The Plains in the Middle

Trying to Get a Grip on the Prairies

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We are in the prairies now. It's flat, flat, flat, flat as far as the eye reaches, flat as far as the horizon, and as it's too early for any vegetation yet, the flatness is dusty, arid, yellow grey. There is a lot of sky above the flatness, but it's uniformly blue, feeble and pale just above the ground and deep blue higher up.But it's not an absolute and uniform flatness. It's broken by grain elevators, occasional homesteads, irrigation channels and lines of trees, probably purposefully planted hedges that provide shade and prevent erosion as it's unlikely natural trees would grow in lines. In fact, there are quite many trees, and the vast wheat fields stretching uniformly all around have ...Read More

We are in the prairies now. It's flat, flat, flat, flat as far as the eye reaches, flat as far as the horizon, and as it's too early for any vegetation yet, the flatness is dusty, arid, yellow grey. There is a lot of sky above the flatness, but it's uniformly blue, feeble and pale just above the ground and deep blue higher up.

But it's not an absolute and uniform flatness. It's broken by grain elevators, occasional homesteads, irrigation channels and lines of trees, probably purposefully planted hedges that provide shade and prevent erosion as it's unlikely natural trees would grow in lines. In fact, there are quite many trees, and the vast wheat fields stretching uniformly all around have not yet appeared: the fields are big, but not THAT big.

As we go on, and into Saskatchewan, it the landscape chages a bit: wilder, more western perhaps. Strangely compelling prairie landscape, the mesmerising flatness.

As we drive into Alberta, the grain elevators of Saskatchewan disappear and the small oil wells start to appear. The lettering on buildings becomes more wild-west and rodeos are advertised as farms change to ranches.

***

The whole of Canada is a study in the influence of natural environment over human culture, society and industry, and simultaneously, a study of human ingenuity and industry making its mark, working with and - dare I say - conquering nature.

Manitoba stretches from the frozen tundra of the Hudson Bay to the plain bordering the US along the 49th parallel. Winnipeg experiences the typical extremes of a continental climate, with the winter temperatures dropping below 40C and the summer ones raising above 30C. We are VERY far from any ocean and the tempering influences of large bodies of water.

We are also very far from everywhere that's anywhere and I suspect this distance is another, and possibly more defining feature of Winnipeg. For time immemorial a trading post and a meeting place at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, Winnipeg boomed when the rail road came and transformed it into the first significant city of the prairies and the gateway to the West. It still remains very far from everywhere, though: a six hour drive (or 10 hours on the train) to Saskatoon and 8 hours' drive to Thunder Bay, neither of which is exactly a cosmopolitan metropolis.

Winnipeg itself is actually pretty multicultural if not quite multi-racial, with a population originally attracted by the fertile plains to the west, drawn from all over Europe. Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Ukrainian and French mix with the "standard" North American British and German heritages to create a multi-lingual, multi-cultural community now celebrates those various backgrounds under an umbrella of a noticeable and resolute prairie-Canadian identity.

Winnipeg's vast distance from anywhere makes it self-sufficient in a cultural and social sense, with four universities, excellent theatres, music and art scenes. It's surprisingly its own place though it seemed to me to look a little bit more more to the west and Vancouver than to the east.
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I Liked Winnipeg

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View from the Forks Photo - Manitoba, Canada

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I liked Winnipeg. How much of it was to do with the fact that we had a rather good weather there, how much was to do with the fact that we stayed with really fantastic people, and how much with the fact that we stayed at the "posh" end of the city, in the Little Italy area around Corydon, is difficult to ascertain. Our impressions of places are undoubtedly heavily influenced by such subjective and circumstantial factors and one can't try to pretend it's not so or rationalise them away. But I still liked Winnipeg. The city, despite being spread out on this immense plain, was not entirely un-people friendly. The public transport was available and plentiful, and there were three free buses c...Read More

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Winnipeg Art Gallery

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Attraction | "Not Quite What We Went There to See"

