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Sixty mile bush
Sixty Mile Bush was located at Township 34 Range 15 West of the 3rd Meridian and identified as a Mounted Police station on a "Dominion of Canada Map Shewing Mounted Police Stations & Patrols Throughout the Northwest Territories During the Year 1888;" (this is a reprint of the original for the RCMP anniversary. Bill Barry, however, placed it as a way station and NWMP post. Barry makes note of the fact, that it was sometimes called Halfway House.
According to a 1956 Overgard Directory, half-way houses were established about every forty miles along the trails. They supplied the stage coaches with a fresh set of four horses, and were stocked with food and provisions for the winter months for stage coach stopovers and a rest stop for passengers.
In 1910. In this area were a few Metis were ranching. Soon a Catholic mission was established. It was named sixty mile bush as it was about sixty miles south of Battleford. Settlers began arriving circa 1906 setting up homestead claims. One of these,Fred Pambrun, an early Biggar pioneer first embarked on farming before arriving at the sixty Mile Bush near Biggar, and followed the avocation of ranching, horses and cattle and then moved to Biggar to set up the Biggar Meat Market. Mr. Desjarlais also established himself as a rancher in the Sixty mile bush area before settling in Biggar and establishing the Alex Desjarlais General Store
Sixty Mile Bush Outpost Monument
Colonel Samuel Benfield Steele Account
An account follows of when Colonel Samuel Benfield Steele , C.B., M.V.O., late of the N.W.M. POLICE crossed the prairies c1869-1870.
"The weather was cold with snow on the ground ; but when we arrived at the South Saskatchewan, 22 miles from Swift Current, I found the ice too thin to cross with safety. That we should not be delayed, I had to make a bridge by placing a layer of hay of the width required, pouring water on it until it froze, and repeating this until it was thick and strong.
At the " Sixty Mile Bush," the first point of woods on the north side of the plain, we met the deputy sheriff, I. W. Gibson, Reynolds, Indian agent, and an amateur hangman, the man who had volunteered to operate upon Big Bear's Indians. He was a very respectable citizen, but more than willing to hang any of the rebels in revenge for the severe and cruel treatment he had received at Fort Garry when he was a captive of Riel, in 1869-70. These officials had been at Battleford in connection with the trial and execution of the Frog Lake fiends. The murderers had been tried by Judge Rouleau and a jury of six, found guilty and hanged. We spent the night at the " Sixty Mile Bush," and two days later were in Battleford barracks, where all received a hearty welcome."
Stage Coach Travel Swift Current Red River Trail
Travel by stage coach on the Battleford, Swift Current Red River Trail in the mid 1800s written by the former Saskatoon Mayor Clinkskill begins here:
"On leaving this station there was a long descent to Eagle Creek; after crossing this a long ascent, then rolling land but, ascending gradually to the station called Sixty Mile Bush. At the noon stop about half way it was hard to get water some times; often enough water for our tea had to be carried in a jar. The Sixty Mile Bush station was kept by an elderly man, a French-Canadian. The house was quite a pretentious one, built of logs in the timber. Being so well sheltered amidst the trees, one did not know how cold it was in the winter time till one got out on the open prairie.
Old Bernier was a queer old chap and was quite entertaining in his talk.
He was always threatening to send for his family from "'Kebec"; he would tell us "I call for my wife come, but she no come." There was some attempt at observance of decency about the old man. He had curtained off
a number of sleeping places screened off for the use of lady passengers.
One time a terrible calamity fell on the poor old chap. A skunk had got under the floor and, as is usual after a visit from one of these gentry, a strong odor was in evidence. For a long time afterwards, when the door was opened, the air from the inside caught your breath; he would express his surprise at anyone noticing any unusual smell about the house. He told me once that one of the stage-drivers slept on the floor in that corner of the room and said he smelt skunk. "I tell him he smell himself!"
He had a habit of yawning audibly. Long after we had all turned in for the night we could hear the old fellow hi-hi-hi-hi-ing in a loud voice. One time a party with a bunch of wild horses passed through and he was persuaded to buy one. They tied the horse up to a tree, informing him it would be quiet in the morning. He said "Yess in the morning he be very quiet, he be dead; his neck be broke!" "
Horseback travel from Battleford
Another account is told when Harold Angus Kennedy traveled the west as special correspondent of The Times in about 1906. He tells of traveling by horseback from Battleford and finding Sixty Mile Bush when it is evening. The land here was mainly wooded plain potmarked with a few sloughs here and there. They had met a few French half-breed families in the area as is regaled by some other travelers early.
