<P> By 1896, the government planned to pass policing responsibilities to the provincial authorities and ultimately close the force . With the discovery of gold in the Klondike, however, the force was redeployed to protect Canada's sovereignty over the region and to manage the influx of prospectors . The mounted police sent volunteers to fight in the Second Boer War, and in recognition were retitled the Royal North - West Mounted Police in 1904 . The plans for closure were abandoned in the face of opposition from regional politicians . Large numbers of the police volunteered for military service during the First World War, and the future of the badly depleted force was once again put in doubt . Towards the end of the war, however, fears grew about a potential Bolshevik conspiracy and the authorities tasked the mounted police to investigate the threat . In the aftermath of the violence of the Winnipeg General Strike, the government decided to amalgamate the force with the Dominion Police, to form the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920 . </P> <P> Many popular novels were published about the mounted police from 1885 onwards, and in the 20th century over 250 films were made, along with radio and television portrayals . The police were depicted as courageous, disciplined and chivalrous, displaying a sense of fair - play as they brought their suspects to justice . Historians, working from initially limited public records and chronicles, wrote similarly eulogistic accounts of the mounted police, but as new archives became available in the 1970s, more critical and analytic accounts of the force were produced . The force heavily influenced public perceptions of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which used the North - West Mounted Police's image and history to help make the modern police a popular Canadian national symbol . </P> <P> The North - West Mounted Police was created as a consequence of the expansion of the newly formed Dominion of Canada into the North - West Territories during the 1870s . The Dominion had been formed in 1867 by the confederation of the British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but the extensive lands to the north - west remained governed by the Hudson's Bay Company . The new Dominion government was keen to expand westwards, in part due to fears that the United States might annex the region . It agreed to purchase the company's lands in exchange for £ 300,000 and various grants of land, adding around 2,500,000 square miles (6,500,000 km) of territory to the Dominion in 1871 . </P> <P> The North - West Territories varied geographically from the extreme conditions of the far north, through to the edges of the Great Plains in the south, covered by flat, semi-arid grasslands . A rocky area known as the Shield, which was unsuitable for arable farming, had formed a natural barrier to European colonists gradually spreading across from the eastern colonies . As a result, the territories remained thinly populated, with only around 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and occasional small groups of Europeans, and more substantial communities of around 12,000 Métis settled in the Red River valley of Manitoba and a further 8,500 European settlers in the colony of British Columbia . Surveys referred to the territories as the "Wild North Land" and the "Great Lone Land". </P>

Where did the north west mounted police live