The Law and the Lawless

When members of the fledgling North West Mounted Police first travelled west in 1874, they found a vast and rugged land ruled by whiskey traders, outlaws, and proud First Nations. From remote barracks in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, they quickly rose to the job of settling disputes and meting out frontier justice. They put their lives on the line and sometimes paid the ultimate price for it, as revealed in the story of Manitoba's beloved first police chief, Richard Power, who drowned while pursuing the fugitive Mike Carroll. In other stories, the frontier town of Calgary is the site of the first hanging of a white man in western Canada, while further east, a quick-witted Métis from St. Boniface earns the title of Manitoba's first Indigenous outlaw. These are amazing stories indeed of a formative time in Canada's history and the diverse people who played a role in bringing justice to the western plains.