Photo: Taken in 1887 Lady Agnes Macdonald is on the right.
Here are more details to last week’s story of Prime Minister J.A. Macdonald and Lady Agnes Macdonald’s trip on the Canadian Pacific Intercontinental Railway to the British Columbia coast. At one stop at Lake Louise, Lady Macdonald was studying the broad front of the locomotive with the cow-catcher and decided that it would be exciting to ride from that vantage point of the locomotive while going through the Kicking Horse Pass. The Prime Minister was not keen on the idea, but the railway superintendent thought it best she be accompanied and so he rode with her after arranging secure seating for both of them. She was fascinated by the journey, and later the Prime Minister accompanied her on the cowcatcher, although he said he preferred the comfort of the observation car. Lady Agnes Macdonald wrote of her experiences on the railway trip through the Rockies in an article entitled, “By Car and Cow Catcher” in Murray’s Magazine. The article, and a photo of the Macdonalds, may be seen in “Tales of the Canadian Rockies” by Brian Patton.
(P.S.—A cowcatcher is a prominent metal device mounted at the front of a locomotive to push away cattle, snow and other obstacles along the track.)
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
