KREW KUTS: The Goose Lake Line - Part 3

By Bernie Krewski

In its beginnings, the Canadian Northern Railway remained in the shadows of larger and more competitive builders like the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The company soon found its niche by establishing its substructure on the prairies despite expanding eastward and cultivating a developmental and pioneering outlook. Its founders, William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, were strong believers in the future of the Canadian West. Their officials consistently demonstrated a willingness to work in partnership with governments, concentrating on servicing the local transportation needs of the prairies and the economic realities of farming. As railway scholar Ted Regehr notes, the CNR was “very much the West’s own product designed to serve the needs of the West.”

Three other highly influential factors were on the horizon in the late 1890s, expediting the later development of the Goose Lake Line – progressive government policies, immigration, and a founding prairie newspaper. These major catalysts of change happened to be closely connected.

Ontario-born Frank Oliver travelled from Winnipeg to Edmonton in 1880, accompanied by a printing press. It soon became a jewel of the landscape. With telegraph operator Alex Taylor, they founded the Edmonton Bulletin, initially a weekly newspaper. For the next twenty-five years, the Bulletin and the Winnipeg Free Press were the most comprehensive source of printed news on the Prairies. Each offered a different and contrasting point of view editorially. Reading back issues, I was struck by the Bulletin’s range of coverage reaching across three provinces, enhanced by utilizing telegraphs – then a new technology.

Columns in The Bulletin often featured two prominent leaders of their generation – pro-immigration spokesmen. Besides owning and operating a newspaper, Frank Oliver was a member of the territorial governing body, the North-West Council, from 1883 to 1885. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories in 1888 and 1894 and then to the House of Commons 1896-1917.

Clifford Sifton, lawyer, politician, business executive, is described by historian David J. Hall as “one of the ablest politicians of his time.” He became federal Minister of the Interior and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs in 1896. Possessing a dynamic view of the role of government in stimulating economic development, he became the strongest voice in Canada promoting immigration.

The title of Wayne Arthurson’s book, “Alberta’s Weekly Newspapers; Writing the First Draft of History” (2012), replicates what occurred in many issues of The Edmonton Bulletin. They told a detailed and marvellous story about immigration in Canada.

For example, eleven hundred immigrants arrive (May 10, 1897); another train with 130 (May 20); a thousand more (July 8) – pages and pages of news reports and stories.

By 1897 it was clear that levels of immigration from Great Britain were insufficient to attract enough potential farmers to fill the “empty space” on the prairies. A major shift was occurring in Canada’s immigration policy, opening entries from central and eastern Europe, although often with some reservations and opposition.

In the meantime, there was a nominal amount of homestead activity on what was known as the “Old Bone Trail” southwest of Saskatoon. This was a popular travel route between what is now Rosetown and Saskatoon. Bones lying on the prairies since bison disappeared in 1879 were collected in Saskatoon and sold to buyers in Minnesota for various purposes, including fertilizer and as a colouring agent in paint and ink.

The Delisle family arrived from North Dakota in 1901 to the site of the village named after them. Other settlers came in 1905, settling on a fertile belt known as “Goose Lake country.” They lobbied for a railway to move their crops to market. When the railway finally arrived, they were forced to move three miles north to the new townsite.

CNR vice-president Mann announced on May 11, 1908, that construction of the Goose Lake Line would commence. But the exact route had not been worked out.

“Spying Out the Land” was the term used to establish routes for railway lines. The “dreamer” who “spied out” the Goose Lake Line will be recounted in my next column.