The Northwest Mounted Police were established in 1873
and sent out to be a Canadian presence in the West. Their long trek had
many challenges. Because the man leading the trek would not acknowledge
that red river carts travel slower than men with horses, the police
tended to have to go to bed hungry, waiting for their cooks with the
wagons to catch up with them.
The horses they started out with were not suited to the
West, and fell very ill, many of them dying. The boots the men wore were
riding boots, not suited for walking once their horses were too ill to
ride, and so many of the men had to wrap their feet with rags.
At Fort Benton they got proper horses, suited to the
West, and more supplies. They also hired Jerry Potts, a Metis man who
would guide them out West without a map. Once a very frustrated officer
demanded to know where they were and where they were being led,
insisting on knowing "what's over that hill?" The reply he got
was: "another hill".
A group of the NWMP passed through Victoria Settlement in 1874. A small excerpt of their records
can be found online.
NWMP were not stationed in Victoria Settlement until
1888, when Constables Dunning and Armstrong were sent to the settlement.
They patrolled the ten mile settlement daily, and would visit Saddle
Lake and Bears' Ears Reserve once a month, as long as the weather
permitted. They argued very actively for a ferry to be established. In
November 1889, the two constables were removed back to Fort Saskatchewan
and Victoria was again without police officers.