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Winnipeg Art Gallery (from now on, the WAG) is the municipal art gallery of Manitoba's capital, housed in an uncompromisingly modern and starkly attractive building constructed from the local Tyndall stone. The gallery has a relatively small permanent exhibition, showcasing its collection of European Gothic and Early Renaissance paintings as well as some 19th century European works. These are probably quite important in Manitoba, or possibly even Canada or North America as a whole, but for an European visitor contain nothing particularly outstanding bar a couple of Cranach and Neufchatel works, and from later years the likes of Corot, Dufy and Chagall. The rest of the WAG's l...Read More

Winnipeg Art Gallery (from now on, the WAG) is the municipal art gallery of Manitoba's capital, housed in an uncompromisingly modern and starkly attractive building constructed from the local Tyndall stone.

The gallery has a relatively small permanent exhibition, showcasing its collection of European Gothic and Early Renaissance paintings as well as some 19th century European works. These are probably quite important in Manitoba, or possibly even Canada or North America as a whole, but for an European visitor contain nothing particularly outstanding bar a couple of Cranach and Neufchatel works, and from later years the likes of Corot, Dufy and Chagall.

The rest of the WAG's large collection is displayed in a series of rotating temporary exhibitions. The place is renowned (and showcased in the guidebooks, at least the one I had) as a museum with the largest collection of Inuit art in Canada (which probably means the world). However, during our visit in mid April (so not exactly in the middle of the Manitoba apparently terrifying winter) the total number of Inuit sculptures on display was around ten, plus minus two. What was visible was outstanding, which made the sad lack of any more works even more disappointing. We were either unlucky or uncatered for, or some combination of the two.

To sweeten this disappointment, we could entertain ourselves looking at children's artworks produced during the WAG's educational programme with young people or peruse large and prepared with obvious dedication exhibition on Warner Bros Cartoons. You can call me a snob, but I think some of this devoted effort and beautiful gallery space applied to showcasing Bugs Bunny and the Roadrunner (undoubtedly important parts of the pop culture) could have been diverted to making a weeny bit bigger show of the Inuit sculpture.

We also looked in vain for Henry Moore sculptures (I think I saw a couple in the stairwell but what I think was the sculpture garden on the outside terrace was empty) of which the WAG has a decent number.

Canadian art gallery was reasonably interesting, but not enough to be a saving grace and the whole experience felt like a serious disappointment.

I understand and even, on some level, applaud the idea of a city's main art gallery operating as a LOCALS' gallery, with a programme of changing exhibitions during which the wealth of various collections that the museum owns or has on loan can be displayed. I also understand that not-that-amazing works of European art from the medieval and renaissance periods are of more educational value and interest to people in Winnipeg than people in Rome, London or Paris, which to some extent warrants their prime place as the only pieces on permanent display.

But I also think that in this case the gallery should be free to visit, open to all (or at least all Winnipeg's or Manitoba residents) to enable them to visit frequently and benefit from changing exhibitions.

However, WAG charges entry fees of 8 CAD per adult (or 18 CAD per family), and more when special exhibitions are on (I think we paid 30 CAD in order to be able to see Bugs and Duffy cells and storyboards).

Charging admission fees (as well as many information materials we have seen) suggests that WAG aims to operate as a tourist attraction as much as a locals' gallery and if this is the case, then the permanent displays should include more of the Inuit works than we had a chance to see.

Tentatively recommended, but do check what's on before paying for the tickets. Read Less

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on June 9, 2010

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Assiniboine Park Zoo

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Attraction | "Northern animals galore"

The white bison Photo - Assiniboine Park Zoo, Winnipeg, Manitoba

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Winnipeg zoo is "officially" nothing to write home about, but we really liked it. In fact, we probably we had better experience (and certainly better value fro money) in the Winnipeg zoo than in the Toronto one, despite the latter having significantly more animals.Winnipeg zoo is located in the Assiniboine park, taking up about a third of it. Most of the animals hail from temperate climates, and thus deal well with the cold (and probably cope OK with the extremes of Winnipeg weather). The zoo is small enough to be comfortably explored on foot without exhausting the visitor and during the time of our visit (April weekday) it wasn't particularly busy so the animals were actually visibl...Read More

Winnipeg zoo is "officially" nothing to write home about, but we really liked it. In fact, we probably we had better experience (and certainly better value fro money) in the Winnipeg zoo than in the Toronto one, despite the latter having significantly more animals.

