Policing the Frontier – First of a 3-part series

July 8, 2021

This article was done in partnership with the Lac du Bonnet & District Historical Society. It appeared in the July 8, 2021 edition of the Lac du Bonnet Clipper. 

An English poet passed through Lac du Bonnet in 1913, observing a village of “wandering workmen” from construction and labour camps, speaking with the voices of many nations. A rough place on the fringes of law and order, Rupert Brooke referred to it as “the ultimate outpost of civilization.”

At the time of Lac du Bonnet’s establishment, the Manitoba Provincial Police (MPP) handled law enforcement throughout the province with one- and two-man detachments. Most MPP records were lost or destroyed, leaving only sparce details buried in newspaper articles. In the Eastern region, the MPP maintained a post in Selkirk. In 1905, Provincial Constable Alex Lemaire was based in Lac du Bonnet. Over the next decade, the MPP covered the vast area with posts moved between Beausejour, Molson and Whitemouth.

Newspaper reports of police in the Lac du Bonnet area are limited to more serious incidents. The Pointe du Bois generating station construction site made Winnipeg news twice in less than a year. A 1909 Christmas party quarrel over a lone woman led to one man stabbed. The attacker was captured at the Molson CPR station.

In November 1910, a dispute between two construction workers ended when one man killed the other with an axe before fleeing into the bush. With communication challenges and transportation delays, the Chief Constable from Winnipeg took two nights and most of two days to reach the area. His belief was the fugitive reached the main CPR line and was travelling east or west. Newspapers ran a full description of the man while searches were conducted of all farms and camps along the rail lines. He was found and arrested in Buffalo, NY in July 1911. A MPP member travelled to Niagra to escort him back to Winnipeg for trial.

During a 1911 smallpox outbreak, a MPP constable assisted with quarantining the brickyard and Woodbine Hotel. Police also intercepted illegal sturgeon fishing and arrested a Bolshevist (Russian communist) agent spreading propaganda to new settlers in the Lac du Bonnet region. On many occasions, officers travelled across miles of rough terrain to remote homesteads following reports of volatile individuals threatening others with rifles.

On November 14, 1919, the Royal North-West Mounted Police (RNWMP) established a detachment in Lac du Bonnet. The RNWMP became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on February 1, 1920. An 8-room house on the corner of Second Street and McArthur Avenue served as the RCMP detachment from 1926 to 1934. The MPP posted their own constable in Lac du Bonnet to assist the RCMP officer uphold law and order in the area.

Part Two: Bootleggers, Car Chases and Safecrackers
Part Three: Flying North

References:

Mark Gaillard, RCMP Historian with the RCMP Heritage Branch

RCMP Archived Annual Reports
https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/lbrr/ctlg/dtls-en.aspx?d=PS&i=42936948

Town of Lac du Bonnet Archives, Plan 686

Henderson Directories. Henderson’s Manitoba and Northwest Territories gazetteer and directory. Winnipeg: Henderson Directory Co, 1878-1905. http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/848.html

Jack Templeman. “Manitoba’s Finest.” Manitoba History, Number 52, June 2006
http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/52/manitobapolice.shtml

“Stabbing Affray at Point du Bois.” Winnipeg Free Press, December 28, 1909.

“Savagery Shown in Northern Crimes.” Winnipeg Free Press, November 3, 1910.

“Identification of Prisoner.” Winnipeg Free Press, July 8, 1911.

“Fort Alexander Has Outbreak of Smallpox.” Winnipeg Tribune, July 11, 1911.

“Man With Rifle Rounded Up.” Winnipeg Free Press, July 19, 1915.

“Mike Kulyk Suspected of Being Bolshevist Agent.” Winnipeg Free Press, July 8, 1919.

“Rattray Announces Location of Force.” Winnipeg Tribune, April 2, 1920.

 “Search Unsuccessful.” Winnipeg Free Press, May 27, 1922.

“Rupert Brooke on Manitoba.” Winnipeg Tribune, August 4, 1938.

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America, Part X.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6445/6445-h/6445-h.htm#link2H_4_0017

“A Brief History of the RCMP in LdB.” Springfield Leader (Lac du Bonnet, MB), March 27, 1973.