COLUMN: Carillon Flashback, July 12, 1995 – Statue at Emerson, a tribute to RCMP

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/07/2023 (1043 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 120 years since the North West Mounted Police marched west, a bronze statue of horse and rider was unveiled at Emerson to commemorate the historic event of 1874.

As a prairie thunderstorm crackled and rumbled violently overhead, 300 recruits of the NWMP slept restlessly on their cots at Fort Dufferin. It was July 8, 1874 and when dawn broke, the fledgling Canadian police unit began what was to be a gruelling trek west to combat outlaw American whisky traders in what is now Alberta.

The NWMP was originally introduced as a militaristic North West Mounted Rifles in 1873. Western Canada was empty of European settlers at that time and Prime Minister John A. Macdonald wished to ensure security for arriving pioneers. The base of operations was Fort Dufferin in Manitoba, a few miles north of Emerson and the American border.

The troop name was changed to the North West Mounted Police and placed under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel George A. French as its first commissioner.

French’s great grandson, Dominck French, was in attendance at the statue unveiling earlier this month. He told The Carillon, his grandfather had often retold George French’s stories about the vicious thunderstorm and the trek west.

Three hundred North West Mounted Police officers left Fort Dufferin at Emerson for the trek to the aptly named Fort Whoop-up, which was the base camp for American whisky traders. The traders unscrupulous business tactics were causing discontentment among Indians who lived in the area, which is now Alberta. Upon hearing news of the arrival of the NWMP the whisky traders fled their fort.

In all, the police force travelled 2,000 miles in 66 days, through largely unexplored and foreboding territory from Fort Dufferin to the Rocky Mountain foothills.

Thanks to the fund-raising efforts of a number of retired RCMP officers, visitors to Manitoba will now be greeted just north of the American border by a larger-than-life Mountie on horseback.

Jerry Ferguson of the Manitoba division of the RCMP Veterans Association said the statue has been in the works for over five years. The 1874 march west was the only time the NWMP got together as a whole force.

The statue at the Tourist Information Center off Highway 75 near Emerson is a tribute to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which got its start as the North West Mounted Police at nearby Fort Dufferin in 1873.

Saskatoon sculptor William Epp has created the bronze statue of an officer on horseback, dressed in the uniform of 1874.

Epp said the RCMP Musical Ride provided their finest steed to model for the horse portion of the statue.

“We first started talking about it five years ago, and I’ve spent the past five months working on it. We had to look for correct details on the saddle, the gun, the reins and the rest of the uniform.”

Epp, a career artist, who has been working in bronze for about 20 years, said it was most important to get the horse looking like a horse. The bronze horse and rider together weigh over 1,200 pounds and the statue is mounted on a 2,300-pound chunk of granite.

“It’s very unusual to sculpt a horse and rider, and not too many are done in Canada. I sculpted the two figures looking in opposite directions to add dramatic effect to the piece.”

After the statue was unveiled, visitors were treated to music from the Shriner’s Pipes and Drums band and a colorful performance by native dancers.

The “Queen’s Cowboys” strolled the grounds, dressed in period costumes, giving the event an historical feel.

-WITH FILES FROM TANIS BAKER