The name of Dr. John Rae will always be remembered for his discovery in the Arctic of the first oral accounts and the first tangible evidence of the fate of the missing Franklin expedition, for his reputation as an incomparable walker, on snow shoes or on foot, and for his explorations of Melville Peninsula, Committee Bay, Pelly Bay and the southern and eastern coasts of Victoria Island. Less well known, however, is his impressive journey across what would later be Canada in 1864 for the purpose of surveying a telegraph line from St. Paul, Minnesota north to Fort Garry and west to the Pacific.