THEY CALLED IT ODANAH
By George A. Harland

History, the dictionary says, is a branch of knowledge
that records and explains past events, and man from the
earliest times has written of the age in which he lives.
In this little book "They Called It Odanah" I 'have tried
to preserve some 'of the area's story as I Saw and knew it,
supplemented by material acquired thrOugh research and
from the stories of early pioneers.

It was in the year 1880 that white settlers started co-
ming here in large numbers, and this was still unorgani-
zed territory. Canada North West, the Post Office De—
partment called it. Manitoba was a ‘small area on the
map that came no further west than GladstOne, a province
formed and taken *into Confederation in 1870, the home
of the ' Metis, a peeple part Indian, part French—Cana-
dian and part Scots who lived on small farms by the Red
Biver and looked to Louis Riel as their leader.

Nor were the homesteaders the first white people to
make a trail across what is now Called Odanah. It was
the fur traders. To protect their trade with the Crees
and Assiniboines from American raiders a fort had been
built for the Hudson's Bay Company on Beaver Creek near
Welwyn, Saskatchewan. This was in 1831 and the fort
was called Fort Ellice. The Fort Ellice Trail entered
Odanah from the east through the Brookdale area, passed
north of where Moore Park is now and emerged from ward
1 through the north-west corner of section 30-13-17 into
ward 2. It continued to angle slightly to the north—west
past the site of Rufford elevator into the Riv’erdale dis—
trict and on to the Saskatchewan border where St. Lazare
is today. In Odanah you can still find evidence of this
old fur trading route and early settlers used part of this
trail for many years.

In 1881 the boundary of'Manitoba was extended west—
ward to its present locatiOn. But it was still the postage
stamp province for it went no further north than the
square on the map. The large northern part was not
added until 1912.

In 1883 several new municipalities were organized in
the area created by the extension of the boundary. One
of these was called Odanah. It consisted of six townships
——13. 1.4 and 15 in ranges 17 and 18. Later in 1902:
townships 15 in ranges 17 and 18 were taken and added
to townships 16 in ranges 17 and 1.8..to, form the munici —
pality of Minto. This brought Odanah's northern boun—
dary six miles south of its former position to lie along
the southern boundary of Minto, One mile north of No. 4
highway.

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