In the mid 1870s, when Canada was not yet a decade old, the west was a vast expanse of prairie, and the main travel route across the central part of the North West Territory was the Carlton Trail.
Few remnants remain of that venerable route, which brought settlers and militia west.
In what is now central Saskatchewan, there was a stagecoach depot on the Carlton Trail known as the Humboldt Telegraph Station and Post, named after the famed German author, explorer and scientist Baron Alexander von Humboldt. Today, although the Carlton Trail and stage coaches and telegraphs are long gone, Humboldt remains, a vibrant community of 5,500 and growing. In 1903, the Roman Catholic Order of St. Benedict received colonization rights to about 50 townships in the Humboldt area. The monks came to the area from Minnesota, and were among the area's first settlers. It was the arrival of the railway in 1905 that spurred the young settlement.