Griswold, Manitoba

1,283 miles

Jan 31 – Griswold is now just “an unincorporated place”. 

This church building is remarkable.  According to the Manitoba “Explore Our Heritage” website: “Between 1890 and 1910, more than 200 Methodist and Presbyterian churches were built in Manitoba. While most were small, wood-frame buildings, some larger church communities were able to build more elaborate churches of brick or stone. Occasionally, a small congregation might undertake such an ambitious project.

“In 1896, local stonemason Henry Winter was commissioned to build the Presbyterian church. His design, with its rugged stonework, pointed Gothic-style windows, and restrained woodwork, recalls the small parish churches of Scotland and England. In Manitoba, Griswold United is one of the fullest expressions of that tradition.”

Present Owner: The United Church of Canada

image & info:  http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/prov/p045.html

Oak Lake, Manitoba

bur oak savannah

1,270 miles

Jan 30 – During the late 19th century, the area around Oak Lake was a popular stopping point for fur traders and settlers because of the big oak trees around the lake whose strong wood could be used to repair their wagons.

loopy Assiniboine River

The Assiniboine River near Oak Lake is the quirkiest river I’ve ever seen on a map.  It wanders and squiggles through the land, and is surrounded by countless curves where the river used to flow.  It is clear to see that the river has flooded and changed course often since the last Ice Age that formed this land.  In fact, I keep seeing the Ice Age glaciers scouring across Saskatchewan, leaving only mud, and dumping all of the rocks into hilly mounds in Manitoba.  This squiggly river with its phantom oxbows is amusing to me.

former blacksmith shop

Oak Lake experiences an extreme continental climate. The area is known for its long, cold winters, with a lot of snowfall.  Blizzards can drop more than 35 cm (~14 inches) of snow at once, which is blown into drifts that are much deeper. The community can be cut off for a day or more while snow is cleared from the highways.  But, apparently, not many people take photos of these spectacular snow scenes & post them.

Here is another fieldstone building that has survived a hundred years.  This one was a blacksmith shop.

oak savannah image:  http://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/where-we-work/manitoba/photo-galleries/tall-grass-prairie.html
blacksmith shop image:  http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/goldsborough_lg.shtml

Virden, Manitoba

 1,257 miles

Jan 29 – Virden began as a farming community known as Gopher Creek.   In 1882, it became a railway-builders’ tent town.  The next year the site of the railway structures, including a railway siding, a bridge, a small station, and a water tower, was named Virden, after the country estate of The Duke of Manchester, a major Canadian Pacific Railway shareholder.  Thanks to the brick and flour industries that were developed here, it grew into a town.  In 1951 oil was discovered, and Virden became known as the "Oil Capital of Manitoba".

Virden currently has a population of about 3,114.  It is a regional service center because of its location, and its commercial sector includes several restaurants, gas stations, body shops, a movie theatre, and a performing arts theatre.

Virden train station

In 1906, this picturesque design for a new train depot was created by R.B. Pratt, a notable station designer, first with the CPR and then for their rival, Canadian Northern. The Virden station was based on a standardized set of plans, used on several other Manitoba stations. The design was distinguished by its remarkable roof, an impressive and complicated composition with dormers and beak-like canopies. The Virden Station is the only one in Manitoba constructed of fieldstone.

Virden Collegiate Institute

The regional alternative high school is called Virden Collegiate Institute.  Its motto is: “Modeling respect, learning and responsibility to motivate students to become productive, caring citizens.”  The desperation of the motto is jarringly incongruous with the pretentiousness of the name.

station image & info:  http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/prov/p079.html

VCI image & info:  http://vci.flbsd.mb.ca/

Hargrave, Manitoba

flower garden

1,244 miles

Jan 28 – Hargrave is an “unincorporated settlement” which is part of a “rural municipality” district.  After seeing so many serious agriculture and utilitarian structures, I like this home with its neat decorative garden (just beyond the hedge).  I’m sure it looks quite different now in January.

