Portage la Prairie Lines, Part 5 - The Canadian Northern comes to town!

Do you like maps? We've got maps from Siberia to Waskada!

The trains of the Canadian Northern (and its antecedent railway, Lake Manitoba Railway and Canal Co.) had been running into Portage la Prairie via trackage rights on the Manitoba and Northwestern from Gladstone. However, they still didn't own or lease any rails which would bring them into Portage. 

... That will change with this installment of my effort to understand how the Portage rail-scape evolved. 

But first ... dredging up ancient history ...

It was fun to find this photo of Thomas Rosser (below) before he started working for the CPR. As you'll recall, Van Horne eventually fired him for conspiring to profit from his access to privileged corporate information concerning where the railway was to locate and build its facilities. Rosser is not found in the Biographical Dictionary of Railway Officials of America (1901 edition) so he might have found another line of work, retired, etc.

from: Northern Pacific, Main Street of the Northwest; Charles R Wood; 1968; Superior Publishing.

I'm foreshadowing with some Northern Pacific images ...

from: Northern Pacific, Main Street of the Northwest; Charles R Wood; 1968; Superior Publishing.

I am equally tickled to find a photo of these flatboats. You can imagine how desperate they were to have some form of 'heavy transportation' if they were building and using these things. 

I have read that these boats would float ... and, failing that ... grind their way down the river - sometimes getting dragged off the riverbed when they became stuck in shallow sections, or during periods of low water in the river. This is a means of transportation which works well in only one direction - with the current. And, of course, they could only be used when the temperature was reliably above freezing. There would be the possibility that shallow-draft steamboats could have assisted flotillas of flatboats (loaded or empty), but there probably weren't that many steamboats around.

Returning your 'empties'? I guess they would have 'lined' them up-river using draft animals on a tow path. Probably hardware and other high-value cargoes could have justified the expense and hassle of using these vessels. However, cheap, reliable, all-weather railways would be a lot better. 

These images also show that there was a lot of free, cross-border movement of people, goods and commerce. Certainly, First Nations people in the Canadian west would not hesitate to travel on their traditional, but newly-buffalo-free, lands. Speaking of First Nations and their traditional lands ... the railways, Canadian settlers, American settlers (923,000 between 1897 and 1913), and settlers drawn from Europe by the railways' overseas immigration agents ... were crossing as many borders as they needed to, to get to the 'Last Best West' in Canada.

from: The Last Best West; Jean Bruce; 1976; Fitzhenry & Whiteside.

The Last Best West; Jean Bruce; 1976; Fitzhenry & Whiteside.
From a Canadian government immigration pamphlet.

The Last Best West; Jean Bruce; 1976; Fitzhenry & Whiteside.
From a Canadian government immigration pamphlet.

In Part 4, I was suggesting that the definition of Galicians would be open to nuance. 

There we go: Now everyone's a Ukrainian. 

The map from Part 4 is repeated below, along with another from 1904.

Naturally, there are differences between national/imperial boundaries ... and distinct or mixed ethno-cultural areas.

from: The Modern Age; Richards & Cruickshank; 1955; Longmans Canada.

Handy Reference Atlas of the World; 1904; JG Bartholomew.
No, Vladimir, no one wants to know what you think ...
Everyone is a Ukrainian (see above).
No time for your bad, sloppy and conveniently-selective history - that's my department.

*  *  *

... Man! Some people! ...

Back to our friend Hanna ...

from: James J Hill, Empire Builder of the Northwest; Michael P Malone; 1996; University of Oklahoma Press.

from: Biographical Directory of Railway Officials of America; T Addison Bushey; 1901; Railway Age. edg

... so ends Hanna's story of the Canadian Northern Railway gaining control of the former American-built and owned Northern Pacific lines, 

including the lines near and through Portage la Prairie.

*  *  *

Here is what they'll say about the Canadian Northern in Port Arthur circa 1912 - about 10 years in the future.

This book was written by a Briton who was on a CPR-supported trip across Canada via the CPR.

from: From Halifax to Vancouver; B Pullen-Burry; 1912; Mills & Boon Ltd, London.

Valentine Co postcard. Mailed from Port Arthur in 1912.

WG MacFarlane Postcard. Unused, undated.

*   *  *

... but that's still in the future. And it will happen far from Portage. Below is the chain of legislation which shows how the Northern Pacific railway lines were finessed by the NP, CNoR and the Manitoba government into the rapidly-growing Canadian Northern portfolio of western Canadian lines. Oh, to have been a railway builder ... or a corporate lawyer ... back then!

from: A Statutory History of Railways in Canada 1836-1986; Dorman/Stoltz; 1987; Canadian Institute of Guided Ground Transport.

