History of the Rural Municipality of Cartier

The council of the Rural Municipality of Cartier initiated the compilation of "Treasures of Time " as early as 1980 when councilors first expressed concern that so many of the pioneers were reaching an advanced age and Cartier had no recorded account of pioneer days. This concern led to the formation of a committee made up or representatives from each ward and several from each village or village area. This committee undertook to research and compile a family-type history book of Cartier municipality.

The collection of 2000 pictures and over 500 family stories as well as the editing of numerous research articles became a labor of love, as well as the basis for a comprehensive view of Cartier through one hundred years.

Because Cartier was part of a larger municipality (St. Francois Xavier) until 1914, "Treasures of Time" is not a centennial book, but it is a reasonable account of the WHY, the HOW and the WHO in the development of this area. It encompasses both the past and the present in its family stories.

Throughout the years, many families contributed much to Cartier. Unfortunately, not all of those families are recorded in "Treasures of Time". For those whose stories were not obtained. Their contribution to the Municipality is hereby recognized.

Cartier is unique in that it encompasses eleven hutterite Colonies within or on its borders. These eleven colonies comprise approximately one-third of the Cartier population and are presented in "Treasures of Time" as colony units, rather than as individual family stories. Since colony development generally followed a set pattern, one colony is described extensively to explain both the customs and development. The others are described less extensively but in all cases, the original and present families of each colony are included.

A special section is dedicated to the multinational aspect of Cartier. This section gives a brief history in the original language of the family listed. Each family represents those whose national origin was also theirs. As interesting sidelight to this mosaic was the difficulty of finding a family whose background was totally Anglo-Saxon. The John Thompson family was a fitting choice in view of the many years of community social service done by Mary Thompson. The fact that so many families can lay claim to more than one cultural background reflects the unique "canadianization" of the area, which in itself denotes a richer heritage for all.

Likewise, the chapter on the schools of Cartier, reflects the concern of the pioneers for education opportunities for their children; although the little "one-room" schoolhouse is gone, its location and its graduates are no less a part of our story.

Railways across Cartier provided the major impetus for development in most of Cartier south of the Assiniboine settlements. The railways and the grain trade thus became the "raison d'�tre" of a fast growing area.

With the discovery of the richness of the Assiniboia flood plains, settlers sought homesteads in Cartier, intent on making a living in a new area. One hundred years before the first ploughs turned the fertile soils of Cartier, Daniel Webster was heard to say:

"Where tillage begins, other arts follow, the farmers are therefore the founders of human civilization" in full agreement with Webster, "Treasures of Time" has attempted to recognize the profound contribution that each and every farmer has made to Cartier municipality. In review, the Cartier council minutes show, in the operation of municipal government, this pragmatic agrarian approach to problem solving. The decisions facing the present-day council include the protection of the agricultural base of the municipality from the advancement of "progress" and the pressures of suburbanization.

"Treasure of Time" also recognizes the Metis community, who held dearly to their beliefs and ideals against much pressure from homesteaders and others. As well, the village areas are recognized in separate chapters as they expanded their communities to include churches and schools.

Most of the family stories were accepted as written and represent the authorship of the individual family. Editing was limited in order to retain the style in which the story was presented.

Much of the material in "Treasures of Time" was researched by committee members or interested volunteers, and is, with some exception, not included in any other book about this area. It is the expressed wish of the history Book Committee that this material will be of interest and use to Cartier residents now, and in the future.

Joan Peters for the History Book committee

Sir George Etienne Cartier
The R.M. of Cartier is named after sir Georges Etienne Cartier. Sir Georges was born in 1824. He played a leading role in the union of the British North America provinces prior to 1867. Because of his efforts, Quebec was persuaded to join the Canadian federation.

Sir Georges Cartier was born in St. Antoine, Lower Canada. As a young man he took part in the Papineau Rebellion, fled to the U.S.A., was later pardoned and consequently was elected to the Lower Canadian Legislature in 1848, where he became the leader to the (Conservatives) French Canadian "Bleus". From 1858-1862, Cartier served as joint Prime Minister of Canada with John A Macdonald.

After Confederation in 1867, Cartier served as Minister of Militia in the first federal government of the Dominion from 1867 to 1872. He was knighted for his efforts toward confederation. He died in 1873.

