Edmonton's merchants, however, promoted an overland route, which appeared shorter on the map,[1] but proved to be arduous, treacherous, and took much longer to travel.
Attempting to bypass muskeg and without consulting the local Indigenous people, who may have helped him find a better route, Chalmers set out in September 1897.
[3] In the spring and summer of 1898 he and a road-cutting party cut 240 miles (390 km)[1] of what was expected to be a wagon trail out of the heavy bush.
The trail started at Pruden's Crossing on the Athabasca River near Fort Assiniboine then headed north to the shore of Lesser Slave Lake near what would become Kinuso.
[5] Alexander David Stewart, who was mayor of Hamilton 1894-1895, joined the gold rush and died of scurvy at the confluence of the Peel and Beaver rivers in March 1899.