In the late 19th century the government of the still?young province of Manitoba found itself in a bit of a quandary: immigrants were flooding into the Parkland area, and some were leaving again, dissatisfied with the lack of good roads and railway connections. Until 1903, the closest railway terminus to Dauphin was nearly 100 km to the southwest at Russell. Construction of the Dauphin?Russell Colonization Road—the Russell Trail as it would come to be known—began in 1891 as a means of providing access from the Dauphin area, which already boasted a population of some 1,200 settlers, to goods, markets and more immigrants via the railway at Russell. One mile of the old trail has been redeveloped for recreational use.