Travellers and settlers wishing to reach the Red River region in the 1870's could choose three modes of transportation: the first was overland along the Dawson Road from Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods; the second was by steamer from Sarnia to Duluth, thence to Moorehead, Minnesota, on the Red River by train, and finally to Manitoba by steamboat; the third route, after 1878, was by train directly to the St. Boniface terminus on the east side of the Red River, across from Winnipeg. It was only in the 1880s that an all-Canadian route by railway was completed and opened to passenger traffic. The steamer Dakota carried passengers from the Moorehead landing to Fort Garry. This photograph (c. 1872-74) shows how passengers and their baggage could be loaded either on board or in a barge towed behind the boat. Thousands of settlers made their way into the Manitoba settlements this way.