1906 school with cairn marker

Just down the road is the former school building with a historical marker in the Manitoba cairn style (pile of stones) that I’m starting to see a lot.  The school building is now used as a community center.

images: Google Street Views

school info:  http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/hargraveschool.shtml

Kirkella, Manitoba

charming old church

1,231 miles  (415 US miles + 1,251 Canadian km)

Jan 27 – Today I got my first views of Manitoba.  I’m really eager for a change of scenery, although in reality this area is cold and windy in the winter and has frequent blizzards. I’m expecting to see some evidence of the sport of curling, since it’s said to be especially popular here.  I find it more interesting than fast-paced & violent hockey because it rewards forethought & accuracy.

Kirkella is a bleak little hamlet with a charming name and this little old church near the highway. 

January road conditions

Here’s an image from the Canadian Automobile Association road cameras to show actual road conditions in January.

church image:  Manitoba Historical Society, www.mhs.mb.ca

road image: Canadian Automobile Association, www.caamanitoba.com

One Negro Family in 1870 Pawlet, Vermont

Jan 27 – In Pawlet, Hattie’s hometown, I did find one black family.  In the 1870 Federal Census, Hollis and Ursula Putnam lived with 7 of their 8 children.  Their 16-year-old son, also named Hollis, worked as a servant on a nearby farm.  Three of the children had attended school that year.

1870 Federal Census entries, Pawlet, Vermont

Would Hattie’s family have known the Putnams or seen them in town in 1867 or earlier?  In 1870 this family lived near Pawlet, but not near the Blakelys.  

The parents and all of the Putnam children were said to have been born in Vermont.  However, I cannot find any evidence of them in the 1860 Federal Census, nor in 1880.  Not in Vermont, not anywhere.  No birth or death records, no marked graves.   Where were they earlier?  Where did they go?  Did they change their names?  Negroes in 1867 Vermont remain elusive.

Moosomin, Saskatchewan

hoarfrost on church tree

1,218 miles

Jan 26 – As I “drove” around Moosomin using Google Street Views, all I could see were newer homes built at ground level and 3 or 4 stone buildings from a century past.  The only businesses that caught my attention were a septic tank cleaning service and a flood damage cleanup service.  I wondered whether there had been a recent natural disaster here.  And then I found the images.  A 2014 flood inundated the town and broke much of the water-related infrastructure.  Yes, the town has been repaired and scrubbed clean since then.  I’m still puzzled by the ground-level foundations when building in a flood plain.

Metis people with Red River oxcart

The first path between Moosomin and Fort Ellice, Manitoba, was an Indian trail.  It was used by fur traders, and then by Métis settlers transporting household goods on Red River oxcarts (two-wheeled carts that used no metal hardware).   According to the Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North America, “This cart is the best-known symbol of Métis culture. It is a symbol of the ingenuity, their nomadic way of life, and their trade skills that contributed in the development of the Prairies economy.” 

The transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway was built parallel to this trail in the late 19th century.  Before the Trans-Canada Highway was built in the 1940s, Provincial Highways followed the township road allowances, barbed wire fencing and rail lines.  Because of this, the first highway was designed on 90-degree right angle corners like the surveyed township roads.  Two-horse, then eight-horse, scrapers maintained these early dirt roads.  Now the Trans-Canada Highway sweeps through the landscape like a prairie wind.

cart image: Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North America:  http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/article-59/Red_River_Cart.html

Jan 26 - School Attendance in 1870 Rutland

1870 Federal Census
Rutland, Vermont

After further examination of the 1870 Federal Census for Rutland, Vermont, I’ve discovered that school attendance was not as common and universal as I had thought.  While there were a handful of 4- and 5-year-olds in school, and 18% of 8-year-olds, the great majority of children did not start school until age 10.  By age 10, 81% of children had attended some school within the past year.  At age 15, 71% were still in school, even if they also worked as apprentices or servants.  By age 16, only 41% had attended any school within the past year.  Some of them lived and worked at home, many were servants and apprentices living with their employers. 

