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Paul Sharp's Whoop-Up Country is about the Whoop-Up Trail located between Fort Benton and Fort McLeod, in the Whoop-Up Country, which is from Montana up to Saskatchewan and Alberta, and east of the Colorado Rockies. Sharp talked of this trail and how it pertained to the traders of the Whoop-Up Country; how it was a trail of more than just trade, but how it was a trail of life for many people. This Whoop-Up Trail began as a way for whiskey traders to trade whiskey for furs from Indians; most of the time these furs would be buffalo furs and according to some whiskey traders would only be worth a few cups of whiskey which had been watered down. Eventually the Indians were getting tired of this unfair trade and began to cause more trouble than they had before. In order to control this extra trouble the Canadian government decided that they would create a special force that would deal with these troubles. This force was known as the Scarlet force, in other words: The Canadian Mounties. This Scarlet force then made its way across the Canadian plains almost losing their lives in the process. Sharp also talked of how many of the marshals were whiskey traders to begin with and they did not really deal with the Indians the way that the settlers wanted them to.

I think that it is funny that the Mounties were unable to find their way across the plains without the help of others at forts because the Indians had been doing it for hundreds of years with only themselves as guides. I also thought that it was interesting that Fort Benton became Chicago for the people of Canada; I am always interested in cities, or forts in this case, that become the epicenter of growth and expansion.