Then...

Saskatchewan is barely 100 years old; however, this region’s history goes back 11,000 years to a time when First People of various nations lived here. Their hunting and gathering way of life was generally undisturbed until 1620, when King Charles II of England deeded “All that part of North West Canada drained by the streams, rivers and lakes; the waters of which drain into Hudson Bay” to the Hudson's Bay Company. It was an enormous gift, but it took 70 years before any European is recorded as checking out this property. Henry Kelsey's 1690 tour, intended to sell the First Nations on the merits of selling their furs to the HBC, included visits to Humboldt, the Quill Lakes and Wadena.

Early recorded visitors are rare. Eighty-four years later, in 1754, Anthony Henday, also on HBC business, travelled through Humboldt and Lake Lenore on his way north to persuade the northern plains First Nations to sell their furs to York Factory rather than to French traders. More than 100 years later, in 1859, the Earl of Soutesk, Governor-in-Chief of the HBC, rode the Carlton Trail. Captain John Palliser travelled through in 1857 as did Professor Henry Youle Hind in 1858.

The route to development

Photo at right: Red River carts on the Carlton Trail

The Carlton Trail was the first known overland route to connect Hudson Bay trading posts. The Trail originated in Winnipeg, ran to Fort Carlton, which had been built in 1910, and on to Edmonton.  The Trail, following a route that might have been originally established by the Metis, followed the Assiniboine River to Fort Ellice in Manitoba, entered Saskatchewan near Melville, ran roughly along present day Highway 15 in to the Touchwood Hills, and arched north to brush Wynyard and Big Quill Lake on its way to  Humboldt and Wakaw, Batoche, Fort Carlton and  Edmonton.

The Red River Cart, an all wood-and-hide conveyance for transporting goods, was easy to repair and made the Carlton Trail a viable route for fur traders, soldiers and settlers. The carts were light, could be pulled by one animal, and could carry a tonne of cargo.

Settlement of the Carlton Trail Economic Development Region

The Dominion Lands Act/Homestead Act of 1872, offered 160 acres free to settlers who could clear 10 acres and build a house within three years. Following Confederation of Canada, the federal government sensed a need to connect east to west through a Dominion Telegraph and the Canadian Pacific Railway, which would follow the telegraph line route.

Between 1874 and 1876, the telegraph line was completed through an area that was destined to become the Carlton Trail Economic Development Region. In 1885, the CPR main line was completed and by the early 1900s, CPR and Canadian National Railway branch lines had worked across the Carlton Trail Economic Development Region. Settlers followed the train, and the Germans who established St. Peter's Colony in 1903 used the old Carlton Trail to journey from the rail line to their homesteads.

The settlers

The Carlton Trail was abandoned in favour of the railway, and by the 1920s, the telegraph line had been shut down. Immigrants continued to come to the region. Settlers who came to the Carlton Trail Economic Development Region were a diverse group. In the northwest corner of the region, Hungarians, Ukrainians and French joined the Metis around Wakaw and early German settlers around Cudworth.  To the east, Bretons settled St. Brieux while German Catholics homesteaded the central area, Lake Lenore, Humboldt, Bruno, Carmel and Annaheim.

Photo at right: Humboldt Main Street (Archives of the Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery)

The Benedictines established an Abbey at Muenster. Leroy became home to English, Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian and German settlers. Icelanders from Manitoba and North Dakota chose the Vatnabyggd (Lakes Settlement) area to the south east, encompassing Foam Lake,  Dafoe, Wadena triangle, once the largest land mass of Icelanders outside of Iceland. Jansen was settled by American Mennonites.

...And now

Carlton Trail Economic Development Region covers 4,400 square miles with a population of more than 25,000 residents in over 40 municipalities, including towns, villages and rural municipalities.

Photo at left: St. Peter's College and Abbey (Photo: Reva Bauer)

Farming, mining, hunting, fishing, bird watching, arts, crafts, festivals, shrines, memorials – this is the modern mix that makes the Carlton Trail Economic Development Region such a vital place to live and work.  Lanigan has revitalized a 1908 CPR station as a museum; west of Lanigan is the site of a major potash mine.  Muenster is the site of a wooden cathedral lavishly painted by Count Berthold John Von Imhoff; St. Peter’s Abby is located adjacent to the Village of Muenster.

Humboldt is known for its Oktoberfest and German theme; Wynyard and Wadena are two points on the Quill Plains Birding Trails, Mount Carmel has a shrine; Elfros has a bronze memorial commemorating Icelandic pioneers; Dafoe was the World War II site of “Boomtown” and the Air Force Bombing and Gunnery Training School which trained 1400 Commonwealth airmen. Big Quill Lake was once touted as a health spa and is now the source of minerals that produce granules used for making gyproc and fertilizer.

The future is as wide open as the geography.

Bibliography

Along the Carlton Trail, Walter M. Oleksyn, Fort Qu'Appelle, 2007 – 2008, series of articles, Foam Lake Review.
Humboldt on the Carlton Trail, W. P. Telfer, Modern Press, Saskatoon, 1975
Lure of The Lakes, tourist guide, Foam Lake Review, Wynyard Advance, Wadena News, 2006-2007
People Places: The Dictionary of Saskatchewan Place Names, Bill Barry, People Places Publishing, Regina, 1998
Saskatchewan Book of Everything, Macintyre Purcell Publishing Inc., Lunenburg NS, 2007
The Carlton Trail, R. C. Russell, Modern Press, Saskatoon, 1955
The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan: A Living Legacy, Canadian Plains Research Centre, Regina, 2007
The Humboldt Story: 1903-1953, Robert W. Grant, Humboldt Journal, Humboldt, 1954
The Wynyard Story, Wynyard Advance, 1955