Audio Excerpt

Have you ever walked into a building or stopped somewhere outside and just felt a certain energy coming from that place?  A kind of aura where you could almost feel the history or events that happened there… I sure have… in my local pizza shop. It’s so good I can just feel the energy emanating from that delicious grease wheel….. Mmm… . Well I also feel that energy right here! The Battleford-Swift Current Trail ran pretty close to here and was a 192 mile trail between Fort Battleford and nearby Swift Current!

 

 This was a very active trail for services such as stagecoach passenger transport and mail delivery, as well as supply shipments to villages along the way. The trail was so busy that a railroad was eventually built alongside! 

Any idea what the name of the railway was? Was it, 

 

A) the Regina-Prince Albert Railway 

B) the Pacific Canadian Railway 

C) the Canadian Pacific Railway?

 

The answer is C, the Canadian Pacific Railway! The railway was established in 1883 and was an important route for the North-West Mounted Police during the North-West Rebellion of 1885. If you thought it was A, you were close! The Regina-Prince Albert Railway actually put the Battleford-Swift Current Trail into obsoletion in 1890, providing a quicker route to Fort Battleford via Saskatoon. Thankfully for me, nothing will make my local pizza shop obsolete. It’s the cheesiest, greasiest, softest crust… mind if we make a little detour?