*  *  *

Waskada or Bust!

From: Grant's Bankers and Brokers Railroad System Atlas, 1906; Toronto. Original maps: George F. Cram, Chicago. http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/

Above is the 'big picture' of what is happening in Manitoba vis-a-vis the Canadian Pacific (red, 15) and Canadian Northern (purple, 12) systems in 1906. 

It doesn't really seem that any area of the Prairies is being neglected.

Does anyone see any Grand Trunk Pacific lines? 

... Perhaps someone should tell Sir Wilfrid Laurier to hold off on the National Transcontinental and the Grand Trunk Pacific. 

... Yes, I realize Laurier might want a nation-building 'Liberal transcontinental' matching the nation-building 'Conservative transcontinental' (CPR) ... but really! 

The dystopian future: Bankrupt railways eventually get rolled into the CNR ... the CNR gets ... Turbotrain! 

Please, no.

Even Vladimir thinks a functionally-complementary

Canadian Northern (western Canada) and Grand Trunk (eastern Canada) system

would have been better for Canada.

From: Grant's Bankers and Brokers Railroad System Atlas, 1906; Toronto. Original maps: George F. Cram, Chicago. http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/

Zooming in on developments in the Portage la Prairie area, above:

(Most dates were carelessly transcribed from: Lines of Country; Christopher Andreae; 1997; Boston Mills Press.)

• Gladstone to Dauphin 1897 (Lake Manitoba Rly & Canal)
• Portage to Winnipeg (NP 1889; Government of Manitoba to CNoR 1901)
• Portage to Delta (NP 1900; Government of Manitoba to CNoR 1901)
• Portage to Brandon Jct (CNoR 1905)
• Brandon Jct to Carberry Jct (CNoR 1905)
• Neepawa Jct to Carberry Jct (CNoR 1903)

Eliminating the need to use trackage rights on the Manitoba & Northwestern/CPR - Gladstone to Portage (with a bit of joint track at Gladstone):

• Gladstone to Neepawa Jct to Beaver (CNoR 1901)
• Beaver to Portage la Prairie (CNoR 1900)

from: Canadian Rail; October 1979.

An undated photograph from Manitoba with no location noted.

This is a photo which is perhaps typical of the early years of the Canadian Northern Railway.

It provided a needed service without fanfare.

If the traffic warranted further development of the physical plant, it would come.

from: The History of Canadian Railroads; Greg McDonnell; 1985; New Burlington Books.

A westbound drag of empties at Dauphin.

For those romantics who still 'believe in' the Canadian Northern Railway, this must be their favourite photo.

Part 6

Portage la Prairie Lines, Part 4 - Lake Manitoba Railway & Canal Company

This little series of blog posts is an effort to explore the railway wonders of Portage la Prairie - where we have spent many happy vacations. 

In the future, if someone in Portage looks for an account of local railway history, perhaps they will find this series of posts helpful.

No other railway could be more closely associated with Portage la Prairie than the Canadian Northern Railway. 

The CNoR's antecedent began in the immediate area of Portage, as DB Hanna will describe ...

William Mackenzie and Donald Mann left no body of personal papers for historians to examine.

Although DB Hanna is looking back at about age 66, he is a good primary source for some of the CNoR's history.

Bulman Bros Map of Manitoba by Authority of the Provincial Government Winnipeg, April, 1897.
From: https://www.flickr.com/people/manitobamaps/

On the map above, you'll see the Manitoba & North Western Railway running from Portage la Prairie (in the lower right corner) to Gladstone and through Minnedosa. This was a small independent railway line which the CPR later leased for 999 years. 

The Lake Manitoba Railway and Canal Company was built from Gladstone to Dauphin and beyond through Sifton. It acquired trackage rights over the M&NW so its trains could operate to Portage ... through which the CPR mainline passed. Both of these railways were contributing to CPR business. Hanna mentions that the Portage yardmaster on the CPR would smile and look the other way when Lake Manitoba Railway crews were observed quietly 'borrowing' CPR cars for use on their line.

from: A Statutory History of Railways in Canada 1836-1986; Dorman/Stoltz; 1987; Canadian Institute of Guided Ground Transport.

Above, is the legislative chain for the Lake Manitoba Railway and Canal Co - until it becomes the Canadian Northern. It is curious in 1889 that investors and politicians still didn't foresee the effect railways would have on canals (which froze in winter) and inland transportation - the era of steamboats on the Prairies was coming to an end.

