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The Métis community of Red Deer Forks was located below the confluence of the Red Deer and South Saskatchewan rivers, at a site across the river from the Bull’s Forehead Hill. It was the first settlement in what is now the R. M. of Chesterfield, and was probably the site of the first church and cemetery. (In 1978, a team of local researchers discovered evidence of both the House Chapel and the Cemetery) It has been established that the first clergyman at the settlement was Father J. Lestanc. He was probably succeeded by Father de Corby, who in turn was followed by Father Hugonard. All were Oblate missionaries.

No one knows when the first Métis families established themselves at Red Deer Forks, however, there is conclusive evidence in report of the Palliser expedition to indicate the Métis avoided the area until at least 1860, having discovered from bitter experience that the First Nations there were more hostile and unpredictable than those in any other place. The Métis felt more secure at Red Deer Forks after the area came more fully under the control of the Plains Cree.

Logically, the earliest time for the establishment of the community would be after the disastrous smallpox epidemic of 1870 had decimated the Plains tribes. There is an account of two Métis traders, Frances Laframboise and James Milligan, who were in the area between 1872 and 1878. It is not clear, however, if the Hamlet of Red Deer Forks existed at that time.

Family evidence places a Métis community of 100 families in the area in the early 1870s, when Billie McKay, 16, was sent north from Cypress Hills with his father’s horse herd. The Edward McKay family moved to Cypress Hills from the Qu’Appelle area in 1869 or 1870, being settled in the Fort Walsh area before the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) were established there.

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