Naming the West : Stories High River Trails

High River Student Story 1:
Trails

Lilly and I are here with Courtney a friend of Colonel MacLeod’s. What did Colonel Macleod do for a living?

He was a North West Mounted Police. He was one of the first North West Mounted Policemen in the High River area.

That sounds like a very interesting job. He must had a very important job. Do you know why the trail was named after him?

He was one of the most important people in the mounted police at the time.

What did they use the old Macleod Trail for?

It was a wagon trail that the freight wagons followed to get food and goods from south of Fort Macleod to Calgary, stopping in places like High River along the way.

What was some of the stuff on the wagons?

Food, clothing, supplies for houses and farms. It cost about $16 to send something of average size to Calgary and a person only made about $1 a day.

Woah. At those prices you would have to really think what you needed to send and bring in. Thank you for sharing your time with us.