Red River Cart Donated

April 12, 2022 by admin7

Selkirk area resident Armand Jerome has become one of the few people in Canada to build replica Red River carts. A regular on the “Back to Batoche” rides and veteran of many long-distance historical re-enactment events, Armand and his wife Kelly decided to put on their own historical ride and recreate the original Red River Expedition of 1870 as accurately as possible. Starting from Kenora by dogsled in February of 2020, their ride was unfortunately interrupted by the pandemic and postponed.

As part of Le Rendezvous in September 2021, Armand and Kelly arranged to ride from the current east end of the Dawson Trail into Richer on Friday morning. They were joined by other wagons and teamsters, as well as local area horseback riders, for a 15-kilometre ride. Spectators were waiting eagerly for their arrival into the Dawson Trail Park.

Both of the Red River Carts and one of the historical rebuilt wagons was on display in the park during the rest of the weekend.

In 2020 the Richer Community Club received a grant from the Co-op Community Spaces program to create an Interpretive Historical Site including a “trading post”, tee-pees, general store, and a pergola featuring a bronze plaque dedicated to community founders and builders. They also improved lighting and some natural landscaping. This whole project was designated to explain how the First Nations, Métis and Francophone people came together to create a community over 150 years ago.

The Richer Community Club also commissioned the building of their very own Red River cart, which was used by the Métis people on the plains through most of the 19th century to carry goods, including bison meat, to and from hunting and camping, and later, at farming sites.

The Red River Cart commissioned by the Richer Community Club was presented to the Dawson Trail Museum for display on the Museum grounds in future, as the committee felt that was the rightful location for it to be displayed for visitors attending the museum and a feature on the Dawson Trail Heritage Tour.