Dawson Trail recognized by Governor General award

In 2019, Pierrette Sherwood decided to spearhead a movement to re-energize the Dawson Trail in order to promote the history and importance of the trail in the Southeast and in Canadian history. Two years ago, when the trail officially opened, she never thought she would be getting an award for her work today.

On Monday, the Dawson Trail Arts and Heritage Tour was awarded the Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Community Programming.

“It is truly exceptional to be recognized at that level is such an honour,” said Sherwood.

“You know, it’s not every day that a project in this province, let alone in Western Canada, gets this recognition. So, I mean, this is a wonderful moment of celebration for us,” she added.

Sherwood is experienced in the tourism industry having worked in it for 14 years out east prior to moving to La Coulee in 2023. She decided to re-create the trail and its history after seeing small signs along the route that didn’t give context to the trail.

“Now, I’ll be honest, once we started getting into it, I mean, it grew exponentially. And, you know, the scope and scale just became tremendous. But once this thing was going, I mean, the momentum was such that there was no turning back. And we’re happy we did what we did,” she said.

Sherwood stresses that she did not work alone and the project was done in collaboration with six municipalities, communities in the Southeast, a First Nations advisory committee comprised of representatives from Treaties 1 and 3 grand councils, Metis and francophone representatives, and the provincial and federal governments.

Joanna Dawson, director of programs for Canada’s History, the administrator of the award, said the Dawson Trail Arts and Heritage Tour was chosen because of the scope of the project, the distance it covered, the depth of history, and the magnitude of community engagement.

“We’re looking for projects that connect the public to important moments of the past, important stories of the past, not just by consuming history, but by being involved in developing the project.”

Named after civil engineer and politician Simon James Dawson, who was in charge of the trail’s construction, the route spans 120 kilometres from Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods to St Boniface in Winnipeg.

In 1869, the Ottawa Citizen reported the construction of the trail from Lake of the Woods to Fort Garry was $5.8 million, which is equal to $138.2 million in today’s dollars. Sherwood used funding of more than $775,000 to build the trail into what it is today from the provincial Building Sustainable Communities grant, the federal Canadian Heritage Legacy Fund, and money from the six municipalities.

The trail has 15 wayfinding markers and eight permanent art exhibits highlighting the traditional place names and the “historic legacy of the first all-Canadian access road linking the East with the prairies” and solidifying Canada’s geographic claim to the West from the annexing glare of the Americans.

The Dawson Trail website promotes the history of the trail and has route information, including GPS coordinates and a Google Earth map to help people navigate, and has itineraries for driving, walking, or cycling the four sections of the trail. For the first time last summer, 40 cyclists rode their bikes from St Boniface to east of Richer to raise money for the trail and the Dawson Trail Museum.

A couple of landmarks along the trail that might entice visitors, according to Sherwood, are where the forest meets the prairie near the Town of Ste Anne and the Centre of Canada site in Tache. She said the trail also crosses over several ecological biomes, which feature different flora and fauna, including 29 species of orchid.

Some interesting milestones regarding the recent interactions with the trail and its history include the docuseries Red River Gold on the Aboriginal People’s Television Network, which is currently in its second season. The series follows three treasure hunters as they search the trail for lost gold coins (worth $1 million today) that were being transported by a solider during the Red River Resistance.

“We also had, during Truth and Reconciliation at the end of September, we had the Seine River School Division who actually emphasized our website as a source of information and as a model, if you will, for teaching kids a new perspective on the historical narrative of the Dawson Trail,” said Sherwood.

The trail’s historic ties to Canada’s history, include such moments as Manitoba joining Confederation, the signing of Treaties 1 and 3, but perhaps most notably for Manitobans it’s known for the Red River Resistance led by Metis leader and Manitoba’s first premier Louis Riel.

“So, it’s really important to mention that it is a reclaimed narrative. We sought to decolonize this history, which had always previously been told from very much of a kind of military conquest to one that reflected more of the perspectives of the First Nations, the Métis, the francophone communities, and all the communities that were affected by the coming of the road,” said Sherwood.

Dawson said it was this decision that added to the decision of the awards committee in awarding Sherwood’s project the history award.

“Just that they were really respectful of that long history of Indigenous First Nations and Métis and francophone communities who lived in that land certainly stood out to the review committee,” she said.

Sherwood believes the Governor General award will put the Southeast on the map and it will attract visitors to the area.

“We’ve already seen, actually, an increase in that kind of foot traffic along the trail since we launched it. So, I think we can expect to see that grow into the future,” she said.

For visitors who travel the trail, Sherwood wants them to be inspired by “our shared history” and enjoy the natural landscape and artwork lining the thoroughfare.

“And hopefully, you know, walk away with a new understanding of this important chapter in our history.”

Sherwood also participated in the Canada History Forum in Ottawa where, as a laureate, she presented the Dawson Trail and its story to scholars, academics, and representatives from national museums.

“It’s just a really tremendous opportunity to share this story and to really make our region known,” she said.