Fort Walsh | |
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Type | Fort |
Location | RM of Maple Creek No. 111, Saskatchewan, Canada |
Nearest city | Maple Creek |
Established | 1873 trading post; 1878 Headquarters NWMP |
Founder | North-West Mounted Police |
Built | 1875 (original); c. 1940 (reconstructed) |
Governing body | Parks Canada |
Important events | Cypress Hills Massacre |
Website | Fort Walsh National Historic Site |
Fort Walsh | |
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Cypress Hills (Canada) | |
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Type | Fort |
Site information | |
Controlled by | North-West Mounted Police |
Site history | |
Built | 1875 |
In use | until 1883 |
Fate | Demolished, later reconstructed as national historic site |
Battles/wars | Cypress Hills Massacre |
Garrison information | |
Past commanders | James Morrow Walsh |
Fort Walsh is a National Historic Site of Canada that was a North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) fort and the site of the Cypress Hills Massacre. Administered by Parks Canada, it forms a constituent part of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. [1]
The fort was built in June 1875 and was named for its builder, inspector James Morrow Walsh. [2] The fort was intended to curb the illegal whisky trade, protect Canada's nearby border with the United States, and aid with native policy. [2] These factors had been brought to public attention following the Cypress Hills Massacre of 1873 and resulted in Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's establishment of the NWMP.
Assiniboine chiefs Man Who Takes the Coat, Long Lodge, and Lean Man signed adhesion to Treaty 4 at the fort on September 25, 1877.
Fort Walsh served as the NWMP headquarters from 1878 to 1882. In 1883 the fort was closed and dismantled. [2]
The site of the fort was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1924. [3] The fort was later reconstructed in the 1940s to breed horses for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Musical Ride.
Tourists can tour the fort's buildings, the former townsite, cemeteries, and the whisky trading post. [4] [5] On September 28, 2004, Fort Walsh became part of the Cypress Hills dark-sky preserve.
On June 28, 1985, Canada Post issued "Fort Walsh, Sask., circa 1880", one of the 20 stamps in the "Forts Across Canada" series (1983–1985). The stamps are perforated 12+1⁄2 × 13 mm and were printed by Ashton-Potter Limited based on the designs by Rolf P. Harder. [6]
The Cypress Hills are a geographical region of hills in southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta, Canada. The hills are part of the Missouri Coteau upland.
The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian paramilitary police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, the Red River Rebellion and in response to lawlessness, demonstrated by the subsequent Cypress Hills Massacre and fears of United States military intervention. The NWMP combined military, police and judicial functions along similar lines to the Royal Irish Constabulary. A small, mobile police force was chosen to reduce potential for tensions with the United States and First Nations. The NWMP uniforms included red coats deliberately reminiscent of British and Canadian military uniforms.
The Cypress Hills Massacre occurred on June 1, 1873, near Battle Creek in the Cypress Hills region of Canada's North-West Territories. It involved a group of American bison hunters, American wolf hunters or "wolfers", American and Canadian whisky traders, Métis cargo haulers or "freighters", and a camp of Assiniboine people. Thirteen or more Assiniboine warriors and one wolfer died in the conflict. The Cypress Hills Massacre prompted the Canadian government to accelerate the recruitment and deployment of the newly formed North-West Mounted Police.
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