Mounties' Fort As Memorial

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 37, 27 February 1937, Page 18

Mounties' Fort As Memorial

k — - — ■ — \ HDMONTON, Alta, — One of the Te-. maining historic . landmarks that connect the preseni with the days of the Indians and buffalo on the plains of Westein. Canada and with * the adveaturous achievementa of the Old.Northwesf Mounted Police force is being removed in southern Alberta, and considerable feeling is being aroused over thq fact, Th© old barracks .of the Mounties at. Macleod, Alberta, is being toru dowm [Word was received in Edmonton that some of th@ historic buildings .of oid Ford Macleod are being ■pxecked and removed under prders from ihe .depariment of lands and, xnines at .Ottawa. "Th© old, buildings were commencing to fali down," said an official, 'and people w.ere taking away . windows and. oiher paris *of ihe buildings. , It was decided ii would be best to have them taken dowa and removed from the property," Whisky Oleanup Port Macleod dates back to ihe fall of 187A when ihe Mounted Police were. first formed and the "Originals" of ihe force eame to the west via Fort Benton, Montana, and began cleaning up the whisky traders who were demoralising the Indians on ihe prairies. It was ealled after Golonel- J, F. Macleod, who commanded ihe ' ' Originals" on their invasion of the west. When the mounties erossed the international border and reached Fort. Whoop-up, . the headquarters . of the wMsky trading activity, they f ound the traders had fled after burying their siores .of liquor in ihe earth. Colonel Macleod found their leaders later and offered the buy 'the * fort " for headquarters for ihe police. He . offered 10,000 dollars for the log fort and its wooden barracks and.stables and warehouses. The whisky traders rejected Colonel Macleod 's offer and asked 35,000 dollars, the amount they said the fort had. cost to build. The Colonel refused to pay so much and the next day marched Ms little force of redcoated policemen 30 miles farther west, where he built a log fort and his men ealled it after him, Fort Macleod. It stood on an island, ealled Galligher's Island, across the Old Man river from the present town of Macleod.' • That was in September, 1874. Lorne 's Visit In August, 1881, the then Marquis of Lorne, Governor General of Canada, made' a journey to the western plains and after a stop at the camp that later became ihe city of Calgary, • moveef soutnward with Ms staff and police

guards to the then fiourishing Fort Macleod. He saw the last of ihe buffalo and at Blackfoot Crossing.between Galgary, aud Macleod held a couucil with the Blackfeet ludians, whose ehief theu was Old Crow Foot. In the escort of ihe Marquis of Lorne were a number of ' xepresentatives of English newspapers, including ihe London Times, - Daily Telegraph, Daily News, the Hlustrated GrapMc and the Hlustrated London News. Efforts are beiag made by old-timers here to persuade the Ottawa' Go vernment to have at least ohe building left standing and repaired, in the care of caretakers as an Mstoric monument of the early days of the plains.