Cartier: Pre-history
A geological sketch map of southern Manitoba shows Cartier to be in the Red-Assiniboine delta of ancient Lake Agassiz, which drained away some eight thousand years ago to its present remnants of the Lake Winnipeg drainage system. As early as 1823, a young American mineralogist, W.A. Keating, proceeding north through the Red River Valley, noticed that he was traveling on an old lake-bed floor. The old lake bed was eventually named Lake Aggasiz in 1879 after many of its secrets were determined by scientific study.  Lake Agassiz itself was the result of the melting of a massive ice sheet which covered most of southern Manitoba late in the ice age.

The great ice sheet that covered Manitoba was very deep - 6000 feet it is believed. The great weight of this mass slowly depressed the rock surface. Then, as the ice melted away, the land slowly returned to its original elevation, the gravel, sand, silt, and clay frozen to the base of the glacial ice sheet was deposited when the glacier began to melt.

Melting ice and water filled the basin as the great ice sheet came to a standstill. As the ice continued to melt on the north and east shores, those waters drained to Hudson Bay. Lake Winnipeg, Lake Winnipegosis, and Lake Manitoba became a north-flowing waterway, fed by rivers from the east, west, and south. This basin was centered over the Red River Valley and Lake Manitoba.

In the deeper parts of Lake Agassiz thick clay deposits accumulated. As waters recede, channels of run-off became rivers which carried heavier materials until they, too, lost their momentum. The light-textured materials formed deep beds except where they were washed along the shores, forming gravel ridges of varying textures.

As the newly-forming rivers carved channels to Lake Agassiz, they poured great quantities of sand and silt into the quieter waters of the basin. The highly productive clay and silt soils common to the red-Assiniboine basin owe their texture to those deposits that settled in the deeper quieter waters of the great lake.

Overlying these foundations along much of the lower Assiniboine, Mill Creek and La Salle River banks are great depths of top soil deposited over thousands of years of annual flooding.

Once the lake waters retreated northward, the Assiniboine River in its wanderings built up great deltas of sand and other materials, These sandy deposits when not fixed by vegetation and during long periods of drought were blown into dunes. Over time these dunes gave rise to often unexpected and unusual high formation in an otherwise flat and stony plain.

At times, the glacier melted at a greater or lesser speed. With and increase in temperature, great chunks would fall off, this melt lest lumps of differing texture, again resulting in unusual formations in the low flat plains.

Often, channels of tunnels were cut into the melting ice chunks as temperatures increased and waters ran swiftly. These channels would fill with sand and gravel as melt water washed over them. When the glacier melted away, the sand and gravel would be left as a ridge sometimes a hundred miles long. Many of these ridges or eskers were further buried by Lake Agassiz gumbo. Later erosion by wind and water exposed some of the ridges which prove excellent sources of gravel and clay.

The final results of the ice age and thousands of years that followed as Lake Agassiz formed and drained away have left the R.M. of Cartier with a rich clay and topsoil surface that is level but somewhat low-lying. Relatively free of stone because of its flood-plain nature, Cartier has an agriculturally rich land bas containing much No. 1 and No. 2 soils.

After lake Agassiz receded, the Assiniboine river emptied into lake Manitoba. Eventually this channel became clogged with silt and the river broke out of its banks and meandered eastward to meet with the Red. When this new channels silted in, the Assiniboine changed its course again. This process was probably repeated many times. Aerial photos show about six old river channels south of the present bed of the Assiniboine River. The La Salle River is one of these channels.

Early Man in Cartier
The first movement of people into and across the Cartier area can be ascertained only by the bone, arrow and spear points or pieces of pottery that are found along the higher banks of the Assiniboine.

Excavations and research indicate signs of human habitation in the area dating back eight thousand years to the end of the ice Age. Those early people were probable nomadic hunters following their source of food, bison. The early Paleo-Indian disappeared with a severe drought. From 6,000 to 4,500 B.C. this area shows little or no movement of people.

By the time the great drought period ended, the Assiniboine river was draining into Lake Manitoba and new people were moving into the Red river area. For the next 4,000 years nomadic tribes moved across the Red-Assiniboine plain. These people left calling cards, bits and pieces of the tools they used. Artifacts from the Kuyper site at Headingly indicate family groups of fifty of less roamed the Red-Assiniboine basin depending on the bison for their food and moving as necessity demanded. Stone and copper spear points gave them a hunting advantage that the Paleo-Indians never enjoyed.