These figures show that what school meant in the lives of children and families was different from what it means today.  Attending school meant sitting quietly, being obedient, listening, and doing tedious written work.  Clearly, parents did not expect their younger children to be able to do this or to benefit from that experience.  Children spent a lot of time playing together and doing chores at home.

A lot of the school teachers listed in this census were 19-year-old young women who had attended school themselves in the past year.  This allowed them to stay in the school environment and begin to earn a living, but it usually meant that they were only qualified to teach at an elementary level.  Probably many teenagers left school because they did not think that school offered much more for them to learn.

Two portions of the population of Rutland stood out in illiteracy and low school attendance: Irish & Canadian immigrants.  A high proportion of adults in these groups could not read or write, and they were less likely to send their children to school or keep them in school beyond the elementary level.  Both of these groups may have had extra disadvantages in not knowing English.  And the parents may have believed that literacy and education were not necessary to a decent life for their children.

Between the ages of 9 and 15, there were 4 Negro children in school, and 3 who were not.  For the most part, these were not immigrant children, so they should be compared to other native Vermont children.  Although their school attendance rate is not proportional to the white population, with such a small sample it is difficult to determine how significant a difference this is. 

I need to do a little more research into the pre-Civil War history of black Vermonters to understand their background better.

Red Jacket, Saskatchewan

wind turbine & rock piles

1,205 miles

Jan 25 – Here is evidence of the strength of the western prairie winds next to the rocks in the local terrain.

My image search showed too many crimson windbreakers, so I searched Google Street Views.

image: Google Street Views

Stand & Explore

I realize how much I’ve been influenced by the lyrics of the R.E.M. song “Stand”.  And this project, in particular, is bringing a lot of it together.

“Stand in the place where you live …

Think about direction, wonder why you haven't before.”

I’ve lived in a lot of different places, and I’ve learned to put down some kind of roots to genuinely be where I find myself, rather than constantly longing to be somewhere else.

“Think about the place where you live

Wonder why you haven't before”

This is also reminding me to “Think Globally, Act Locally”.  I do think globally and keep a broad perspective.  And it relates to my place in time, as well.  My sense of time is very fluid, and I think in terms of many time periods of history.  I feel that I could be at home in many different times and places that I have learned about.  I’ve developed a personal philosophy that can take me many places and relate to the people I discover there.    The repeated “Stand” in the song keeps bringing me back to earth, like a meditation mantra.

“Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around”

Living in my current home allows me comfort, companionship, and familiar resources.  The historical research I’m doing allows me to live mentally in 1867 Rutland.  Virtual travel enables me to explore the world and return home to comfort and familiarity every night.

“No matter where you go, there you are.” – Confucius

I’m not eager to go travelling the world physically.  I’d love to explore the world through time travel, but that would involve a lot more discomfort and risk, and it must remain a fantasy.  I explore through historical research and mental stretching.  I am enjoying virtual travel in the world, too, in very specific local spots on the map.  So, instead of using my feet to move me around, I use my head.

In my case, my head is always moving me around, so I need to keep reminding myself to keep my feet on the ground.

“Stand in the place where you are (now face North)
Stand in the place where you are (now face West)
Your feet are going to be on the ground (stand in the place where you are)
Your head is there to move you around, so stand (stand in the place where you are)

Stand.”

graphic: unknown origin

Wapella, Saskatchewan

1,192 miles

straw barns

Jan 24 – Some of the earliest settlers around Wapella were Russian Jews, followed by groups of Germans, Ukrainians, Doukhobors (a sect of Russian Christians), Russians and Hungarians.

