RCMP Celebrates 150 Years In 1973, to commemorate the 100 th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Wellings Mint produced 48 Sterling silver as well as 48 bronze medals . 2023 marks the 150 th anniversary of the RCMP so I’d like to share four of the medals that helped define the early days of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in the 1870s and 1880s. The NWMP was founded in 1873 by an Act of the Canadian Parliamen t shortly after American hunters and wolfers from Montana murdered sleeping First Nations Assiniboines. The purpose of the mounted armed force was to bring law and order to western Canada. In the summer of 1874, a force of several hundred Mounties rode west from the new province of Manitoba. They rode just north of the Canada-U.S. border on what is now called the Red Coat Trail, named after the colour of the coats that the Mounties wore. They were accompanied by a large contingent of Red River carts that carried their provisio...