Below, is the other legislative chain which culminates in the Canadian Northern Railway. If you go strictly by date, you'll see that the idea for a railway to Hudson Bay - to bypass the 'greedy' eastern transportation and grain trading interests - goes way back to 1880. Mackenzie and Mann would often be lobbied to build their Hudson Bay line beyond The Pas. This line was finally completed by the Canadian government via the Canadian National Railways and the first grain was exported from Churchill in 1931.

Hanna continues his story, which often gets nostalgic for some co-workers.

It's not the work you miss ... it's the people, eh?

First train of the Lake Manitoba Railway & Canal Co arrives in Dauphin 1896.
from: Canadian Rail, October 1975.

from: The Last Best West; Jean Bruce; 1976; Fitzhenry & Whiteside.

Just so you're clear on the facts ... as Hanna noted above ... this is NOT the Sifton for whom Sifton, Manitoba is named. 

The person above did NOT obtain salt from the springs near Lake Winnipegosis. 

 

This Sifton was a former CPR construction contractor who became a lawyer, and a provincial and later a federal Liberal politician. He was against the CPR monopoly. He assisted Mackenzie and Mann in their railway building activities and originated the scheme whereby railway construction was funded by provincial guarantees on both the principal and interest of railway bonds. He also negotiated the Crow's Nest Pass Agreement with the CPR. His biography is full of interesting historical actions and events. Some of his other actions were not particularly 'enlightened and inclusive' as we would scrutinize them today.

*  *  *

And who were 'the Galicians' ?

They were probably not as uniform in their ethnicity as old history books would suggest.

A map appears below which includes a broad overview of parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

That Empire was on the same side as the Kaiser's Empire during World War One - so it was against Our Empire!

If you hope that the Good Ole Sifton approach prevailed: that 'all immigrants are good immigrants' ...

you might not want to learn about the internment camps which Canadian authorities set up. 

from: The Modern Age; Richards & Cruickshank; 1955; Longmans Canada.

*  *  *

Hanna gets into some railway running trades details of the Lake Manitoba Railway & Canal Co in winter.

On the map (above) Glenella is shown as the third station beyond Gladstone.

Writing in 1924, about the LMR&C Co in 1897-8 Hanna mentions RJ Mackenzie.

Photo of RJ Mackenzie's grave in the family plot at Kirkfield, Ontario, taken in June 1992.

In The Railway King of Canada (1991, UBC Press) RB Fleming writes:

'On March 1, 1923, Sir William's son RJ died in Los Angeles at the age of forty-nine. He had invested in railways, real estate, race horses, and American oil wells as well as elite clubs and private schools ... In Kirkfield he owned the family racing stables. His 5000 shares of Mackenzie, Mann & Co were, of course, worthless. His death was just as mysterious as his life in the Golden State, and rumours circulated it was suicide. On 11 March, RJ was buried in the Kirkfield cemetery as family members, townsfolk, railway officials and former associates looked on. '

*  *  *

Returning to Portage la Prairie, and Hanna's 1897 account of the Lake Manitoba Railway and Canal Company ... the whole story of the Canadian Northern Railway still lies ahead - at least as it pertains to the local railway history of Portage.

from: Canadian Rail, October 1975.

You can perhaps understand why western farmers were unhappy and suspicious about how much they were being charged for transporting their grain - particularly if it was travelling all the way to the ports with access to the Atlantic Ocean. There was an incredible amount of physical labour (and hail, disease, parasite and frost risk) which went into planting, harvesting and transporting grain. Transporting grain to the railway could involve distances of up to 10 miles, using horse-drawn wagons. 

Initially, the big grain companies/millers often provided trackside warehouses at which farmers had to provide their grain in bags. It was stored in the warehouse until being loaded into boxcars for transportation. It was probably the CPR's Van Horne who demanded that these companies should provide proper elevators so the grain could be handled in bulk - without the labour of first bagging it and then unloading it by hand. 

Above, you can see the lengths that some farmers went to, to decrease the amount of labour required to get their grain to market. A horse or two would pull the wagons of grain up this precarious 'elevator' so the grain could flow, and be shoveled down, behind grain doors built across the lower boxcar door opening. You can see a grain door in the sunlight in the car at the extreme right behind the horse's head.

Part 5

Portage la Prairie Lines, Part 3 - The Battle of Fort Whyte, 1888

Ditching locomotives and using a live steam hose from a locomotive to threaten opponents. 

In Canada's wild west, the CPR was not going to make it easy for opponents to undermine its Manitoba business plan.

