Originally Posted by T_Inman
Originally Posted by BC30cal
When the railway was built in Canada in the 1880's, the Federal government gave some pretty broad concessions of land to CP and as well there were rules like Federal law superseded provincial law something like a mile either way of center line of the tracks. It meant if one wanted to sell booze to the train construction crews, one needed a Federal liquor license if your establishment was within the federal land and a provincial liquor license if it wasn't.

Dwayne, is that CP land checkerboard like some railroad conveyed lands are in Wyoming and some other places in the western US? Holy cow what a bad idea that was...from a public access point of view.
T Inman;
Top of the morning my friend, I hope you're finer than frog's hair thus far and all is going according to plan up north for you.

Going off of a bit of a foggy memory and incomplete grasp on the subject, yes I believe it was - but..

When my grandfather came here from Romania in the early 1900's he bought land from CP to homestead on and it was nowhere near the actual tracks. He was north of nowhere close to Fox Valley, SK which is 60km north of Maple Creek, SK which I want to say is where the CP line was.

All that to say, the feds at that time gave the CP huge chunks of land with the intent that they - the CP - would sell it to prospective settlers, which to a large degree happened.

For those reading who don't know this, there were a huge number of US folks who came up during this time - pre WWI - because land was so cheap across the medicine line. That's when my father in law's family came up from Minnesota as well and for the same reason. That and to get away from the Minnesota winters, which they actually did because the section of Manitoba they farmed was a bit of a better micro climate - a bit only though T.

Funny story about the liquor license thing.

While they were building the railway, you couldn't have a saloon in BC because - well it was very Victorian BC - but you could serve alcohol if you were a rooming house. So everyone had a big wall tent, with a cot in a sectioned off place behind the bar! Good to go.

Just outside of what was then called Farwell, now Revelstoke - again check out the train museum if you like that sort of thing - an Irish born entrepreneur came into town with two pack horses laden with a variety of spirits and what he thought was the correct BC provincial liquor license which would allow him to do business. However the BC NWMP Superintendent Johnson was on a campaign to rid the railway workers of their demon rum, so one of his constables seized the booze.

This didn't sit well with the local BC Provincial Police who included the colorful "Big John" Kirkup who attempted to "re-seize" the alcohol from the NWMP barracks/shack but ended up being arrested themselves.

That then led to NWMP Sargent being arrested by the BC Provincial Police and it went sorta sideways from there. It ended up with the BC Provincial Police and most of the town more or less laying siege to the NWMP barracks/shack and having "Hanging Judge" Matthew Baillie Begbie summoned in to settle the matter.

For anyone interested, here's a bit of a bio on Big John Kirkup.

https://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?topic=65794.0

Bio on Matthew Baillie Begbie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Baillie_Begbie

The last thing on Big John is that there used to be a local museum which was run by a one time teacher/miner turned politician/history buff Bill Barlee. Bill had collected all sorts of interesting BC historical artifacts in the '60's when it was considered old junk.

On display in Bill's museum was Big John's SAA Colt with a 5½" barrel - cannot recall if it was a .45 or .44-40 sorry - and his shot loaded cane which is what he used when in the crowded mining camps. He'd leave the SAA in the hotel and use the cane. In short order it got so he'd show up in a mining camp and leave a list of people h wanted to appear in court and for the most part they'd show up as asked, since the alternative was being "arrested" by Big John which usually meant being knocked out as well.

Folks might be shocked by some of our history up here as it wasn't all as prim and proper as too many believe.

Thanks for reading this far, all the best and good luck on your hunts.

Dwayne

PS;
Here's a Frederic Remington drawing of Kirkup from 1890 titled "Big Jack, The Mountain Sheriff"

[Linked Image from images.squarespace-cdn.com]

Last edited by BC30cal; 09/30/22.
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