Sixty Mile Bush Outpost Location
The location would be very close to the siding set up near Duperow on the Biggar-Loverna branch line. In the early history of the prairies Golburg opened nearby at Section 1 Twp.34, R.16, W3 to the west of Sixty Mile Bush. As a point of reference Biggar was located at Section 31- Twp 35- R 14-W3 and Lydden was at section 9 Twp 35 R 16 W3. Lydden was the name first before changing to Duperow. Map showing relationship of Biggar, Lydden, Sixty Mile Bush and Battleford as per the colour key at the bottom. Argo is located also in the area at 17-35-15-W3 and appears on this map, but it was formed in 1917 following installation of the rail tracks, and much later than 60 Mile Bush, and Goldburg. The exact quarter section or section position of the log house-outpost in the township of 60 Mile Bush is unknown at this time, so the entire township is coloured in.
Sources:
"1924 Rand McNally Map" (image Submitted by Larry Walton). Digitised online by Online Historical Map Digitization Project Julia Adamson. Rand McNally. Tuesday, 11-Nov-2003. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canmaps/RandMcNally1924/index.html. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
Adamson, Julia (Saturday, 30-Apr-2005). "Saskatchewan Wheat Pool 60 Years: 1924 Map & 1984 Map". An Analysis of Saskatchewan Placenames. Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Maps. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~skwheat/PlaceNameNotes.html. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
Barry, Bill (2005), Geographic Names of Saskatchewan, Regina, SK: People Places Publishing Ltd. Centax Books, a Division of PrintWest Communications, pp.67, ISBN1-8979020-19-2
"Biggar Museum & Gallery Facebook". Argo Bush/Sixty Mile Bush Outpost gallery photographs of Sixty mile bush. http://nl-nl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=453160&id=198364480231. Retrieved 20140-12-13
"Biggar World Volume 1, No. 1, August 19th, 1909". http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sksaskat/biggar/nopr.html. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
Men of the City; Committee of the Historical Association of Saskatoon (1882-1912) (Digitised online by Julia Adamson at Saskatoon Gen Web on Sunday, 30-Jan-2005).
Kennedy, Howard Angus (2009) (digitised online by Google Books), New Canada and the New Canadians (reprint ed.), BiblioBazaar, LLC, pp.184, ISBN1103246054, 97811032460524 McCarty, Dianna (Hart) (Oct 24 2007).
"Overgard Directories, [1957, c1956. - The "Soo line" and its people, with a review of Rupert's Land and the District of Assiniboia; directory listings of Weyburn, Estevan, Midale."] (published online Dec2006, Jan2007 by library staff: James Skelton, Laurie Sokol.). The Arrival of the First Train - August 23, 1882. 1957. http://cap.estevan.sk.ca/community/history/osd.html. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
"Pinwherry History". Biggar Branch Sk. Genealogical Soc.. http://biggargenealogy.wetpaint.com/page/Pinwherry+History. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
Narratives of Saskatoon. University of Saskatchewan Book Store. p.49. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sksaskat/NarrativesOfSaskatoon/49.html. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
"Philately and Postal History > Post Offices and Postmasters". National Library and Archives. 2007-01-31. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/post-offices/001001-119.01-e.php?&isn_id_nbr=11855&interval=24&&PHPSESSID=788lakt61cmr0hii2nqsk09jj6. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
"Sixty Mile Bush Post". Saskatchewan Forts. http://www.northamericanforts.com/Canada/sk.html#sixty. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
Steele, Samuel Benfield (1914), "" Sixty Mile Bush " - The New Indian Agent", Read the ebook Forty years in Canada; reminiscences of the great Northwest, with some account of his service in South Africa, This book was printed and bound ready for publication in August 1914, but was postponed owing to the war. Since then the author has been promoted to the rank of Major General for distinguished services to Canada (The Library of the University of California ed.), London: J. Herbert Jenkins Limited, pp.238, 239, http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/samuel-benfield-steele/forty-years-in-canada-reminiscences-of-the-great-northwest-with-some-account-o-ala/page-40-forty-years-in-canada-reminiscences-of-the-great-northwest-with-some-account-o-ala.shtml
According to a 1956 Overgard Directory, half-way houses were established about every forty miles along the trails. They supplied the stage coaches with a fresh set of four horses, and were stocked with food and provisions for the winter months for stage coach stopovers and a rest stop for passengers.
