In Part 1, we explored whether Portage la Prairie was really a functional name or just a traditional one.
With the CPR mainline completed through Portage in 1880, we also looked at a separate railway company, the Manitoba and North Western, which was built, well, northwest from Portage in 1884.
The M&NW was essentially a 'self-employed' branch line yearning to grow into something bigger. We spoiled the end of the story by noting that this line was leased by the CPR for 999 years in 1900.
The person seen below was an employee of the M&NW and he will show up again and again as a key employee of other railways which were built and operated in the Portage la Prairie area.
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| from: Biographical Directory of Railway Officials of America; T Addison Busby; 1901; Railway Age. EDG |
As you can see from his 1901 biography, he was 'knowledge worker with global mobility'.
... Plus, higher education was less of a 'business' back then, and many employers trained on the job.
Helpfully for this project, he recorded many of his early memories of Portage.
It is hard to know how his memories were coloured by time - 38 years later in this book.
The Manitoba and North Western reached Gladstone and Minnedosa in 1884.
Please make note of his comment about 100 railway employees in Portage and office staff.
(For a photo I'll show you later.)
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| Postal map of 1884 showing the Manitoba and North Western completed to Minnedosa. from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manitobamaps/albums |
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| from: Official Guide, November 1887. |
Above, is the mainline passenger service of the CPR in 1887.
Below is the table for the M&NW.
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| from: Official Guide, November 1887 |
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| from: Altitudes in the Dominion of Canada; James White, FRGS; 1901; Geological Survey of Canada. |
Above, is the full extent of the M&NW's line as it existed upon being taken over by the CPR.
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| from: Van Horne's Road; Omer Lavallee; 1974; Railfare. |
Here is the photo alluded to above. Certainly, this was a CPR engine which was built by Danforth and scrapped circa 1902. And, many wooden buildings were burning down back then. However, this station building in Portage is not 'the usual' CPR station (see below). So perhaps might it have been the M&NW station with plenty of room to accommodate office staff upstairs? I really don't know.
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| from: The Imperial Highway; A N Homer, FRGS; 1912; Causton & Sons. |
The currently-existing former CPR station at Portage is seen above.
This photo was in a fancy presentation-style book printed for select investors/recipients in Britain/Europe.
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| Richardson's map of Manitoba 1882. from: Historical Atlas of Manitoba; Warkentin & Ruggles; 1970; Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba. |
The map above was prepared by Manitoba's Department of Public Works using a scale of 6 miles to the inch. For once, the discontinuities in a patched-together map were not my doing - they are like that in the book. This map shows lots of interesting detail. In particular, notice the projected route of the CPR mainline, crossing the Red River at Selkirk. Originally, the line was going to sweep northwest from Selkirk, crossing Lake Manitoba at its narrows, and then passing near today's Dauphin.
During the process of making the decision to run the line closer to the 49th parallel - and not through the Yellowhead Pass - Winnipeg became a more attractive terminal on the Red River. Perhaps there was also lobbying by the city, itself.
The more northerly mainline routing via Stonewall (circa 1880), was probably not completed. In 1881, the mainline was laid on a route closer to the Assiniboine River as shown.
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| CPR Lands in 1886. From: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manitobamaps/albums |
Here is a nice map from 1886 which shows the extent of the CPR lines from Winnipeg through to Saskatchewan.
The Manitoba & North Western is not a CPR sock-puppet like all the other lines ... yet.
Obviously, it still depends on a reasonable split in the freight rates it shares with the CPR for through freight turned over to them.
You don't suppose that farmers are already complaining that the CPR Monopoly is charging them too much to move their agricultural products, do you?
What? ...
You think provincial politicians will try to make cheap political hay as they criticize federal policies and the CPR ... and that Portage la Prairie railway lines will later be implicated somehow?
... And that the resulting quintessentially Canadian crisis became so silly (in hindsight) that it should be celebrated in a parody Heritage Minute?!
Let me check on that for next time ...