Manitoba: Red Coat Trail - Family Vacation Fun Across the Prairies. 
Sharing threads of history on a family roadtrip can be rewarding for everyone. Parents get a refresher course and kids get bonus points with their teachers when they return to school. Everyone wins and has fun in the process. Any part of the famous Red Coat Trail makes an ideal family field trip.
We’ve gathered the highlights and provided a little background just in case your history is a little foggy.
Remember when? In July of 1874, a force of North-West Mounted Police began their journey west from Dufferin, Manitoba toward the junction of the Bow and Belly Rivers more than 800 miles away, in what is now southern Alberta. Their objective was to halt the lawlessness and create an environment conducive to westward expansion. Fort Whoop-up, notorious stronghold of the whisky traders, was their first target.
Today the Red Coat Trail is not a singular route but a thread of history connecting communities and more than 7,000 years of history. It transverses the southern regions of Canada's three Prairie Provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Following an imaginary red line it commemorates the North West Mounted Police and their historic march to the frontier.
Beginning in Manitoba from east to west, level plains of the Red River Valley meet the uplands and wandering channel of the Pembina River. Dominant then as now, the Turtle Mountains described by the adventurous explorer La Verendrye as "the blue jewel of the prairies.” The original Red Coat Trail begins in the south-central Pembina Valley Tourist Region and piggybacks the Boundary Commission Trail.
Going beyond the boundaries. The town of Emerson, a by product of Fort Dufferin, has an Information Centre that explains The Boundary Commission Trail, the North West Mounted Police, the arrival of the first Mennonite settlers. A larger-than-life statue of a policeman on horseback commemorates the founding of the NWMP in 1873. Fort Dufferin was the assembling point for the march west to what is now Fort McCleod in Alberta.
Keeping the peace. 
A lasting symbol of the long-standing peace between Canada and the United States, the International Peace Garden is memorable. The 2,339-acre botanical garden and park is located on the border of North Dakota and Manitoba. It provides walks for strolling, trails for hiking and a chapel for quiet contemplation. Japan’s gift to the park, Seven Peace Polls in which, “May Peace Prevail” is written in twenty-eight different languages.
Discovery: There’s a special Children’s Peace Marker, surrounded by daisies, which was dedicated on Saturday, September 9, 1950, by the Young Citizens League. (15 miles north of Dunseith on Highway 3 Dunseith, ND 58329. 1(701) 263-4390 or
www.peacegarden.com)
Seeing the big picture. Along the way Boissevain Outdoor Art Gallery features 24 giant outdoor murals that depict local history, from scenes of the first locomotive in Boissevain to the march of the NWMP. Over several summers, artists from all over Manitoba and Saskatchewan came to Boissevain to paint their murals; guided mural and garden tours are available for small and large groups.
Bonus points: There’s also a self-guided historical walking tour that features some of the distinctive heritage buildings in Boissevain. (Boissevain, MB R0K 0E0. Canada Tourism Office in Boissevain by phone at 1-800-497-2393 or
www.boissevain.ca)
Not to be missed. Though the dates and places change each year RCMP Musical Ride is really not-to-be-missed. Red serge and black horses! Representing tradition and ceremony through the horse and the scarlet uniform, the RCMP Musical Ride is a tribute to history and a salute to peace keeping. Each year The RCMP Musical Ride tours throughout Canada, the United States and other international venues, performing at approximately forty to fifty locations between the months of May and October. (
www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca)
Baker, William. The Mounted Police and Prairie Society 1873-1919. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1998.
Beahen, William and Stan Horrall. Red Coats on the Prairies: The North-West Mounted Police, 1886-1900. Regina: Centax Books, 1998.