The Archaic culture of the Kuyper site Indians was swept away by climatic changes. Once again the Assiniboine River came back to its earlier course. The heavier precipitation and the cooler moist climate increased the extent of forest and woodland offering new sources of food for a new people.

By 500 B.C. these woodland people would wend their way across the Red-Assiniboine basin area carrying pottery, using the bow and arrow and collecting wild rice as part of their diet. They were still buffalo hunters but now they used brush enclosures and spears to kill their prey. Small wild animals, game birds and fish made an adequate diet.

Through the twenty-five hundred years that separates us from these early people, many improvements can be discerned. Semi-permanent villages built on a framework of saplings have been excavated from the murky depths of unknown flood waters. Burial mounds similar to more southern cultures became more common in the Red and Assiniboine areas.

Trading centres sprung up at river junctions as groups of wandering people coalesced into tribes. As tribes increased in size and knowledge they were able to trade further and further.

River junctions such as the junctions of the Red with the Pembina or Assiniboine, Chipwyan or Blackout met to trade goods and knowledge. The Cree were noted for their knowledge of medicine and traded these medicines to the Blackfoot. In turn, the Blackfoot traded on down to the Missouri river Villages much farther south. Using the natural waterways of the Red-Assiniboine basin, these nomadsic peoples met in peace and war Legends grew up among the tribes and were passed on and around. One legend that can be found in many of the border tribes is the legend of the White Horse Plains. In Cartier municipality, the legend gave its name to a rural school - White Plains School - and later to the much larger school division called the White Horse Plain School Division. A railway station on the C.N. main line also named White Plains served Cartier area for many years.

Early Exploration in Cartier - Fur Traders and Explorers
With the 18th century came the beginning of written records in Central Canada as the fur traders and explorers recorded and mapped their way across a vast expanse of woods and plains.

Early explorers depended largely on information supplied to them by the native tribes whom they encountered and with whom they traveled and traded.

Early history of Cartier is really only the early history of the area surrounding the Red and Assiniboine valleys as the explorers recorded their travels and made up their own maps which would then become guides for further exploration.

The first map of the region was of Lake Superior was a map collated from several Indian maps that Pierre Gaultier de la Verendrye described and sent to Governor Beauharnois in Quebec in 1729. Whether la Verendrye ever walked on Cartier soil we cannot be sure. What we do Know, is that la Verendrye and members of his Party ventured west on the Assiniboine in 1738, established Fort la Reine (Portage la Prairie) as a base and returned often to Les Fourches (the Forks at the Red River) and Fort Maurepas at the mouth of the Red. An early account tells us that:

"La Verendrye proceeded west but the Assiniboine river was low since the summer had been dry. La Verendrye left his canoes and crossed the great prairie of the Red River by foot."

A logical route to Fort la Reine from the Forks in a dry year would have been almost direct westerly route through Cartier municipality. We can only assume that Pierre de la Verendrye used such a route.

As the fur traders flocked into the Red and Assiniboine basins, another fur trader detailed his journey through the Red River valley in 1806. In his diary, Alexander Henry tells us:

"July 8th (1806) - Came to Riviere Sale 9:00 a.m., breeze scatters mosquitoes. 11:00 a.m. swam across Riviere Sale. 4:00 p.m. reached Assiniboine at Grand Passage, rafted over to the other side. 8:00 p.m. camped at Whit Horse Plains."

Many years later, after the Selkirk settlements were squarely in place on the Red River and after Cuthbert Grant had a thriving colony building Red River carts at Grantown, Henry Youle Hind carried out a series of important explorations for the Canadian Government.

During the years 1858-1859, Hind surveyed along the Assiniboine as far as the mouth of the Souris River. He, too, would have come in contact with the people of Cartier who, by this time, were well established along the higher portions of the Assiniboine and La Salle River banks.

Captain John Palliser , after whom the Palliser triangle in named, was commissioned to explore British North America between the Saskatchewan river and the United Stated from the Red River to the Rockies.

Palliser, during his geographical explorations from 1857-1860, identified this area of the province based on observation and natural vegetation. He described the lower Assiniboine plain as arable, dry, and willow; a description that would apply to all of Cartier. By denoting the vegetation as willow, he acknowledged the low level of the surrounding flood plain.

Thus the earlier recorded knowledge of Cartier came from the fur traders, explorers, and commissioned cartographers as they followed the large rivers to open the heart of the continent.