Winnipeg zoo is located in the Assiniboine park, taking up about a third of it. Most of the animals hail from temperate climates, and thus deal well with the cold (and probably cope OK with the extremes of Winnipeg weather). The zoo is small enough to be comfortably explored on foot without exhausting the visitor and during the time of our visit (April weekday) it wasn't particularly busy so the animals were actually visible and not hiding.

The variety of animals is not particularly great, but as I said before the beasts from colder areas are well represented and well exhibited. There is a particularly nice collection of big cats, including cougars, lynxes, Amur leopards, Snow leopards and Siberian tigers. There is also a great selection of hoved animals, with the Canadian staples of elk, bison, muskosk, caribou, all kinds of deer, llamas, camels and zebras, as well as brown bears and quite a few monkeys. As usual in smaller zoos there are also many birds and reptiles. The "iconic" zoo animals are not there - so it's not a zoo to go to if one expects and demands lions, giraffes and elephants - but then, would you really like to see lions living in Winnipeg's winters? And the Siberian tiger is by far a more beautiful and fascinating animal anyway.

The Winnipeg zoo also can boast white (or rather cream) Black Bears, known as spirit bears (this white coat is not albinism but a recessive trait present in about 10% of the population of the Kermode Bear sub-species) as well as an even more unusual white bison, a similar genetic rarity which apparently gets born only once in 15 million births. The one in Winnipeg is called Blizzard. Both of these pale coloured animals have a spiritual significance in the belief system of the Canadian First Nations.

The area taken by the zoo is walk-able within about three hours of a leisurely stroll broken by sit down coffee, a session in a one of the couple of attractive play parks, a pony ride or a picnic lunch. Or you can just have a quick run-around in about an hour and half. It would not exhaust a visitor even if one attempted to see everything. You can also hire strollers or wagons for toddlers or pre-schoolers to ride in (though frankly if the children don't even walk to

The entrance prices are very attractive. A family ticket costs 16 CAD (plus tax), individual adult tickets are around 4.50 CAD and child ones 2.50 CAD. This is fantastic value in comparison to larger zoo we visited in Canada where you would be looking to spending closer to 50 CAD.

I would not choose the Winnipeg Zoo if it was the only one I ever visited, or the only one I visited in Canada

Open daily 10am - 4pm, July and August 9am - 6pm. It's even open on Christmas Day for the afternoon! Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 9, 2010

Assiniboine Park Zoo
2355 Corydon Ave
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3P 0R5
+1 204 986 6921

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Western Development Museum

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Attraction | "Boomtown and More"

Boomtown 1910, Main Street Photo - Western Development Museum, Saskatoon, Canada

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Western Development Museum (WDM) is a collective name for several Saskatchewan museums devoted to the province's history, social history and heritage.We visited the Saskatoon branch during our stay in the city in April 2010. The Museum has three core parts inside as well as an outdoors area with a blacksmith shop and a clay bread oven. These were closed during our visit and we spend all of our time inside. The most advertised section and the one that's most likely to appeal to a wide variety of visitors is the Boomtown 1910. This is a vast reconstruction of a typical Saskatchewan Main Street from the early decades of the 20th century which depict the realities of da...Read More

Western Development Museum (WDM) is a collective name for several Saskatchewan museums devoted to the province's history, social history and heritage.

We visited the Saskatoon branch during our stay in the city in April 2010.

The Museum has three core parts inside as well as an outdoors area with a blacksmith shop and a clay bread oven. These were closed during our visit and we spend all of our time inside.

