"In 1870 the almost three-year-old nation of Canada inherited a vast empire. That year the Hudson’s Bay Company ceded its claim to the territory over which it had carried on its fur trade for 200 years. The land stretched from east to west across the continent and north to the Arctic Ocean but the centre of its economic and settlement activity was a tiny community at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, a thousand miles west of Toronto. The question arose as to how these far-distant places could be joined. A railroad through British territory was a financial impossibility and using the rapidly-expanding American railroad system was politically unsavoury. The only solution was to implement a plan that had been suggested ten years earlier by civil engineer Simon Dawson. He proposed the building of a “road” that would use wagons, barges and steamboats to carry people and goods through the 450 miles of wilderness that separated Lake Superior and Red River. This book is the story of the difficult birth, short life and early death of the "Dawson Road"."--from www.mcnallyrobinson.com/9780978480127/neil-mcquarrie/forgotten-trail#.UynxkLdOUdU"Although the Rainy River District is close to the centre of Canada, it has always been pretty much hinterland, politically speaking. But for a few years during the 1870s it was at the centre of the new national consciousness. And those few years are the subject of Neil McQuarrie’s latest book, The Forgotten Trail, the story of the Dawson Trail. ... The Dawson Trail was born of necessity. In 1869, the Hudson’s Bay Company gave up Rupert’s Land (all of Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan, and parts of Alberta, Northern Ontario, Northern Quebec and Baffin Island), and left Canada facing a dilemma. How could the new nation hold its claim to this vast stretch of geography?... The railway wouldn’t be a reality for almost another twenty years, but the American interest in expanding across the continent, and Mڳetis claims for some basic rights in Manitoba, were immediate concerns. Canada had to have some route to Rupert’s Land to hold its claim. Simon Dawson had the answer: a land and water route linking Prince Arthur’s Landing (today’s Thunder Bay) and Fort Garry, Manitoba. Its construction was given a boost when the Red River rebellion of 1869-70 prompted a military response from the new Canadian government. The United States wasn’t about to let a joint British and Canadian military force pass through Minnesota to reach Manitoba, so Dawson’s Trail faced its first test and passed – sort of. ..." -- excerpts from "When the fate of the nation turned on the Rainy River District" by M.McKinnon on July 19, 2013 (://atikokanprogress.ca/2013/07/19/when-the-fate-of-the-nation-turned-on-the-rainy-river-district/)