The Working Dog – Part 1
by Elizabeth CampbellAs I have read through the literature researching this topic, it has become apparent that, in the early days of the RRS – and well into its history – man’s best friend functioned mainly as the sled dog. A good breeding stock must have been in the area before the settlers arrived. Although there is mention of dogs being used at York Factory, I didn’t see any reference to them being brought down in the boats.
Most of the mention of dogs at work in the Red River Journals indicated that they were busiest at hauling meat from the winter kill sites back to Fort Daer or Fort Douglas.
Archibald McDonald mentions that two dog teams helped relay his goods and some supplies from Churchill Creek to York Factory when 51 members of the 1813 Group made their famous snowshoe trek, but most of the sledges used were pulled by the men in the expedition. In April of 1815, two small groups of settlers intending to desert to Canada in NWCo. canoes left for Point Futre on the Winnipeg River with their belongings packed in dog sleds.
The winter expresses, carrying mail packets from fort to fort or post to post, were taken by dog team. Hargrave gives an excellent description of the specially designed sleds:
The starting of the Northern Packet from Red River is one of the great annual events in the colony. It occurs generally about the 10th December, when the ice having been thoroughly formed and the snow fallen, winter travelling is easy and uninterrupted. The packet arrangements are such that every post in the Northern Department is communicated with through its agency. The means of transit are sledges and snowshoes. The sledges are drawn by magnificent dogs, of which there are three or four to each vehicle, whose neatly fitting harness, though gaudy in appearance, is simple in design and perfectly adapted to its purposes, while the little bells attached thereto, bright looking and clearly ringing, cheer the flagging spirits of men and animals through the long run of the winter’s day.
In the course of the long distances traversed by the winter runners, every pound weight laid on the sledges tells. So jealously was all excess in the amount of mail matter transmitted through the packets guarded against in the old times, before the institution of Red River mails, that the carriage of newspapers was disallowed, with the exception of an annual file of the ” Montreal Gazette,” forwarded to head quarters for general perusal. Newspapers were then rare and highly prized, but now the bulk of the contents of the Company’s inward bound packets consists of newspapers addressed to private individuals.
A pair of stoutly constructed wooden boxes, measuring about three feet in length by eighteen inches deep and fourteen wide, when well packed, contain an astonishing amount of printed and written matter. These receptacles are secured to the dog sledges, and the party sets forth on its journey, the dogs running at a gentle jog trot from about daylight till dusk, and the drivers accompanying them on foot.
Detail of a painting depicting a dog sled at Lower Fort Garry in 1869 - Private Collection
Although he is writing about a period some time later (1850s/1860s) than the days of the early settlement, it is unlikely that the teams and sleds had changed much.
(references: pages 16967, 18180, 18184, 18185, 18186, 18305, 18308, 18320 of the Selkirk Papers, M186, Manitoba Archives; James John Hargrave. Red River. Montreal: 1871 pages 100-1, 155-6)
Tags: 1813 Group, 1815 deserters, Archibald McDonald, Archibald McDonald Journal, Churchill Creek, dog sleds, dogs at the RRS, food supply, Fort Daer, Fort Douglas, HBC Expresses, James John Hargrave, mail delivery, mail packets, Miles Macdonell's Journal, Point Futre, Winnipeg River, York Factory, York Factory to RRS
