Of Canada's 10 provinces, Saskatchewan is
our 9th. The only one left is Newfoundland, known as "Canada's
Ocean Playground" or "The Rock" I can't remember
which.
On Friday (August 24) we had a surprisingly
early lunch when we walked into a restaurant to discover that
Saskatchewan (being a mainly agricultural province) doesn't use
daylight savings time, and we were an earlier earlier than we
thought! |
In 1962 Saskatchewan became the first province
to enact universal, government medical care, paving the way for
the mess that now passes for health care in Canada.
Wheat is the main product of Saskatchewan,
more than 50% of Canada's wheat crop comes from here; the sight
of golden fields stretching off into the distance punctuated
by huge grain elevators is common on the drive across the southern
part of the province. |
The first campground we stayed at had a collection
of antique agricultural equipment from the early days of mechanization.
The original settlers harvested grain manually, cutting stalks
with scythes or sickles under the punishing prairie sun and separating
the wheat from the chaff by hand until the first mechanical reapers
and threshers were invented. Now wheat is harvested and separated
in one operation - from the air-conditioned cab of a combine
harvester. |
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George Washington was know to have experimented
with automated threshing on his farm. He built a round barn and
stacked wheat in it. Then the workers would take special trained
horses and have them run on the wheat in circles in the barn.
The wheat that was dislodged by the horses
hooves would drop to a storage area below the floor. |
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Our second stop in Saskatchewan was west of
Regina in Moose Jaw, home of "Mac" the world's largest
Moose.
We took a trolley tour of Moose Jaw's murals
and also visited the Saskatchewan Burrowing Owl Centre. |
Moose Jaw is reputed to have been home to
Al Capone during American prohibition, and quite an exciting
town during the 1920s. |
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A short drive back to Regina and our visit
to the Legislature and the RCMP museum and training center.
Of interest to tea lovers is the fact that
the cornerstone of the Saskatchewan legislature was laid in 1909
by His Excellency Earl Grey, Governor General of Canada. |
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Before leaving for Alberta we stopped in the
Cypress Hills area, home of the first North West Mounted Police
detachment in the territories. In the 1870s Manitoba, Saskatchewan
and Alberta were still part of the Northwest Territories. |
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Fort Walsh was established here in response
to problems with the whiskey trade and to deal the presence of
Sitting Bull and his band of 5,000 who had come to Canada as
refugees after the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Reports of lawlessness, the whiskey and gun
trade and the flying of an American flag in Canadian territory
hastened the organization of the North West Mounted Police. |
There were no longer enough bison to hunt
and the Canadian government refused to provide for the American
Indians. In addition the US was possibly embarrassed that 5,000
of its residents were refugees in a foreign country and wanted
the Sioux to return.
Negotiations with Sitting Bull took place
at Fort Walsh, and he and his followers did eventually return
to the US. |
Both at the RCMP Museum in Regina and at Fort
Walsh we heard how problems had started at a location known as
"Fort Whoop Up." We plan on visiting it when we hit
Lethbridge, our next stop. |
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