Cyril E. Leonoff describes this particular pioneer experience well in these excerpts from his article Wapella Farm Settlement: The First Successful Jewish Farm Settlement in Canada (1970)

Difficulties on the Canadian Prairies

The propaganda reaching the prospective immigrants invariably failed to spell out the primitive and hostile conditions of the Canadian northwest of those days. These included: long and severe cold winters with snow storms and blizzards; a short, hot growing season; vast undeveloped spaces, lack of communication and consequent isolation; sparsity of almost all amenities; other hazards to farming such as frost, hail, drought, wind, rust, grasshoppers, and various vagaries of nature. In those early days there was a lack of technology and practical experience to cope with farming problems in a northern climate. As a result, many early homesteaders did not stay long on their farmlands.

Special Difficulties Faced by Jewish Farmers

All pioneers faced these problems. But the prospective Jewish farmers had additional handicaps. They came with virtually no farming experience; in Russia they had been prevented by law from owning land. Thus they had been forced into occupations of unskilled laborers, petty tradesmen, or small shopkeepers. A few had agricultural experience but this was generally limited to the job of overseer for an absentee landlord, a role hardly relevant to Canadian conditions. Other ethnic groups who came to Canada had been farmers all their lives. They had labored as peasants on other lands and now had the opportunity to work their own land.

Despite the almost insurmountable difficulties, this was one of the early farming efforts, which demonstrated on a small scale that Jews, given the opportunity and desire, could return to the land. Eventually a number became capable farmers. This same phenomenon on a greater scale has been confirmed by modern Jewish farmers in the State of Israel.

The Wapella settlement became the forerunner of some dozen Jewish farm settlements that were established later on the Canadian prairies. Wapella served as an excellent training ground for new immigrants and young Jewish men desiring to become farmers. Several each year hired out as farm workers to established Jewish farmers at Wapella, with a view to becoming independent farmers in other settlements. Second generation sons of Wapella Jewish farmers, some of whom graduated from the newly established Agricultural Colleges of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, became progressive modern-day farmers, and were employed to teach their skills to the new farmers of later settlements.

The only interesting image I found of modern-day Wapella is another stone church, this one with an interesting roof shape (inverted gambrel? bonnet roof?).

info:  http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/transactions/3/wapellajewishfarms.shtml

Jan 23 - resting on a slippery slope

Jan 23 – I have a busy day ahead of me, and I don’t see how I can spend an hour & 15 minutes on cycling today (set up, cycling, cool down, shower).  And I can’t afford to be exhausted before I even begin my day.  I’ve felt this way on other days, but I just did the cycling and I survived.  I’m still struggling with 13 miles every day, especially after my cold.  I feel weak & I ache in my hips as well as my cycling muscles.  Maybe I should ease back to 9 miles a day, or reduce my speed.  I don’t know what to do next.  But I’m not willing to ruin the rest of my day.  So I’m declaring a rest day.  In pro cycling, a “rest day” means a 2-hour session.  Ha!  That’s not my idea of resting!  I’m also wondering if an occasional “rest day” from cycling will allow me to spend more time on my historical research instead of virtual travel research.  But then there’s that slippery slope into excuses and stagnation.

And now I have to deal with the slippery slope of re-posting other people’s images.  Too many people do not credit the images they post, so I can’t either.  I don’t want to give credit to the person who simply took an image, but I can’t find the person who should get credit.  Something else to ponder.

Whitewood, Saskatchewan

1,179 miles

poplar grove

Jan 22 – The town of Whitewood was first established by the Canadian Pacific Railway as Whitewood Station, North West Territories, in 1883.  The name was derived from the white poplar trees, known for their white bark, which were plentiful in the area.

flags of immigrant nations

In the 1880s, Dr. Rudolph Meyer led a group of French Counts to the area of Whitewood to develop a community similar to some communities for nobility in Europe.  The area of Whitewood claims that during the late 19th century, there were more aristocrats here than anywhere else in North America.  The Merchant's Bank Heritage Center celebrates the French Count history and displays the welcoming sign "The Most Romantic Settlement in the West."