The most advertised section and the one that's most likely to appeal to a wide variety of visitors is the Boomtown 1910. This is a vast reconstruction of a typical Saskatchewan Main Street from the early decades of the 20th century which depict the realities of day to day life. There are shops, houses and traders' workshops, all not only re-created in the period style but also stuffed to the brim with authentic, antique objects, pieces of furniture and documents. There is a general store with everything from tools to fabric, there is a saddler's shop with hundreds of varieties of bridles and saddles, there is a pharmacist with all kinds of chemicals and remedies for humans and beasts, there is a Mountie station, dressmaker and even a functioning photo studio. The buildings and their interiors look like a cross between a film set and a real thing: it feels that they were meticulously reconstructed with love, devotion and a real attention to detail. Each building has not only the authentic feel and look, but also panels that give general information about the type of activities that might have been going on there as well as particular objects on display. The road is lined with period vehicles including horse carriages and early cars, and there is even a railway engine and carriages at the end of the street. All in all, the Boomtown 1910 is a great and very evocative exhibition, good for a quick stroll through but capable of feeding hours of research and a lot of knowledge about social history and material culture.

The second of the permanent exhibitions is the collection of vintage cars (and a few other vehicles) which will undoubtedly be interesting for petrol heads. The same section also has several rather spectacular steam tractors, magnificent in their dinosaur-like heavy glory.

The most informative and illuminating of the permanent exhibitions at the WDM is, however, the one entitled Winning the Prairie Gamble. It describes the history and day-to-day reality of the settlement in the Prairies using one real farm family's story over a 100 years. There are films, audio recordings, photos, maps and numerous information and interpretation panels. I found the exhibition to be excellent and the history it described fascinating. The settlement and the "breaking" of the Prairies is fundamental to the history and, one can argue, national identity of Canada as much as it was for the Americans. But there is little if any national mythology built on the lives of the Saskatchewan and Manitoba pioneers, even though they were not very different from the story of the US Mid-western ones. The Plains were probably the area that has been most significantly affected by human industry in the last hundred and fifty years: from the grassy steppe roamed by millions of bison and an occasional band of Plains' Indians, the Prairies have been turned into ("broken") into the great breadbasket of North America.

The fates of the native and Metis populations is well covered by the WDM exhibition and it's another sad chapter in the story of the colonists' mistreatment of the First Nations of this land. When the bison herds disappeared, the native peoples were encouraged to settle in reserves, and take up agriculture. However, when at least some of them became too successful at that (not least because of their skill and attitude to animals), a system of permits and passes was introduced, ostensibly designed to protect the native farmers from exploitation, but in reality set up to remove any threat from their competition. The natives were supposed to engage in subsistence farming, just enough for them to survive, but not to compete with the market produce of the whites. They were even forbidden to farm collectively!

This is just a small part of the story of the Prairies' Gamble and most of it concentrates on the European settlers in the area. The European settlers were given each a "quarter" of 160 acres, of which they had to "break" 30 in the first three years - back breaking labour indeed, with families living in sod houses and having to deal with -40C in the winter, with no roads and no provision in case of emergencies or disasters. From the first surveys of land to the dust bowl of the 30's (they had it too!), the story of the farming in Saskatchewan is presented in a compelling, interesting, informative and accessible way n this outstanding exhibition.

The whole WDM is pretty much a must-see for any visitor to Saskatoon interested in the history and heritage of the province but also creation of Canada as a whole. Children (even young ones) will find the Boomtown and the vehicle gallery interesting, while teenagers and adults should explore the Winning The Prairie Gamble exhibit.

Adult admission costs 8.50 CAD, a child aged 6 to 12 2 CAD, under 6 year olds are free. Family ticket is good value at 18.50 CAD.

Open 9:00 am to 5:00 pm daily.*
Closed Monday January - March

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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on June 9, 2010

Western Development Museum
2610 Lorne Avenue South
Saskatoon S7J 0S6
(306) 931-1910

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Wanuskewin Heritage Park

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Attraction | "Feel the Plains"

The Discovery trail Photo - Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Saskatoon, Canada

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Wanuskewin Heritage Park is an "interpretive centre" that presents, explores and educates about First Nations' (ie in this case indigenous Canadian) culture, history, and values.The park is located on the outskirts of Saskatoon, on the banks of South Saskatchewan River, in a valley location which has evidence of human habitation stretching back more than 6,000 years. Wanuskewin Heritage Park comprises a visitors' centre in an attractive purpose-erected building, inspired by a shape of traditional Plains' Indians' teepees, as well as over 200 acres of land on which winter and summer camp remains have been found and which now has walking trails, buildings, interpretative panels and original ...Read More

Wanuskewin Heritage Park is an "interpretive centre" that presents, explores and educates about First Nations' (ie in this case indigenous Canadian) culture, history, and values.

