![]() ![]() Despite the fact that parts of the track were incomplete or untested, the Canadian Pacific moved troops to the area in nine days, and the rebellion was suppressed in two months. ![]() In 1885, the native Métis people of Saskatchewan rose up against the government of Canada, in a dispute over aboriginal rights that would become known as the North-West Rebellion. For this sterling work Lacombe was given a lifetime Canadian Pacific pass. Fears of attacks on railway works and stock were allayed when Albert Lacombe, a missionary priest, spoke to the Blackfoot and persuaded them that the coming of the railways was inevitable, and their hostility ended. The proposed route was also planned to cross land in Alberta province belonging to the Blackfoot Indians. This route remained in service until the early 20th Century, when two spiral tunnels were built in the valley sides – which opened in 1909. Three spur run-offs were built, and the 4-4-0 locomotives being used were replaced with more powerful 2-8-0 engines from the Baldwin Locomotive Works to work as pushers, and were the most powerful locomotives available in 1884. The line had to be built at a 4½% gradient, which lead to several runaways, including the very first train taken up which ended up in the Kicking Horse River with the loss of three lives. West of Kicking Horse Pass is Big Hill, where the railway would have to ascend 1,070' (330m) in just 10 miles (16km). A more detailed map can be found here (opens in new window). The chosen route would take the railway west across the prairies, and then through the Rocky Mountains at Kicking Horse Pass - named, in the inimitable North American way, for the naturalist James Hector who was kicked by his horse while exploring the region. It was first thought that the railway would take a northerly route across the country, but a southerly route was chosen, close to the US/Canada border to stop competing American railroads. Work started from Bonville, Ontario the same year, but construction was dogged with several problems on the way. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company was incorporated in 1881, and was given a large government grant to build a transcontinental railway across Canada. The Maritime Provinces agreed to join because of the Intercolonial Railway, and British Columbia joined on the promise that a Transcontinental Railway would be built. As we saw in the previous article, in 1867 work began on the Intercolonial Railway, which helped cement Canadian Confederation. ![]()
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