In 1910. In this area were a few Metis were ranching. Soon a Catholic mission was established. It was named sixty mile bush as it was about sixty miles south of Battleford. Settlers began arriving circa 1906 setting up homestead claims. One of these,Fred Pambrun, an early Biggar pioneer first embarked on farming before arriving at the sixty Mile Bush near Biggar, and followed the avocation of ranching, horses and cattle and then moved to Biggar to set up the Biggar Meat Market. Mr. Desjarlais also established himself as a rancher in the Sixty mile bush area before settling in Biggar and establishing the Alex Desjarlais General Store
Sixty Mile Bush Outpost Monument
"This was the site of the sixty mile bush outpost. A stopping place on the Swift Current-Battleford Trail. A log house provided lodging over the trail. Two NWMP were stationed here from 1886 to 1889. The house later became a store for the settlers. A Roman Catholic Church was built at the site in 1906. The settlement disbanded about 1911 after the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad and the town of Biggar were established.."
[ Monument ]Erected as a Saskatchewan Heritage 1985 project by the Biggar and rural Heritage committee and the Government of Saskatchewan.
[ Monument ]Erected as a Saskatchewan Heritage 1985 project by the Biggar and rural Heritage committee and the Government of Saskatchewan.
Colonel Samuel Benfield Steele Account
An account follows of when Colonel Samuel Benfield Steele , C.B., M.V.O., late of the N.W.M. POLICE crossed the prairies c1869-1870.
"The weather was cold with snow on the ground ; but when we arrived at the South Saskatchewan, 22 miles from Swift Current, I found the ice too thin to cross with safety. That we should not be delayed, I had to make a bridge by placing a layer of hay of the width required, pouring water on it until it froze, and repeating this until it was thick and strong.
At the " Sixty Mile Bush," the first point of woods on the north side of the plain, we met the deputy sheriff, I. W. Gibson, Reynolds, Indian agent, and an amateur hangman, the man who had volunteered to operate upon Big Bear's Indians. He was a very respectable citizen, but more than willing to hang any of the rebels in revenge for the severe and cruel treatment he had received at Fort Garry when he was a captive of Riel, in 1869-70. These officials had been at Battleford in connection with the trial and execution of the Frog Lake fiends. The murderers had been tried by Judge Rouleau and a jury of six, found guilty and hanged. We spent the night at the " Sixty Mile Bush," and two days later were in Battleford barracks, where all received a hearty welcome."
Stage Coach Travel Swift Current Red River Trail
Travel by stage coach on the Battleford, Swift Current Red River Trail in the mid 1800s written by the former Saskatoon Mayor Clinkskill begins here:
"On leaving this station there was a long descent to Eagle Creek; after crossing this a long ascent, then rolling land but, ascending gradually to the station called Sixty Mile Bush. At the noon stop about half way it was hard to get water some times; often enough water for our tea had to be carried in a jar. The Sixty Mile Bush station was kept by an elderly man, a French-Canadian. The house was quite a pretentious one, built of logs in the timber. Being so well sheltered amidst the trees, one did not know how cold it was in the winter time till one got out on the open prairie.
Old Bernier was a queer old chap and was quite entertaining in his talk.
He was always threatening to send for his family from "'Kebec"; he would tell us "I call for my wife come, but she no come." There was some attempt at observance of decency about the old man. He had curtained off
a number of sleeping places screened off for the use of lady passengers.
One time a terrible calamity fell on the poor old chap. A skunk had got under the floor and, as is usual after a visit from one of these gentry, a strong odor was in evidence. For a long time afterwards, when the door was opened, the air from the inside caught your breath; he would express his surprise at anyone noticing any unusual smell about the house. He told me once that one of the stage-drivers slept on the floor in that corner of the room and said he smelt skunk. "I tell him he smell himself!"
He had a habit of yawning audibly. Long after we had all turned in for the night we could hear the old fellow hi-hi-hi-hi-ing in a loud voice. One time a party with a bunch of wild horses passed through and he was persuaded to buy one. They tied the horse up to a tree, informing him it would be quiet in the morning. He said "Yess in the morning he be very quiet, he be dead; his neck be broke!" "
Horseback travel from Battleford
Another account is told when Harold Angus Kennedy traveled the west as special correspondent of The Times in about 1906. He tells of traveling by horseback from Battleford and finding Sixty Mile Bush when it is evening. The land here was mainly wooded plain potmarked with a few sloughs here and there. They had met a few French half-breed families in the area as is regaled by some other travelers early.
