After the days of the gold rush, the Whoop Up Trail became the most important trade route from Fort Benton. Begun during the whiskey trade, it developed into the major supply route to Alberta and much of Saskatchewan. Whiskey traders carried their wares north and returned with buffalo robes for transport downriver by steamboat. From 1869-1883, most supplies came upriver to Fort Benton by boat. Fort Benton merchants held most of the Canadian contracts, annuities, and even the Mounted Police payroll. The Whoop Up Trail ran up the Teton River by the Knees via Baking Power Flats, then to Shelby and across the border to Fort Macleod and Lethbridge. Eventually, the route included Calgary and Edmonton until the railroad reached Calgary in 1883.