Letter: Medicine Hat area bears close connection to RCMP history

By Letter to the Editor on June 1, 2023.

In response to the Canadian Press story “RCMP turns 150…” in the May 23 edition of the News.

Dear editor,

It is little-known that the Great March of the Northwest Mounted Police in 1874 passed through, or very near Medicine Hat.

The Red Coat Trail (so-named to commemorate the RCMP centennial) is actually many miles from the route Colonel French and his men followed. While the Red Coat Trail passes south of the Cypress Hills, the journals of NWMP officers tell the true story.

From a camp near Old Wives Lake in Saskatchewan, the route of the Great March reached the Cypress Hills from the north, not the south. After camping there, their guide led the Force north, possibly toward the forks of the Red Deer and South Saskatchewan Rivers.

The police had been told that Fort Whoop-Up was at the forks of the Belly and Bow Rivers. Colonel French, leader of the March, realized he was being led in the wrong direction, and somewhere likely east of Medicine Hat, changed course to the west. After passing the site of our city, the Force travelled parallel to the South Saskatchewan River, probably near the Holsom Road.

The tired marchers stayed a couple of miles from the river to avoid the problem of crossing ravines running into the river valley, such as the ravine that later became Rattlesnake Reservoir.

Continuing west, French and his men, first saw the Sweetgrass Hills in Montana, and marched probably between Bow Island, Burdett and the river until they reached “the Forks” of the Bow River and Belly River (now called the Old Man River) north of Grassy Lake.

After a couple of difficult days camping at the Forks – as there was little feed for the horses and livestock due to buffalo having grazed the prairie bare – the Force turned south to find better pastures at the Sweetgrass Hills.

All of this happening in mid-September, Colonel French also feared an early snow storm which could have wiped out him and his men.

Few residents of Medicine Hat, or the other communities along Highway 3 are aware of the close connection we have to RCMP history. Perhaps in commemoration of the 150th anniversary, local authorities could look into bringing the real route of the Great March to people’s attention.

Michael Seitz

Medicine Hat

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