Eastend Community Tourism Authority Inc

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Unlike most prairie towns that were formed in the late 1800's and early 1900's, Eastend did not get its name from being located along the rail line. The first record of people gathering on the eastern slopes of the Cypress Hills was no doubt those of First Nation descent. In the early 1870's a small group to white traders and Metis' scouts led the Hudson Bay Trading Company to establish a post on the eastern slopes of the Cypress Hills. That first and only winter, Issac Cowie, traded for 750 Plains Grizzly bear and 1500 elk hides. The Hudson Bay Co. only traded for one season, competition from whiskey selling independent traders and the tense situation between Assiniboine and Blackfoot made it unsafe for Cowie to remain. In the spring, Cowie decided to abandon the post. After Cowie left the post it was burned to the ground. In 1873 some 60 Metis' families settled in the coulee, then called Chapel Coulee, complete with a church and a visiting Roman Catholic priest on a regular circuit. In 1879 the NWMP established a post on the same site as the Hudson Bay Trading Post and part of the Metis' village. This was the most easterly detachment from the newly built Fort Walsh. The small detachment at the east end post was to watch over the ever growing number of Sioux who had fled from the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In 1887, the whiskey trading had been curtailed, the Riel Rebellion was over and Sitting Bull had returned home. ...

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