RCMP Museum ~ Musée de la GRC

The New Frontier

When the North-West Mounted Police was formed in 1873, Queen Victoria was the reigning monarch. Mark Twain was writing Tom Sawyer and Japan's Samurai warriors were being disbanded. At the same time, Canadian settlers were struggling to establish themselves in the Canadian west.

Calls for the establishment of a police force had been heard for some time but not acted upon. The Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, Alexander Morris, had sent repeated warnings east, but to no avail. This all changed with the Cypress Hills massacre in May of 1873, as a dispute between wolf hunters and Assiniboine Indians led to the deaths of native women and children. When word of the tragedy reached the east Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald decided to accelerate recruiting for the new mounted police force. An Order-In-Council, dated August 30, 1873, was approved by Governor General Lord Dufferin and the North-West Mounted Police were born.

The original members of the Force, most of whom had some military experience, began their famous March West on July 8, 1874. Assembled at Fort Dufferin, Manitoba, were 275 officers and men, 142 draught oxen, 93 head of cattle, 310 horses, 114 Red River carts, 73 wagons, two nine-pounder field guns, two mortars, mowing machines, portable forges and field kitchens. This flowing river of dust and sweat, stretching sometimes eight kilometers, contended with thirty-degree Celsius heat, mosquitos, grasshoppers and when spared the oppressive heat - hail the size of walnuts.

George A. French, the Force's first Commissioner (1873 - 76), and his successor, James F. Macleod (1876 - 80), the first representatives of Canadian law and order in the west, laid a strong foundation for the future. Treaties with the natives, the quick disruption of the whiskey trade, and a reputation for fair treatment by a responsible police force were their legacy. The Canadian Government, hoping to avoid violence and bloodshed owed much to the early efforts of the Mounted Police.