Cypress Hills and Fort Walsh

CYPRESS HILLS and FORT WALSH

In an earlier blog I’d mentioned that setting is so important to ground a story. I also feel it’s more important to write about what you love over what you know because your passion will lead you to research the subject further and that passion will show in your story. Well, I know I love the Cypress Hills—a jack pine forest that spans the borders of both provinces. It became Canada’s first inter-provincial park created in Saskatchewan in 1931 and extended into Alberta in 1951. And fortunately for me, I’ve visited the Hills several times over the years. The park is a dark smudge on the south-eastern horizon and is just a 45-minute drive from where I live. The Cypress Hills are steeped in rich and at times turbulent history from the hunting grounds of the Blackfoot, Cree, and Gros Ventres, fur traders, whiskey smugglers, horse thieves and the North-West Mounted Police. The Métis were the first Europeans to settle in the area, many of them being fur traders.

As per the website: The hills are not true mountains but are rather the remnants of erosion of a Tertiary plateau of sediment formed during the initial uplift of the Rocky Mountains. This uplift caused the local portion of the Great Plains – above which the hills now rise – to be elevated, with the result that rivers flowing to the north and south then eroded most of the softer sediments onto the lower part of the plains. Today, the Cypress Hills form a major drainage divide separating rivers draining to the Gulf of Mexico (via the Missouri River) from those draining to Hudson Bay and James Bay via the Nelson River; thus the Cypress Hills form a water divide. There is a ranch northwest of Eastend, Saskatchewan, called Dividing Springs Ranch; the water from this spring goes both south to Gulf of Mexico and north to Hudson Bay.^{[citation needed]}

The Cypress Hills are among the northernmost points that remained above the southwestern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the most recent glacial period, the Wisconsin glaciation. The Cypress Hills are surrounded by a series of morainal ridges composed of glacial till deposited when a glacier paused during its retreat 15,000 years ago

Back in the late 90’s, when a Garth Brooks song sparked the thought…what if? and a rollicking Ian Tyson song extolled the beauty of a full moon on the prairie, I knew my story had to be a western and since my writing style lent itself to historicals, Beneath A Horse-Thief Moon was born. 

I can’t remember any more at what point I chose the Cypress Hills for my setting. I’d already set one historical in Medicine Hat and two more in Calgary and Edmonton, so ideally this story should be in a different province. I’ve come to the conclusion it had to be Ian’s song that clinched the setting. I hope you’ll visit the link for this song as I’m sure you’ll nod along with me and your toes will tap to the polka beat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKCuVrtxqEo

Last summer, when I dusted off my book and finished the edit for Prairie Rose Publications, I needed to revisit the Cypress Hills to double-check my facts and reassure myself that my memory of the area served me well. I had forgotten how far east the forest spans and had to take into consideration the distance a horse and rider could comfortably travel, especially when chasing horse thieves at night by moonlight.

I fell in love with the area all over again. I invited my son, Nick, along because he takes wonderful photographs, which I wanted for the website he created for me (please check them out at www.elizabethclements.com. Fortunately for us, it was a weekday, and we practically had the fort to ourselves, so there was no waiting for “heads” to get out of the way of the camera. I particularly love the close-ups of displays of utensils, or surgical instruments, glimpses of everyday life, neatly polished boots…and the rope beds with a thin mattress and a quilt or buffalo robe for warmth.

Fort Walsh was established in 1875 when the newly-formed North-West Mounted Police rode down the steep slope and built a fort using the tall jack pines that grew in abundance. The police force was created two years earlier because of growing problems with outlaws, wolfers and illegal whiskey traders selling “firewater” to the Aboriginals. The wolfers were particularly hated because they would kill buffaloes to lure in the wolves, who would eat the carcasses poisoned with strychnine to get their pelts, then would leave the carcasses to rot, which were sometimes eaten by native dogs, resulting in painful deaths. 

The park website tells: Historically the Cypress Hills were a meeting and conflict area for various Native American and First Nations peoples including the Cree, Assiniboine, Atsina, Blackfoot, Saulteaux, Sioux, Crow, and others. During the 19th century Métis settled in the hills, hunting and often wintering there. The Cypress Hills Massacre, a key event in Canadian history leading to the creation of the North-West Mounted Police, occurred in the hills when a group of American wolvers from Montana massacred an Assiniboine encampment. Fort Walsh was established to bring law and order to the Canada–US border region.

All along the southern borderland west from Manitoba, forts were built to bring law and order. As a result, communities sprang up, and even more so in the ‘80’s with the building of the cross-country railroad. With the assurance of free room and meals,  $1.00 per day pay for constables and $.75 for sub-constables, men between the ages of 18 and 40 quickly applied, were trained and outfitted in red serge so as not to be confused with the navy uniforms of American soldiers. The appeal of getting their own piece of land after three years of service was a great incentive for joining the Force.

Whiskey trading had a long history, spanning back to 1821 when the Hudson’s Bay Company discontinued the rum trade because it had such adverse effect on the native population. Even after this decision, whiskey trading flourished along the banks of several rivers, especially the Missouri River and moved into Canadian territory with the shrinking of the Blackfoot Nation in northern  Montana due to the influx of people coming west to live and pursue a livelihood.  

With the arrival of the mounted police in the Cypress Hills in 1875, a new industry was born—supplying cattle and horses to the fort. Initially, supplies and livestock were brought up from Fort Benton, Montana, but before long, enterprising men settled in the Cypress Hills, took up ranching and supplied the fort with horses and cattle. There are ranches in the Hills that are owned by generations of the same family.

When one travels along the highway leading to the  Hills, one can see western-theme cutouts on the gates leading to these long-time ranches. All kinds of activities are offered in the park, horse-riding, camping, boating and overnight accommodations. Whether it’s a day trip or a vacation,  the Cypress Hills is a beautiful place to enjoy nature and breathe in the amazing scent of pine.

www.elizabethclements.com