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ORLOWIDE

JAR S,uaseH

ALBERTA'S Fort Whoop-Up was built by whisky-runners from Montana to exploit the buffalo-robe trade.

Contributing Writer
LETHBRIDGE,
Alberta: “Bad medi-
cine. Many ghosts.”
was how the Blackfoot
people described Fort
Whoop-Up.

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By Vern Huffman

Built by American whisky-
runners from Montana to
exploit the Guffalo robe trade
it grew to be the mos: praf-
itable commercial centre in
Western Canada by the carly
1870s

The murderous effects of
the booze business on the
native peoples and the grow-

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ing, intluence of Americans in
Canada’s Northwest
Territories eventually motivat-
ed Ottawa to start Colonel
James Macleod and the newly-
formed North West Mounted

Police on a uek of 1,400 hard -

kilometres across the prairies.

On the crisp autumn after-
noon of October 9, 1874, the
Mounties were positioned on
top of the sand bluffs of the
Oldman River above Fort
Whoop- Up. Below them, the
Stars and Suripes hung slack in
the quict air over the thick
bartlements.

Onc hundred metres
square, solidly constructed of
huge logs, the fort was pro-
tected by numerous narrow
rifie slits and a pair of big brass
cannons. It could accommo-
date a hundred armed ruffians,
who, according to Canadian
government reports, were
ready to defend the profits of
their heartless commerce to
the death.

Colonel Macleod carefully
deployed his troopers. He sent

‘out patrols to search for an

ambush, set up his tvo mortars
and two heavy guns, and had
the rest of his 140-man force
spread out in the vague resem-
blance ofan attack formation.
The Mounties were down |

This whisky packs wallop.

THE whisky sold by the American traders was not whisky at all.:

to half the number of the
untrained, untested, green-
horn force which had started ,. :
the adventure four months.’

* before. Sweltering during the -.

prairie summer in their war
surplus red serge uniforms, |

they had suffered dust storms;.

buffalo stampedes, hunger and
thirst. The survivors were now
a ragged crew, uniforms torn,
boots wor out, their horses
mostly dead or crippled.

A few wecks before,
Macleod, a middle-class lawyer
from Eastern Canada, had
been left in charge: by the, ©
unpopular original comman-
dex,
strict and demanding profes-
sional soldier, had despaired of
his charges and returned in
disgust to Manitoba, never to-
see the force again. [fit hadn’
been for the recently acquir
services of Jerry Potts, their ”
scour, interpreter, guide arid
teacher, the Northwest
Mounted Police might net...
have found the most notorious
fort inthe West. 2°

Jerry Potts was a Metis
plainsman — tough, taciturn,
capable. He had taken the: -
Mounties under his wing
when French left, and found.

\— See Fort page 31

It was a mixture of pure alcohol diluted with river water and
spiced up with whatever was available. Small amounts of burnt
sugar and oil of bourbon were sometimes added to give the
whisky colour and flavour. The fiery concoction, which was
traded by the cupful, was often referred to as Whoop-Up
Wallop, or Whoop-Up Bug Juice. : .

Olonel French. French, a