The birth of the Mounties.

Fort Battleford is a reproduction of the fort at the centre of the Metis conflict in 1885, when the half breed settlers were evicted from their prime lands on the banks of the rivers of the area, in favour of new settlers. The government of the day sent militia forces to the area, who because of misunderstandings with the Indians, tensions erupted into battles with them also. As a result 8 Indians were hanged at the fort for sedition, followed by the hanging of Louis Riel, the Metis leader, in Regina.

After the uprising the militia became the Royal North West Mounted Police, which eventually became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police today. They were responsible for keeping the Indians on the reservations and making them comply with the treaties, as well as protecting the settlers.

Earlier we had visited another Heritage Village, which showed us life in a village of 1920's Saskatchewan. We were able to see the workings of a grain elevator, which takes grain into a pit from a farm wagon, weighs and sorts it according to grade, and lifts it into one of maybe 20 bins before despensing it into railway wagons.  

There are thousands of these still operating here, but they are fast being displaced by the more modern metal bins, with more modern machinery. We also saw huge trains transporting the grain across the prairie, much going for export across the world.

We met this cute little guy here, they call them ground squirrels, but because they burrow under buildings they are not popular. This one was just about to burrow under the boardwalk.

As we travelled west towards our bed for the night we came across many installations like this one, oil wells. This part of Saskatchewan has hundreds, at least one on every farm. Unfortunately with the drop in oil prices the yield has dropped by 90% in the past few years. It will come back I am sure.

We came across this bison horn chair in the farm, at least eight bison died to make this! But it is lovely, and looks very comfortable.

A Gatling gun used in the Indian Wars

A horse drawn hearse

A pioneer Ukrainian home.

The Post Office and Telephone Exchange.

A coal fired oven which also heated water for the house

Old time Saskatchewan

A SOD dwelling which the first settlers built.

Its been a good couple of days in Saskatoon, the weather has been generally favourable, and we have been to a couple of interesting places. Firstly we visited an Indian reservation, well we are not strictly allowed to call them Indians now, its" Indigenous peoples". There we learned how they lived before the Europeans came here, and how they live now.

Originally they lived in Tipis most of the year as they travelled, migrating north with the bison during the summer, and south in the winter. Although we tend to call these animals buffalo strictly speaking there are none here, they inhabit Asia. So Bison and buffalo are one and the same animal here.






















We were entertained to a dance routine by a native indigenous person, (herinafter called Indian!), who did a dance he made up on the spot to drums and a continuous wail from Indian ladies,(well a recording of anyway).







He was good, and afterwards got all the kids up to learn the dance style and dance with him. We left at that point!





But today we have been to the 1910 Boomtown Museum, and that has been excellent, keeping us amused for more than four hours.

The museum contains the longest indoor street scene in the world, and certainly some of the finest exhibits and presentation we have seen, covering the Saskatchewan scene from pre-european times almost to the present day. Boomtown itself however is a streetscene from 1910 or thereabouts, covering buildings such as a livery stables and blacksmiths, dentist and doctors offices, RCMP offices, a school, as well as numerous stores. We even found a branch of J. Balchin & Son, (well similar) a general store that included a post office. ( See far corner).

Another exhibit in the museum shows how the settlers first came to Saskatchewan in the late1800's, they were granted around 160 acres of land, and had to cultivate 30 acres and make some kind of a home in the first 12 months or they were evicted. Many didn't make it. Most who did built sod houses as above, which were warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Unfortunately when it rained it became very damp. There were few forests in the south of the province, however, further north, where the weather was not so good for farming, there was plenty, and some settlers.did import timber for building and heating.

Meantime the local natives were resettled in reserves, and given a small stipend and one acre of land and taught subsistence farming. In this diorama it is autumn and their crops are being harvested.

Another gallery had a display of vehicles as good as any I have seen, this restored Indian motorcycle could do 0-60 in 30 seconds! There were some very early American cars, some steam, even some electric from the twenties, up to many from the 50's and 60's. An excellent collection.

In addition a couple of railway engines were shown in the back of the main hall, the railway came to Saskatchewan in the 1890's, and were instrumental in opening up the prairies for farming.
Yet another hall had a display of early farm machinery, horse drawn implements, steam engines, and early tractors. By the 20th century some farms had grown very large, and required large machinery to manage them, we saw some of the largest and most peculiar  tractors we had ever seen, but they still only generated between 30 and 60 horsepower.

The farm implement hall.

A giant three wheeled tractor.

Anne tackles the horns of a bison.

Two locals play checkers in the general store.

The mounties office, and the jail......

....while his horse waits outside

A steam fire engine.

 The chemist shop.

A 1914 kerosene powered tractor.

A good day, well sort of.....

We've been travelling today through Duck Mountain Park, on an unmade road, which at times was rather slippy, from last night's downpour. But we've seen another bear, too quick for us again, he was into the woods before we could get the camera on. That's three now. And we have seen other interesting sights.

We caught sight of a moose cow and calf taking water at one of the lakes, just at the side of the road. This time we were quick enough to get a shot!

And then we saw a llama, or was it an alpaca, running down the road towards us. Not a usual sight in Canada, they certainly are not native here!

As we passed one of the small lakes we saw a beaver dam, they build these so that they can make the water deep enough for them to live in, in their lodges as below. Couldn't see anyone at home though, but we have seen beavers elsewhere.

Outside the parks we are still travelling through Manitoba farmland, vast fields of wheat, which is just starting to grow now. We spotted a  very old type silo, in the 30's there were 1000's of these, but nowadays they have been taken over by modern metal ones of which there seems to be millions in this province.

And we have also had something of a disaster; when we were booking in at our motel for the night we had a downpour, which included hailstones as big as a fifty pence piece. Our car has suffered quite a number of dints unfortunately, sufficient to cost us our excess of $500. There will be a lot of insurance claims in this area. The hail covered the ground like snow, and water was running down the road like a river, so much that all traffic had to stop because they could not see. Ce'st la vie.....

A family of Canadian Geese taking an outing.

One of the larger modern grain stores, with a rail siding running through.

Sometimes we have to grin and 'bear' it........

We've had a good day in Riding Mountain National Park, we've seen Bison, squirrels, deer, but most exciting of all, two bears.

One, a ginger one but still one of the black bear genus, was too quick for us, before we could get the camera to 'bear' he was gone into the woods. Later we saw him again, but far into the woods and just un-photographable. But we caught this one as he tried to escape to the woods, albeit a long way away.
We had been wanting to see a bear since we arrived in this country, so to see two......

There are very few bison left here now, in this park there are just 40 kept in a large drive through paddock, so large in fact that we could only snap this one, and he was lying in the long grass.
Before Europeans arrived the plains here teemed with millions of them, in the middle of the last century the population was down to 100, but has recovered to around 40,000 now.

On the way up here, on a road with very little traffic, we came up on a jam- the road was blocked by a house. It was being moved over a bridge, with maybe one inch clearance underneath it at one point. However when it got across the bridge he was travelling at 50 mph! There was no way past it, but fortunately it turned off after a few miles.
This is a very agricultural area, huge fields and multiple grain silos dot the plains. This is the bread basket of Canada, and a lot of the bigger silos are serviced by railways to carry the grain to market.

Looking down from the edge of the park we could see the fields for miles, not a brilliant picture but it may give you some idea.

Our little house in the forest.

A decorated 'Moose' in the village.

The house eventually turned off the road

This road is dead straight for miles, look for the dust from a car at least a mile down.

A stream in the Park.

There are wolves in the park too- these are stuffed or we wouldn't be so close to them!