Southern Alberta's Whiskey Trade

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was killed also. News of the affair soon reached Ottawa and the Canadian government decided that the time had come to stamp out the whiskey trade.
The Mounted Police Act was enacted on May 23, I873, only about three weeks after the massacre in the Cypress Hills, On November 3, 1873, recruits were given a warrant bearing their name and rank and the enlistment oath was administered. The North-West Mounted Police began on that day.
The Force wintered at Lower Fort Garry and, on July 8, I87U, was ready to depart for the west.  The trek was a disaster and the wonder is that it was ever congileted. One of many mistakes, apparently, was the insistence by officers that horses be picketed, and camps be laid out, beside the sloughs and lakes that they encountered, Slough grass is poor feed for horses and mosquitoes made life miserable for the men.  The guides were unreliable and, because they depended on the report by Col. Robertson-Ross, the group became hopelessly lost near the junction of the Bow and Belly rivers (near modern Grassy Lake). They headed south toward the Sweetgrass Hills, which they could see, and Col. James F. Macleod continued southward to Fort Benton where, among other things, he hired Jerry Potts, a Peigan mixed-blood, as guide and interpreter. Potts led the Mounties to Fort Whoop-up, which was entered and searched by Col. Macleod on October 9, 187U'  To all practical purposes, the whiskey trade ended with that act. The Mounted Police obviously felt they were in the heart of the trouble area because, after unsuccessfully trying to buy Fort Whoop-up to use as a headquarters, the force went on only another thirty miles to establish their first post on an island in the Old Man's River.
Thus, once again in the history of Canada, our institutions preceded settlement and we were to be spared the usual tragedies of the frontier. This, it seems to me, is the real significance of the whiskey trade. It was the vanguard of civilization into southern Alberta and it brought in many men who stayed to become honored citizens. Most in5)ortant, it was the whiskey trade, which came to be symbolized in Fort Whoop-15), that was responsible for the establishment of the North-West Mounted Police. One has only to look at the map to realize that their arrival probably retained the western plains for Canada.
The whiskey traders were aware of the trek westward of the police force. The Canadian government spent several thousands of dollars to enploy messengers to tell them. One of these was John McDougall, a missionary at Morley, who described one of his visits to J, Jo Healy at Fort Whoop-up: "Crossing the Belly River, we rode up to the fort. We found the gate shut and very little sign of humanity around.  But presently the gate opened to us and we entered. Joseph Healy was in charge and had but one man with him for at the time the others were away interviewing members of the Boundary Commission, which was now about finishing the work of survey to the foot of the Rockies. Both countries interested had troops of soldiers and engineers working together determining the U9th parallel from Red River to the mountains. These had been at work since 1872, Healy told us he expected the Whoop-up contingent back any minute and asked us to make ourselves welcome in the fort and, as his man was more or less under the influence and he himself pretty well braced, he set to work preparing a meal for our party.
" ' Unbuckle and lay off your armoury for the moment. Parson John,' was his kind injunction to myself and while we were at lunch he discussed