,” Manitoba Free Press, December 5, 1878.

“Contract 15, CPR,” Manitoba Free Press, December 6, 1878.

“First Regular Arrival and Departures of Trains,” Manitoba Free Press, December 9, 1878.

“Progress on the Canada Pacific Railway towards Thunder Bay,” Manitoba Daily Free Press, December 19, 1878.

“The Strike on the CPR,” Manitoba Free Press, May 5, 1879.

“Rideout’s Hotel,” Manitoba Free Press, June 7, 1879.

“About 75 or 80 men…”  Manitoba Free Press, July 31, 1879.

“Arrival of the Lt-Governor of Ontario,” Manitoba Free Press, August 5, 1879.

“Selkirk Skits,” Manitoba Free Press, August 6, 1879.

“The Inter-Ocean says…” Manitoba Free Press, September 1, 1879.

“Rat Portage,” Manitoba Free Press, September 27, 1879.

“About one hundred and fifty of Mr. Whitehead’s men…” Manitoba Free Press, September 29, 1879.

“Messers Whitehead and J.H. Rowan…” Manitoba Free Press, October 17, 1879.

“Nearly three hundred men…” Manitoba Free Press, October 20, 1879.

“Contract 15,” Manitoba Free Press, December 9, 1879.

“The Railroad House,” Manitoba Free Press, December 27, 1879.

“Rat Portage,” Manitoba Free Press, December 27, 1879.

“The first locomotive that ever entered Winnipeg…” Manitoba Free Press, December 30, 1879.

“Engineering on the Canadian Pacific,” Manitoba Free Press, January 21, 1880.

“The trestle work at Cross Lake…” Manitoba Free Press, January 23, 1880.

“The sink at Mink Bay, contract 15 CPR…” Manitoba Free Press, July 12, 1881.

“Grand Credit Sale of Town Lots,” Manitoba Free Press, December 6, 1881.

“Dominion Parliament,” Kingston Daily British Whig, February 9, 1882.

“Important Sale by Public Auction, Whitemouth, Manitoba,” Kingston Daily British Whig, February 23, 1882.

“The last spike was driven…” Richmond Hill Liberal, June 23, 1882.

“Winnipeg to Rat Portage,” Manitoba Free Press, July 6, 1882.

Robert E. Clague, “The Ice Railway,” Winnipeg Free Press, November 5, 1953.

Jennifer Strassel, “The Timber Frontier,” Lac du Bonnet Clipper, June 2, 2022.

——, “For Capital and Honest Enterprise,” Lac du Bonnet Clipper, June 30, 2022.

==Compiled by==
Jennifer Strassel

Posted by Glen N. Cook, P.Eng.(SM), FEC