But would a duopoly which depended on a small network of foreign branch lines provide the rate relief which Manitoba farmers were after?

First, here is Hanna's account of events ...

The crossing at Headingly (below) comes up more than once in secondary historical sources of these events. This may have been an early flashpoint in the effort to create a competitor for the CPR. It is possible that some secondary writers were unaware of the local geography, but this should not have been the case for Hanna. 

Oh. Well ... Emerson is on the east side of the Red River. 

The CPR line crossing at Headingly goes west to Souris.

Perhaps Hanna didn't know/remember the local geography as well as one would expect!

*  *  *

Who was William Whyte?

from: Biographical Directory of Railway Officials of America; T Addison Busby; 1901; Railway Age. EDG

*  *  *

The CPR monopoly and events leading to the Battle of Fort Whyte according to Van Horne from: 

The Branch to Pembina (top, P 157) is consistent with an account below.

We'd expect the CPR to have a corporate memory of where the incident took place.

*  *  *

A more contemporary account by a local author from 1890,

with some local Portage la Prairie history as a bonus.

archive.org

The Manitoba South Western Colonization Railway Co (CPR)

amalgamated with the Souris and Rocky Mountain Railway Co in 1880. 

It went through Headingly (1885).

The Pembina Mountain Branch (CPR) went south from St James,

 and west from Rosenfeld (1882) through Winkler and Pilot Mound.

from: archive.org

Here is a beautiful map:

Bulman Bros Map of Manitoba by Authority of the Provincial Government Winnipeg, April, 1897.
From: https://www.flickr.com/people/manitobamaps/

*  *  *

Headingly or Fort Whyte?

from: Manitoba's Railways, George A Moore; Canadian Rail July 1975; Canadian Railroad Historical Assn.

If you follow the CPR branch all the way south and west from St James, 

you'll see by its label (on the large map) that it was the Pembina branch 

which was being crossed in the Canadian Rail article paragraphs above.

(One thing which confused me was the mention in the Canadian Rail article of the 

'Southwestern & Pembina Mountain Branch'. I think they were two separate branches 

and - heading west from NP&M's Portage Jct - the Pembina Mountain Branch would be crossed first.)

Portage Junction (NP&M) is shown to the right of the white star.

If the 'offending' line was being built westward from Winnipeg, 

the first confrontation of the NP&M with the CPR would occur at the white star.

A modern map from the Canadian Rail follows below.

*  *  *

Here are some images and more elaboration on the confrontation.

from: Newsletter from 2001.  https://www.fortwhyte.org/

from: Manitoba's Railways, George A Moore; Canadian Rail July 1975; Canadian Railroad Historical Assn.

from: Manitoba's Railways, George A Moore; Canadian Rail July 1975; Canadian Railroad Historical Assn.

from: Manitoba's Railways, George A Moore; Canadian Rail July 1975; Canadian Railroad Historical Assn.

from: Manitoba's Railways, George A Moore; Canadian Rail July 1975; Canadian Railroad Historical Assn.

*  *  *

The Various Locations of the 'Fort Whyte' ...

from: Manitoba's Railways, George A Moore; Canadian Rail July 1975; Canadian Railroad Historical Assn.

from: Altitudes in the Dominion of Canada; James White FRGS; 1901; Geological Survey of Canada. 

And here is the South Western Branch through Headingly with no Fort Whyte.

from: Altitudes in the Dominion of Canada; James White FRGS; 1901; Geological Survey of Canada. 

from: Place-Names of Manitoba; 1933; Geographic Board of Canada. archive.org

CPR employee timetable.

*  *  *

Railway legislation related to this story:

from: A Statutory History of Railways in Canada 1836-1986; Dorman/Stoltz; 1987; Canadian Institute of Guided Ground Transport.

* * *

Was a Satisfactory Outcome Achieved?

from: The Brandon Weekly Mail, October 1889. archive.org

*  *  *

The Northern Pacific Lines in 1901

from: Altitudes in the Dominion of Canada; James White FRGS; 1901; Geological Survey of Canada. 

from: Altitudes in the Dominion of Canada; James White FRGS; 1901; Geological Survey of Canada. 

From: The Colonist; May 1897; JA Carman. archive.org

*  *  *

So, after the CPR, the Northern Pacific became the second railway to give Portage la Prairie an eastern rail outlet.

We can probably trust the CPR corporate memory that the location of Fort Whyte was south of St James and not at Headingly. 

It seems possible that something happened at Headingly and that some of the non-CPR versions of events are trying to refer to it. 

... 

Part 4