JUNK BOAT TRAVELS: Day 22 - Regina SK to Brandon MB

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Day 22 - Regina SK to Brandon MB

September 2017

It was a crisp sunny day as we headed downtown to get a look-see at Regina.

Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan.

Regina was previously the seat of government of the North-West Territories, of which the current provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta originally formed part, and of the District of Assiniboia. The site was previously called Wascana ("Buffalo Bones" in Cree), but was renamed to Regina (Latin for "Queen") in 1882 in honour of Queen Victoria. This decision was made by Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Louise, who was the wife of the Governor General of Canada, the Marquess of Lorne.

Unlike other planned cities in the Canadian West, on its treeless flat plain Regina has few topographical features other than the small spring run-off, Wascana Creek. Early planners took advantage of such opportunity by damming the creek to create a decorative lake to the south of the central business district with a dam a block and a half west of the later elaborate 840-foot (260 m) long Albert Street Bridge across the new lake.

Regina's importance was further secured when the new province of Saskatchewan designated the city its capital in 1906. Wascana Centre, created around the focal point of Wascana Lake, remains one of Regina's attractions and contains the Provincial Legislative Building as well as other buildings.

We met this guy yesterday, in Moose Jaw, Walter Scott.

Thomas Walter Scott – known less formally as Walter Scott – (October 27, 1867 – March 23, 1938).

Walter Scott was the first premier of Saskatchewan who chose Regina to serve as the province’s capital and oversaw the construction of the Legislative Building.

He also played a role in the creation of the University of Saskatchewan in 1907.

He promoted the formation of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company and established telephone service to farm families.

There is an equestrian statue of Queen Elizabeth II unveiled in 2005 at the renamed Queen Elizabeth II Gardens fronting the legislative building It was designed by Susan Velder.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Legislative Building and the 50th anniversary of Wascana Centre Authority in 2012, the gardens underwent a $1.3 Million upgrade which included new lighting, fully accessible paved pathways to highlight the floral beds, new Tyndall Stone benches, interpretive signage, improved irrigation and renewed perimeter landscaping.

A large boulder with a carved face was found on December 25, 1905 by Charles Noddings from the Beaver Hills area. The boulder was unlike any other he had ever seen. Believing the stone was ancient, Noddings donated the Beaver Hills Petroglyph to the Province of Saskatchewan. This was the stimulus for the creation of a provincial museum.

The Museum was formed in 1906 to "secure and preserve natural history specimens and objects of historical and ethnological interest." It was the first museum in Saskatchewan, and the first provincial museum in the three Prairie Provinces. That same year, $557.70 (approximately $10,000 today) was set aside for the purchase of "Natural History Specimens."

The outside of the building is covered in delightful bas-reliefs of local wildlife.
Carved from Tyndall stone, a fossil-laden stone from an area of Saskatchewan north of Diefenbaker Lake.

We decide that this drive is sooooo boring we will make stops along the highway,

Indian Head was planned but not the other stops!

There are several versions of how Indian Head got its memorable name. Some are more believable than others.

One version that sounds plausible comes from information at the Indian Head Museum and from Chief Albert Eashappie's account recorded in the Indian Head and District history book.

Many First Nations people were stricken by diseases like smallpox, which were introduced by fur traders who traveled through this area. Local First Nations people used the hills south of the current town site as their burial grounds, but many bodies were not buried at all, so great was the fear of contracting the disease.

Over the years the First Nations people came to call the burial ground the Many Skeletons Hills or Many Skulls Hills. The new settlers who came to the area referred to them as the Indian Head Hills.

When the Canadian Pacific Railway laid track through this area in 1882 the new settlement where the railway station was built needed a name. The townspeople wanted the name Indian Head Hills, and offered the First Nations people a camping ground near the town in exchange for the name.

Indian Head has one of the last remaining red hats from Esso gas stations across the country. Placed on Imperial Esso restaurants in 1970 for a cross-Canada “Voyageur” theme, it was known to travelers as a sign of fuel and good food. In 2009, the red hat was donated to Communities in Bloom and relocated to Indian Head where you’ll find it near the visitor centre as a gazebo.

In 1902 the Canadian Journal, published by James McAra, noted that Indian Head was the largest point of initial shipment of wheat in the world.

Saskatchewan once had over 3,000 wooden grain elevators. One by one, however, the structures have been disappearing from the skyline, victims of changing economic and transportation conditions.

These grain elevators dominated the prairie landscape for more than a century with every community having at least one. They were the first step in a grain trading process that moves the grain from producer to worldwide markets.

Wolseley

Incorporated in 1898, Wolseley takes its name from a British army colonel dispatched by Sir John A. Macdonald to quell the Red River Rebellion in 1870, according to Bill Barry, author of People Places – Saskatchewan and Its Names. And so he did, although his skill or good fortune ran dry when he led a contingent of Canadian militia up the Nile to try to rescue a group of African bureaucrats and British soldiers trapped at Khartoum during an uprising. The famous Nile Expedition arrived two days too late. Barry says Wolseley nonetheless went on to serve as commander in chief of the British Army from 1895 to 1900, when he retired.

This third version of Wolseley's swinging bridge – the view is from the north side looking south – was constructed in 2004 at a cost of $250,000. The first was built in 1905 for $300.

Grenfell was the result of the westward expansion of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the town is named after Pasco du P. Grenfell, an early shareholder of the railway company and a prominent railwayman. Initial settlement was 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.

The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) set up a divisional post in Broadview in 1885, Sergeant Bill, a goat from Broadview served as the mascot for the 5th Battalion, CEF, during World War I. The goat received a decoration, and after its passing resides now in the Broadview Museum,The Broadview railway station was designated a historic railway station in 1992.

Where Whitewood now stands was once grasslands, travelled only by nomadic First Nations people, white traders, trappers and buffalo hunters. Native plants and wildlife thrived in perfect balance. The people who followed the trails between the Valley of the Qu'Appelle and the Pipestone Creek left no more permanent marks on the landscape than the tracks of their Red River carts.

Before the settlement of the west, Whitewood began as a crossing of trails between the Qu'Appelle Valley to the north and the Moose Mountains to the south.

The gigantic Market Day mural located at the intersection of 3rd Ave. and Lalonde St. replicates an actual photograph of Whitewood from 1895. Even more amazing is that the mural was painted over a 3 week period entirely by untrained volunteers, under the guidance of Janet Blackstock, as a millenium project. This mural has drawn attention from right across the country and has been noted as being one of the best in the province.