Grand Rapids is located at the point where the Saskatchewan River meets Lake Winnipeg. These rapids, or the portage around them, were part of a vital supply-chain in the
region, one which linked the Red River Settlement to the Saskatchewan River.1 At one time, the Colville, a round-bottomed steamer, carried freight from Lower Fort Garry to Grand Rapids and, in 1877, a light tramway was completed at Grand Rapids in order to carry goods over the portage.2
1. Harold A. Innis, Fur Trade in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001), 343.