The park is located on the outskirts of Saskatoon, on the banks of South Saskatchewan River, in a valley location which has evidence of human habitation stretching back more than 6,000 years. Wanuskewin Heritage Park comprises a visitors' centre in an attractive purpose-erected building, inspired by a shape of traditional Plains' Indians' teepees, as well as over 200 acres of land on which winter and summer camp remains have been found and which now has walking trails, buildings, interpretative panels and original remains including one of less than 100 Medicine Wheels still n existence.

The walking trails tell the story of the land and the people who inhabited it: there are buffalo jumps, teepees, sites of the camps, buffalo rubbing stone and of course the medicine wheel.

The design of the Park reflects the importance of certain symbols and concepts in the indigenous culture. There is a repetition of circular patterns, and of number four (for four directions, four peoples, four seasons and four times of life), both revered in the Plains' Indians' lore. Cree are the most represented, and most of Wanuskewin's staff are Cree, though other nations also have some representation.

Inside the building, there are exhibition spaces that are used for temporary displays of various objects and art forms. When we visited, an exhibition of photographs of First Nations' Elders called Portraits of the North by Gerald Kuehl, was being shown: a beautiful and fascinating body of work accompanied by biographical information on the photographed people.

The guides at Wanuskewin take part in various presentations, including teepee building, story telling and traditional dancing. In the summer most of the activities are outdoors, but the display area inside the building is used in the colder months and worked well during our visit. The highlight was undoubtedly a dance performance by a traditional dancer in full warrior regalia weighing around 30kg. The dances were not only performed, but explained and interpreted to some degree at least (although a bit of mystique was maintained too, with the guides reluctant to discuss – or disclose – some aspects of the lore).

It's probably best to visit Wanuskewin after visiting the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon, or after gaining in some other way at least a basic knowledge of the settlement of the prairies by the white colonists and the catastrophic results it had for the way of life of the original inhabitants. The entire life of the Plains' First Nations revolved around the bison (buffalo), but when the Europeans came they pretty much exterminated the buffalo. A way of life and culture that evolved over thousands of years disappeared with a couple of generations: the buffalo were gone, the prairies were turned into fields and the original inhabitants had to adapt – and fast – to survive, all under the onslaught of cultural as well as political imperialism and in competition with the privileged European colonists.

Wanuskewin doesn't really tell the story of this catastrophic change, or at least not directly. Instead, it takes the visitor back to the time when buffalo still roamed the prairies and were hunted by the Cree warriors, when the rituals and customs were intimately connected to the realities of daily life. The Park's trails and the land around which remains uncultivated allow the visitors to gain a feeling, an idea for what all the prairies must have been like before the European colonisation.

Wanuskewin feels like a combination of a heritage visitors' attraction and a cultural centre for the people, a focus of their pride, somewhere for remembering the past but also reflecting on how the past and the tradition can be kept alive into the future. It's a thoughtfully designed and run place, and it feels good to be there and in particular to wander the land: the spirits that live at Wanuskewin are amiable and beneficent.

The cafe at Park has buffalo burgers, bannocks and the like (rather tasty) and outside there is a life-sized sculpture of the buffalo followed by a native hunter. To the back there is an extensive and well designed playpark which might entice younger children. All in all, there is a lot to do at Wanuskewin, and visitors young and old should find something of interest and educational value here. It's one of the prime tourist attractions in Saskatchewan and a fitting complement to the other excellent Saskatoon Museum, Western Development Museum. Read Less

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on November 17, 2010

Wanuskewin Heritage Park
RR #4, Penner Road
Saskatoon S7K 3J7
(306) 931-6767

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