Fort Qu'Appelle - Touchwood Hills Trail Provincial Historic Site

The heritage value of the Fort Qu'Appelle - Touchwood Hills Trail Provincial Historic Site lies in its association with the early transportation and communication networks of the Canadian West. Initially, Europeans explored the continent's interior via its waterways. As trading posts and settlements multiplied, overland transportation became increasingly important. Although heavily travelled, the early trails were usually little more than rough tracks rutted by the traffic of horse- and ox-drawn wagons and carts.

The route of the Fort Qu’Appelle-Touchwood Hills Trail was likely first used by First Nations and Métis people travelling between the Fishing Lakes and the Touchwood Hills. During the last half of the nineteenth century, the trail carried traffic between Hudson’s Bay Company posts in the Touchwood Hills and the Company's Fort Qu'Appelle post . In 1882, a segment of the Dominion Telegraph was constructed alongside the trail. For a time, the trail was an important overland link between the Canadian Pacific Railway station at Qu’Appelle and the Carlton Trail at Touchwood. Notable travellers on the trail during this period were General Frederick Middleton and his column of militia on their march to Batoche during the North-West Resistance of 1885.

The importance of western Canada's trail system diminished with the coming of railways and, eventually, automobiles and roads. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the once vital trails had largely fallen into disuse or were used only for local travel. Most disappeared under the plough, with only scattered remnants such as the Fort Qu'Appelle - Touchwood Hills Trail Provincial Historic Site existing today as reminders of a bygone era of transportation.

Source:

Province of Saskatchewan, Order in Council 870/86, August 21, 1986.