Sixty Mile Bush Outpost Location
The location would be very close to the siding set up near Duperow on the Biggar-Loverna branch line. In the early history of the prairies Golburg opened nearby at Section 1 Twp.34, R.16, W3 to the west of Sixty Mile Bush. As a point of reference Biggar was located at Section 31- Twp 35- R 14-W3 and Lydden was at section 9 Twp 35 R 16 W3. Lydden was the name first before changing to Duperow. Map showing relationship of Biggar, Lydden, Sixty Mile Bush and Battleford as per the colour key at the bottom. Argo is located also in the area at 17-35-15-W3 and appears on this map, but it was formed in 1917 following installation of the rail tracks, and much later than 60 Mile Bush, and Goldburg. The exact quarter section or section position of the log house-outpost in the township of 60 Mile Bush is unknown at this time, so the entire township is coloured in.
Sources:
"1924 Rand McNally Map" (image Submitted by Larry Walton). Digitised online by Online Historical Map Digitization Project Julia Adamson. Rand McNally. Tuesday, 11-Nov-2003. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canmaps/RandMcNally1924/index.html. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
Adamson, Julia (Saturday, 30-Apr-2005). "Saskatchewan Wheat Pool 60 Years: 1924 Map & 1984 Map". An Analysis of Saskatchewan Placenames. Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Maps. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~skwheat/PlaceNameNotes.html. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
Barry, Bill (2005), Geographic Names of Saskatchewan, Regina, SK: People Places Publishing Ltd. Centax Books, a Division of PrintWest Communications, pp.67, ISBN1-8979020-19-2
"Biggar Museum & Gallery Facebook". Argo Bush/Sixty Mile Bush Outpost gallery photographs of Sixty mile bush. http://nl-nl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=453160&id=198364480231. Retrieved 20140-12-13
"Biggar World Volume 1, No. 1, August 19th, 1909". http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sksaskat/biggar/nopr.html. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
Men of the City; Committee of the Historical Association of Saskatoon (1882-1912) (Digitised online by Julia Adamson at Saskatoon Gen Web on Sunday, 30-Jan-2005).
Kennedy, Howard Angus (2009) (digitised online by Google Books), New Canada and the New Canadians (reprint ed.), BiblioBazaar, LLC, pp.184, ISBN1103246054, 97811032460524 McCarty, Dianna (Hart) (Oct 24 2007).
"Overgard Directories, [1957, c1956. - The "Soo line" and its people, with a review of Rupert's Land and the District of Assiniboia; directory listings of Weyburn, Estevan, Midale."] (published online Dec2006, Jan2007 by library staff: James Skelton, Laurie Sokol.). The Arrival of the First Train - August 23, 1882. 1957. http://cap.estevan.sk.ca/community/history/osd.html. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
"Pinwherry History". Biggar Branch Sk. Genealogical Soc.. http://biggargenealogy.wetpaint.com/page/Pinwherry+History. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
Narratives of Saskatoon. University of Saskatchewan Book Store. p.49. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sksaskat/NarrativesOfSaskatoon/49.html. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
"Philately and Postal History > Post Offices and Postmasters". National Library and Archives. 2007-01-31. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/post-offices/001001-119.01-e.php?&isn_id_nbr=11855&interval=24&&PHPSESSID=788lakt61cmr0hii2nqsk09jj6. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
"Sixty Mile Bush Post". Saskatchewan Forts. http://www.northamericanforts.com/Canada/sk.html#sixty. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
Steele, Samuel Benfield (1914), "" Sixty Mile Bush " - The New Indian Agent", Read the ebook Forty years in Canada; reminiscences of the great Northwest, with some account of his service in South Africa, This book was printed and bound ready for publication in August 1914, but was postponed owing to the war. Since then the author has been promoted to the rank of Major General for distinguished services to Canada (The Library of the University of California ed.), London: J. Herbert Jenkins Limited, pp.238, 239, http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/samuel-benfield-steele/forty-years-in-canada-reminiscences-of-the-great-northwest-with-some-account-o-ala/page-40-forty-years-in-canada-reminiscences-of-the-great-northwest-with-some-account-o-ala.shtml
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