MANITOBA RIVERS
No story of the early settlement of Manitoba can be written without mention of the rivers. The Winnipeg, Red and Assiniboine were vital trade routes to the northwest. Naturally the settlers would follow the path of the fur trade. By way of the Winnipeg River, early settlers came from the east, by boat, to the beginning of a flourishing settlement at the fork of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, known as Winnipeg. As well as a main artery for trade and settlement, the Winnipeg River is the basis for all Manitoba's hydro-electric power.
Although the Winnipeg and Red Rivers played important roles in the opening of the west, it was the Assiniboine River that was more closely connected with the early settlers and future residents of the community of which we are writing. This river derived its name from the Assiniboine or Stony Sioux Indians. The word "Assiniboine" means "one who cooks by stones", referring to a method of cooking peculiar to the nomad Stone Indians who roamed this region. The Assiniboine flowing for 450 miles through Saskatchewan and Manitoba was the early highway bringing some settlers to Crandall. In the early days river steamers plied the Assiniboine between Winnipeg and Fort Ellice. One such steamer was the "Marquette" on which Mr. John Gunson, an early settler in Crandall, remembers coming.
Besides bringing early residents to this area, the valley was, in early times, a source of food, firewood and building material. At that time the valley abounded in buffalo, moose, deer, caribou and fowl. Buildings were made of elm logs and some are still standing today in the Palmerston district. The old Borland place has a log granary made of elm, also a house. Other log buildings still standing are on the Donald Douglas, William Nankivell and Bert Lawrence farms.

THE ARROW RIVER
The Arrow River winds through part of the district and empties into the Assiniboine to the south. In its valley, along the banks and in the water, the children, young people, and the not-so-young, found and still can, find recreation.
Here the children learned to swim in the many swimming holes along its course. In the winter, the hills are good for tobogganing and sometimes when the ice is clear of snow, the skating is good.
Exploring the valley on foot is rough going but worthwhile. Beaver dams are found in different places and in different periods. There was usually one above or below Mark's bridge, sometimes near Blairs, on Crawfords or Johnstons and Meyers. There are springs along the bank with an iron, oily look, but the water tastes good and below is the muskeg, which sinks ominously under you as you move quickly from one hummock to another. A cow was once lost in one of these muskegs.
Most of the lovely old bridges are gone and replaced by the more practical but certainly not beautiful steel culverts. One is still there south of T. Van Buskirk's. Each summer there is a colony of hundreds of Cliff Swallows that nest there. Some years the fishing is good if you know where to go. Trapping muskrats at times has been profitable and occasionally beaver are trapped when they become too plentiful.
This little valley has a beauty of its own in each season of the year. The roar of the spring break-up is followed by the first leafing of the trees and the profusion of white bloom. Later in the summer the saskatoons, chokecherries and cranberries ripen and then come the changing colours of fall and finally the snowy stillness of winter.

TRAILS
Very little is known today of the main trails that criss-crossed our community when it was in its early settlement. Bits and pieces of sunken trails show up still in the pastures and uncultivated areas. They stimulate the imagination and cause one to wonder where they led — were they Indian trails, or trails made by settlers as they traversed the countryside with oxen and horses?
There are not many left that can remember these early trails before the roads, as we know them, were built, but we are fortunate to have a few early residents of the area, Mrs. Angus Frame (Edna Warren), Winnipeg, Mrs. W. Lorimer (Frances Warren) and Mr. John Rudd, Vancouver, answer our request for information on trails.
The following is an excerpt from Mrs. Frames's letter:
"As to the trails, yes, together my sister, Frances, and I can remember many of them and we are having a lot of fun doing so. Prairie trails were still our roads well into the 1900's. I'll mention here that my father, Nixon Warren, became Councillor in 1906 and built several roads in his ward.
Something I'm not sure about is the Assiniboine River crossing in the early days. It was a wooden bridge, I recall, south of us and a man called McCrichey had some sort of a stopping place in the valley near the bridge. I remember my father talking about being there for a meal and to feed the horses when he hauled grain to Virden. That bridge is replaced now as of course you know, by the present steel structure, and is called "Sproat's Bridge" locally as opposed to another bridge further south on the river.
Further north there was a wooden bridge called "Mitchell's Bridge" named for the farmer on whose land it was built. It was just about straight west from the back of my Dad's homestead.
The road to Virden in early days led past the Tom and Billy Kidd farms then branched off to the west and ran past the Jack Good and Mr. Storey farms until it hit the "gravel" as it was called, a trail along the top of the river valley.
The trail to Hamiota from our home on NW 10-13-25 led east through meadows and across the ravine at the bottom of the little round hill and across the fields, around the pot holes on the old Robinson farm, then north east to Jim Lewis's farm and the Hazelwood farm and south of Chumah into Hamiota. You must understand when those trails were first made, they zigzagged to avoid those potholes or sloughs and so were rather unpredictable."
We now continue this story with an excerpt from a letter by Mr. John Rudd. "You were asking if I remembered any old trails. Well, the country was full of them at one time, mostly short ones. I think I can give you a couple of fairly long ones. I think the marks found in the pasture of the John Hyndman farm were part of the old Indian trail, running from the reserve at Hall's Bridge in the Assiniboine Valley north of Griswold, to the reserve in the valley west of Beulah. It ran through part of my old farm SW 27-13-25 and angled north west through the Pat Morison farm, north of Arrow River and on to Beulah. It was a well-beaten trail. I can remember in the early 1890's when there was an Indian Pow-wow or other celebrations, there would be strings of them going for hours at a time between the reserves.
The other trail I remember well ran from the old Carlingville school north east towards Arrowton school (Decker area), then toward Orrwold school and on to Shoal Lake. It ran south west from Carlingville school through part of the Mark farm, then part of the Lee farm, then through the Cox farm yard, and the Richard Rudd farm yard, then south west past Morisons. It went on south of Arrow River to the old Mitchell Bridge and winding up the valley hills and on to Virden. The settlers from around Carlingville and south hauled grain to Virden and the ones north to Shoal Lake. That was before Hamiota started. I think it would be hard to find any parts of these old trails now."
Mrs. Leonard Lipscomb tells of a trail that ran north west to south east just north of her parents home on NW 19-13-24. This may have been the trail between Carlingville and Logach Post Office.
Mr. and Mrs. Ed. Borland relate the following information supplied in part by Mrs. Eva Kennedy of Virden: "The first roads ran more of less from farm to farm, skirting the sloughs and oft times it was a problem to find a suitable place to cross the creeks. This was the case north of Crandall at what we now call Rockley's Hill. Here they went a mile east through the corner of the farm now owned by F. Preston, then through M. McLean's and then back through Section 25 to Arrowton School. The same thing happened south and west of Crandall. The trail went through the Morison farm and the Quadra hills enroute to Arrow River. From Carlingville there was another trail to Blaris which went northwest past J. Crawfords. J. Johnstons, R. Flemings and E. Torrances, on past Lucas Post Office (F. Campbell farm). We are not sure where it crossed these sections of land."
Nelson Henderson tells us that there were no trails on the road allowances in his area. One main trail running north east to south west went through David Henderson's farmyard and Dave Kerr's yard then angled west and south to Pope. This was a main trail for many years even after fences were built. There was another trail running east-west on the Ralph Henderson farm. Destination unknown.
We would like to note here that the trails passed through the farm yards or homesteads so the neighbours could help one another out by bringing mail and food articles and perhaps the neighbouring lady would stop off for a visit till the husband's return.
The closeness of farmsteads in the early days must have given the traveller some assurance of safety in winter during the years of the terrible blizzards that were prevalent in the area.