Most settlers in the 1880’s came to the southwest corner by way of Emerson and the Boundary Commission Trail – or through Winnipeg to Brandon. The Logans took a different path.
From the diary of Robert T. Logan – 1882:
“Arrived at Bismarck, North Dakota, then the terminus of the N.P. on Saturday May 24. Remained in Bismarck for a few days. Hearing bad reports from the Yellow Stone to which we had purchased tickets my brother sold the balance of tickets not used for a trifle.
“We purchased a team and wagon. The wagon was fitted up with wooden hoops bent from of the wagon box, covered with canvas closely connected at the back end of the wagon box. This kind of conveyance took the name of Prairie Schooner. The canvas was drawn tightly down over the hoops of which there were four on our wagon and fastened to the sides of the box. They would keep us dry through a heavy rain and made quite a comfort-able place to sleep.
“We laid in a supply of provisions for ourselves and feed for the horses and on May 28 headed for the north. Less than a week brought us to the Souris River called in the Dakotas the ‘Mouse River.’
“The river had overflowed its banks and where they crossed must have been from six hundred to nine hundred feet in width, flowing rapidly.
“We turned east; travelling all one day and until two o'clock the next until we got near enough its source to effect a crossing.
“Also: we got our grub box replenished by Mr. LaRiviere who kept a grocery store at the east end of the Mountain, at Old Wakopa.
“We travelled on around the north side of the Mountain to Deloraine. The hillsides were covered with prairie schooners and rigs of all kinds. On one Monday morning when the land office door opened there were one hundred and fifty men ready to press in and make entry for the land. After a long wait we got a list of vacant lands, drove out and examined some of them and, on the 9th of June, 1882 made entry for the north half of section 10-5-24.”
Mr. Logan and his family arrived long before a rail line entered their district, so it was a long haul to deliver crop to market and to get supplies. It must have been interesting to witness the transformation from a truly rural environment to a much more connected lifestyle when, in 1891, the CPR built a line right through their neighbourhood and the village of Lauder sprang up just three kilometres away. As soon as the town site was laid out there were people on hand eager to set up places of business. Before the end of 1892 there were numerous businesses. In 1893 records for the town show seven mar- ried couples, fifteen boys and ten girls, with ten children in school.
While most of the buildings have now been torn down or moved, the town still retains its grid of streets, a few homes, and Lauder United Church. The attractive brick school now houses the post office and a coffee shop.
Source:
Phillips, Gordon. G. Lauder: The Rise and Fall of a Prairie Town: A History of Lauder Manitoba and The Surrounding District, Volume # 1. Gordon Phillips, 1973.