Settlers from many lands came to the area and the multi-national character of the community is proclaimed by this flag display.  The first Finnish settlement in the west, New Finland, was located here, and Hungarians, Swedes, Germans, Poles, Russians, Czechs, English, Scottish and Irish, also made Whitewood their destination in the new world.  John Hawkes, a prominent writer of that period, said, "Whitewood was in the eighties (1880s) the most cosmopolitan point in the west. It came to be a saying that one should know eleven languages to do business in Whitewood." 

Hidden Village

In the year 2000, an outside mural was painted showing the town in 1890.  Town officials began to restore the old homes built by the French aristocrats and paint more outside murals in Whitewood.  There are about 869 town residents now.

In contrast, Old George’s Museum & Hidden Village seems to be a kind of ramshackle hillbilly village built to attract curiosity seekers.  Perhaps it offers a grungier – but just as quirky – glimpse into local history.

And here's a picture of a pretty A-frame church.  I like the shape of the roof and the door and the simple but pleasing windows.  Note that the sign is the same shape as the building.

info:  Wikipedia.com

Broadview, Saskatchewan

1,166 miles

The town of Broadview was established in 1882 as a Canadian Pacific Railway divisional point.  The town claims a “natural ice-skating and hockey rink”, but it seems that no one has ever taken a photo of it (and posted it online).  

As I was cruising the town in Google Street Views, this charming stone house caught my eye.  In fact, I’m realizing how many stone buildings I’ve been seeing since Regina and their complete absence all across the grassy Great Plains.  With no natural building materials except sod, I guess everything had to be imported, and that meant wood & metal.  And now I’m entering a new landscape.

Grenfell, Saskatchewan

1,153 miles

Jan 20 - The land around here is characterized by lush rolling grasslands, interspersed with poplar groves and open sloughs.   

The town of Grenfell itself has a population of 947, while outside of town are several First Nation reserves which include 1,340 people of the Sakimay, Shesheep, Little Bone, and Minoachuk.  Grenfell has a 14,700 ton concrete terminal as well as a large grain elevator located at the Canadian Pacific Railway line.

European settlement began in 1882, just before the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the site of this town.  The post office was established in 1883, and the town was named for Pasco du Pre Grenfell, a railway company official.  Initial settlers were from eastern Canada and the British Isles, followed shortly thereafter by Germans.  As in many other prairie towns, Chinese railworkers from the building of the CPR in the 1880s settled down and established local businesses.  As late as the 1960s there were two Chinese cafés on Main Street.

United Church of Canada

I was pleased to learn that several Protestant denominations in Canada (Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists) very sensibly combined to become the United Church of Canada in 1925.  Similar unifications happened in Vermont, but only locally, town by town, as fires destroyed wooden buildings and membership declined.  This pretty Methodist church building now houses the united congregation in Grenfell. 

info:  Wikipedia.com

Wolseley, Saskatchewan

Swinging Bridge across Fairy Lake

1,140 miles

Jan 19 – In the year 2000, Harrowsmith Country Life Magazine named Wolseley one of Canada's 10 prettiest communities.

The major feature of Wolseley is Fairly Lake, a pleasant little body of water right in the middle of town, created in 1902 when the Canadian Pacific Railway dammed Adair Creek.  A swinging footbridge built across the lake offers a fun way to enjoy the watery scenery and a mid-lake fountain.  This third version of Wolseley's swinging bridge was constructed in 2004 at a cost of $250,000. The original one in 1905 was built for $300.

The town of Wolseley consists of a population of 782.  It has a number of “heritage properties” such as the Provincial Court House building, constructed in 1893, which is the oldest surviving Court House building in the province. The Town Hall/Opera House, built in 1906 is a classic building and is used for all sorts of community events.  A 1904 Queen Anne revival-style home is now the Grenfell 'Adare' Museum. This is the same pattern I’ve been seeing in so many declining towns.  The grand old private properties are re-purposed as community gathering places and museums.  The sprawling property surrounding the former mansion has been annexed by the neighboring town of Grenfell.  I wonder how much territorial bitterness was involved.

image & info:  http://www.virtualsk.com/current_issue/wolseley.html

Sintaluta, Saskatchewan

1,127 miles

Jan 18 – The name Sintaluta comes from a Lakota language word meaning “tail of the red fox”. 

