Surveyor and engineer, Dawson joined the Canadian expedition
to Red River to find an "all-British" route
through the rough terrain connecting Lake Superior (Thunder
Bay) and Red River. Of secondary importance was the
extension of this route to the Pacific Ocean. This map
and the accompanying text, published in Toronto as part
of Dawson's final report, shows what was believed to
be the most accessible route across the Prairies.
Dawson's route to Red River (highlighted in red)
followed a traditional canoe trail first used by voyageurs
of the North West Company.
Ten years after Dawson published this map, the federal
government engaged him to begin the road construction.
The government considered it a make-work project for
the residents of Red River who had endured several
years of crop failure. In reality, only those residents
with strong eastern connections (the recently arrived
expansionists from Ontario) were hired on the project.
The 120-kilometre route would become known as the
Dawson Road (and sometimes the Thunder Bay Road),
and would be part land-based and part water-based.
Since travellers required about a month to cross the
route's 70 portages, most preferred to avoid it altogether
and use the faster and easier all-water steamer route
through Duluth, Minnesota.
The construction project met with some suspicion
by the Red River Métis who saw it as an intrusion
by Canada into their lands and their affairs (at the
time Red River was still part of Rupert's Land). Before
the Dawson Road was completed, Canadian troops used
it during their 1870 advance to suppress the Red River
Rebellion.
After the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway
in the mid-1880s, the Dawson Road fell into disuse.
