Name changes: North West Mounted Police 1873, Royal North West Mounted Police in 1904 and Royal Canadian Mounted Police 1920.
To begin with, the Force — the North West Mounted Police was founded by Prime Minister J. MacDonald in 1873 to establish law and order on the Canadian West frontier. The Province of Manitoba opened for settlement in 1870 and Dominion land surveyors were working the eastern parts of the North West Territories to get colonization going. In 1874 alarming news reached Ottawa that there had been a massacre of Assiniboian people in the Cypress Hills (Sask.) by “wolfers” from Montana, and American traders had erected Fort Whoop Up (Alberta) and dealing illicit liquor with various tribes. The Force was then mobilized to head West to enforce Canadian law. Three hundred men set out from Fort Dufferin in Manitoba in July 1874. The famous march was beset with several serious problems, and by the time a detachment reached Fort Whoop-Up, it was deserted. News had travelled surprisingly fast that a police detachment was approaching and that had spurred American traders to flee. From 1873 the Force operated from Police Posts near the international boundary. They erected Fort Macleod near today’s Lethbridge and Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills south of present day Maple Creek. The force’s work included contact with Montana authorities to check on horse raids, stray cattle and whisky smuggling, and investigating those Americans who were alledgedly involved in the Cypress Hills Massacre. Eventually, a trial of the suspects took place in Winnipeg, but none was found guilty. The Force shopped at Fort Benton in Montana on the Upper Missouri River, 150 miles from Fort Walsh. Established since 1846, Fort Benton was an important distribution centre that was only too glad to get the North West Mounted Police’s trade. It was the only telegraph centre for the force, the closest place for their supplies, a social center, and the members got paid at the I.G.Baker store, until banks opened in the North West Territories. Inside of a few years, the force gradually spread out throughout the territory establishing an extensive networrk of police stations and patrols. One main trail from Regina/Fort Qu’Appelle to Fort Pelly passed not that far from Yorkton. In 1889, Yorkton began moving 4 kilometers south to its present site, which was chosen by the Manitoba and North Western Railway. This resulted in a North West Mounted Police Detachment being opened in the summer of 1890. In 1903, Yorkton became a sub-district with Sergeant Christen Junget in charge. Three or four members looked after a pretty quiet town and vicinity. In 1917, there were 8 members. The Yorkton detachment remained open in the 1920s during the Prohibition years, while other detchments in the province were served by the newly organized Saskatchewan Police. In 1931, there was some re-organization in the province and Yorkton became headquarters for a Sub-Dividion. The Yorkton City detail was established in August of 1941 and still serves the city today. Another R.C.M.P. detachment headquartered in Yorkton serves the rural area.
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
heritage@yorkton.ca