Sintaluta is the location of the First Nation Reserve for the “Carry the Kettle” band of Nakoda Sioux, although the band is trying to recover their original land in the Cypress Hills farther west near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.

Carry the Kettle owns and operates a “gas bar” (gas station) and convenience store with this charming “food court”.  The manager is a local CTK band member who employs 4 full-time workers and hires students throughout the year.

Historical Museum

The town was founded in 1907.  Sintaluta was the home of the man who founded the modern-day cooperative United Grain Growers Association, with other prominent local residents. The first editor of the Grain Growers Guide (now The Country Guide) was also from Sintaluta.  A small museum in town displays these stories.

food court image:  https://ctkfirstnation.ca/community/photo-gallery/

museum image:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimsawthat/

Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan

 1,114 miles (7 miles, recovery day)

This is my northernmost stop (50.54° N latitude).  Soon I begin to veer southward.

E. Pauline Johnson
c. 1895

Jan 17 – The Canadian Pacific Railway arrived here and the post office was founded in 1882.  The place was originally called Troy, possibly named after Troy, Ontario.  The name "Qu'Appelle" was a corruption of “qui appellee”, French for "Who calls?".  This refers to a once-popular legend of the Qu'Appelle Valley written by E. Pauline Johnson, an acclaimed Mohawk-English-Canadian poet in the later 1800s.  Original settlers hung onto the old name of "Troy" well into the 20th century.

In its early years, Qu'Appelle was expected to become the major city of the North-West Territories by both the federal government and the Church of England in Canada.  It was under serious consideration by the federal government to be the administrative headquarters for the District of Assiniboia, which corresponded to the southern portion of the present day province of Saskatchewan, and territorial headquarters of the North-West Territories.  Regina was chosen instead.

A former church that has become a private home

Qu'Appelle has declined, and there are no longer any retail outlets, service stations, banks, barbers or beauty parlors, or a post office in the town.  A succession of fires from the 1950s through the 2000s comprehensively removed wooden historic commercial buildings from Main Street, and it is now almost entirely lined with vacant lots and abandoned buildings.  The town council for a time advertised lots for sale at one dollar as a means of attracting new residents, which brought several mobile homes into town.

Qu’Appelle has become a bedroom community for commuters to Regina.  According to the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, "about 80% to 90% of the town’s workforce drives to and from the city each day".

 info: Wikipedia.com

McLean crossroad

1,107 miles  (6 miles, recovery day)

Jan 16 - This picture of a railroad crossing near the highway shows the local marshy grassland and represents the ever-present influence of trains passing through. 

McLean was also known as a small game paradise for hunters, boasting the best partridge hunting grounds in the Saskatchewan.   Prairie chicken, pheasants, mallard ducks, rabbits and white-tail deer were also plentiful, up until the more agricultural 1920s. 

Jan 16 - planning dilemma

Jan 16 – I have a dilemma.  My body is not ready yet to resume riding 13 miles at a time, but I’ve already planned out my stopovers in 13-mile increments as far as the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border. 

I’ve researched the places, I’ve collected the images, I’ve thought about my reactions and what I can say about them.  I feel like I’m almost there. 

My muscles feel weak, I’m still coughing, and my breath is still not strong enough for sustained riding.  According to what my body is ready to do, I think I should cycle 9 miles today, then 11 tomorrow, then resume 13 miles the next day, then work to increase my speed until I can do the 42 rpm that I had been doing.  But that would take me away from the stopovers I had planned, and I’m just not willing to throw them away and find out about others. 

So for this part of the journey, instead of planning the virtual travel according to the exercise I can do, I’m going to let the virtual travel control the exercise routine.

 

I’ll cycle another 6-mile day today, 7 miles tomorrow, but put effort into increasing my speed.