[4] In the 1930s, the Hudson's Bay Company leased 130,000 hectares (320,000 acres) from the Saskatchewan government in the Cumberland Marshes.

The channel was constructed as part of a greater project by the Hudson's Bay Company to control water levels in the marsh to increase wildlife, specifically the muskrat for the fur trade.

In 1960, with the fur trade no longer economically viable enough to justify the upkeep and the needed upgrades to the system, the Hudson's Bay Company gave Ducks Unlimited Canada a 15-year lease over the land.

The first thing Ducks Unlimited did was build a major control structure farther downstream on the Birch River, which greatly increased the stored water volume.

Ducks Unlimited then built a structure on Dragline Channel to regulate water flows.