"Manitoba, One of Canada's 3 Prairie Provinces" - Time Out #123

This travel installment is definitely about ADVENTURE, which as you probably have learned over your humble scribe's writings for the last 2 1/2 years, is a common happening in our lives. Just how I have been able to convince my bride, Debbie, to do many of these outings is possibly the 8th modern wonder of the world?

This particular jaunt once again took us to our northern neighbor, Canada, and more specifically the prairie province of Manitoba. Manitoba is the eastern most of the 3 so-called "prairie provinces", the other 2 provinces, west to east geographically, being Alberta and Saskatchewan. This trio comprises western Canada, except for the far western province of beautiful British Columbia.

Now, don't you feel better having your brief Canadian geography lesson for this week, eh?

This week-long trip involved riding in commercially scheduled jets to fly my bride and me from Oklahoma City to Manitoba's capital city of Winnipeg. Winnipeg is located in the southeastern part of the huge Manitoba province, only 68 miles north of their border with our U.S. of A. It's current population is 663,000 folks. We landed in their nice international airport, 5 miles northwest of downtown, and rented our automobile on site since we would be using it extensively the next week both in Winnipeg and driving to our principal destination, Riding Mountain National Park, 162 miles northwest of the city.

We only stayed overnight in Winnipeg, but managed to see a few significant sites. Probably the city's most famous attraction is the area called The Forks. This historical area (has been a human meeting place for more than 6,000 years) is located at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, major waterways in the area. Originally, the aboriginal people used this meeting location, and eventually a 56-acre section there evolved into the center of the European fur trade in the 1730's. The area is now an extremely active shopping, dining and entertainment venue for the city. It also has several famous museums, an extensive market, featuring all sorts of products, and is a wonderful location for one of my favorite traveling activities, people-watching! After spending several hours walking around, and also enjoying a delicious meal, we retired to our nearby hotel with lots of adventure to come during the upcoming week. Other sites we did not see, but are high on our list for a return city visit are the Royal Canadian Mint, The Manitoba Museum, and large (378-acre) Assiniboine Park, which features a conservatory, a zoo, a museum and a sculpture garden. A vacationer could easily devote an entire week just exploring Metro Winnipeg if your schedule allows that amount of time

However, for our adventurous spirits, we headed our rental car west by northwest the next day. across a vast expanse of Canadian prairie. Since it was a summer trip, many of the agricultural products, led by "King" wheat, were in full display across the beautiful, wide open landscape. The 3 previously mentioned provinces are termed "prairie" because a great deal of their vast land areas are simply that, enormous prairies!

After almost 4 hours of driving, our car climbed a huge plateau on the western Manitoba escarpment, and entered western Canada's first national park, Riding Mountain, officially opened in 1933, and currently covering 1,150-square miles. The huge park is blanketed with forests, lakes and meadows, and the only commercial town within the park's boundary

is the historic community of Wasagaming, located on the shore of large Clear Lake. Wildlife is abundant inside the park, and consists of elk, porcupines, bison,

coyotes, timber wolves, moose, beaver, lynx, white-tailed deer, snowshoe hares, cougars, 233 different bird species, and a large population of black bears. During our stay, we saw much of their diverse wildlife, It was almost like being within an outdoor zoo for a week!

We stayed in nice accommodations in Wasagaming at the historic Elkhorn Resort, very close to Clear Lake. We tried our luck at some fishing, but other water activities there include boating, canoeing, kayaking, scuba and sailing. Other non-water features are golf, tennis, camping, lawn bowling, hiking and horseback riding. My bride also reminds me we ate Polish porgies for the first and last time in our lives, dining in a Wasagaming restaurant.

On our second day there, we took a several-hour horseback ride through the spectacular surrounding forests, but since we weren't used to frequent riding, were sore and found difficulty in walking for several days later--oops! Because of those adverse side effects, I think that is our most recent horseback riding experience?

Part of the park's appeal is many of its classic brick and mortar structures. During the Great Depression of the 1930's, Canada's Depression Relief Program created jobs for the unemployed. Estimates are as many as 10 relief camps comprising 1,200 people were put to work constructing buildings for the park, 1934-35. As is the case with much of our own country's national parks, the style present today is the rustic design that incorporated local materials, and those buildings are still majestically standing today inside Riding Mountain National Park. It really adds to the park's character, and, thus, to the visitor's enjoyment.

The other major park building influence came in 1943-45 when a section of the park became the Whitewater Labor Camp, comprised of 15 buildings, housing 440-450 German minimum risk POW's from North Africa during World War II. Until the war was over, these prisoners cut lumber for the allied war effort.

Once our outstanding, 7-day, rural Canadian outdoor adventure was completed, we reversed course in our rental car, returned to Winnipeg, turned back our vehicle, and flew home to beloved Our Town.

Even today, several years later, we are so much richer in our mind's eye with the incredible experiences we enjoyed in one of Canada's remote prairie provinces!