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Yellowhead Yellowhead Others
Trans
Canada Yellowhead Highway by
Jerry W. Bird Links:
Country-wide Farm and Ranch Tours The
Yellowhead- Skeena Route, made popular by the
Canadian National Railway, offers options and
combinations aplenty: Train, auto rental, RV,
ferry, pocket cruise or love boat ... seaplane ...
you name it. Get out the fishing rod, thermos jug
and picnic basket! This great drive might easily be
called a Great Canadian Taste Tour. Why? -- the
Yellowhead crosses rivers and streams, skirts lakes
and fjords, visits orchards, ranches, farmers
markets and dining spots. You'll feast on Winnipeg
goldeye, rainbow trout, Pacific salmon, oysters and
clams, prairie chicken, moose steak, buffalo
burgers, award-winning Alberta beef and Okanagan
wines. Add the world's finest cereal grains and
1001 varieties of ethnic fare -- how near to heaven
can you get? And if you like to sing on long car
trips? -- here's a cinemascopic backdrop to enhance
any performance; prairie skies, tumbleweed, moose
pastures, rippling waterfalls and pristine mountain
lakes. Can't you hear Rose Marie's "Indian Love
Call" echoing in the distance? Yellowhead:
Manitoba and Saskatchewan Section Compared to my first
encounter, today's Yellowhead Highway is a magic
carpet ride. Many moons ago, heading west from
Portage La Prairie, we ran a gauntlet of detours,
construction delays and a prairie monsoon.
Somewhere beyond Battleford, waves of red muck
engulfed my ancient Chev coupe, drying on contact
like plaster of Paris. Visibility zero! What to do?
-- get out in the gumbo, and wipe like mad each
time a semi trailer slithered by. Can't recall the
whole ordeal, just that the lights of Alberta's
Capital cast a mirage on the midnight sky, taunting
me for what seemed like 100 miles away. Winnipeg
at The Forks:
Call it Chicago North,
Canada's Crossroads, or simply "The Peg" --
Manitoba's capital is home to 50 ethnic groups, all
of which take part in Folklorama -- a Manitoba
Mardis Gras. Winnipeg is also the largest center of
French culture outside Quebec. Check your map; see
how Winnipeg's
streets converge like spokes on a giant bicycle
wheel. Three historic rivers, the Red, Assiniboine
and Seine, merge here at a place called The Forks.
Not long ago, trains shunted back and forth, and
river craft dumped their cargo at this downtown
site. Today it's the "in place" --
an oasis of greenery, scenery and people-watching,
with shops, sidewalk cafes, and a river front
promenade. To many first nations people, The Forks
is where their ancestors hunted, fished and camped
for centuries. The Forks National Historic Site
preserves that 6,000 year legacy with interpretive
programs, displays, sculptures, festivals and
special events. Lower
Fort Garry National Historic
Site: North
America's oldest stone fur trading post stands as a
lone sentinel on the Red River. Launch-point for
York Boat brigades, off to Hudson's Bay, Mackenzie
or Athabaska Country, and Red River carts bound for
Minnesota, it was a bastion of Empire. Plan to stay
awhile -- fresh bread's baking in the stone oven at
Governor Simpson's Big House -- dinner's on, and a
magic lantern show is about to tell the fort's
unique story. It's a short drive
to
Portage La Prairie, Mile
"0" on the Yellowhead Highway. Here, muscles of
steel were needed to tote one's canoe overland.
Today, Portage is a major food processing center,
amidst some of the world's richest farmland. Lake
Manitoba's beaches bring fond memories from my air
force days. Macdonald Air force base, near Portage,
was my hub of activities for several years as an
RCAF weatherman --it was a fascinating area. I met
a group from Southport
at the Abbotsford Airshow and was pleased to learn
that the city's other base is alive and thriving as
a training and technical center. You'll hear much
more about their projects in a future issue of Air
Highways Magazine. At
Minnedosa, voted
Manitoba's most beautiful town, a side trip leads
to Riding Mountain National Park. In this "island
of the prairies", buffalo roam and 500 species of
wildlife thrive. Remember when we were kids, wolves
used to whistle -- right? Well you can take wolf
howling lessons here, but the Plains Indians'
relationship with the buffalo is the top item on
the agenda. Bathers can enjoy Clear Lake's sandy
beach; those afoot and on horseback, can rove the
meadows, aspen groves and evergreen forests on a
network of trails. Saskatchewan:
Breadbasket, Good Spirits and Vacation
Farms
Why not enjoy it at an
authentic homestead? Saskatchewan's
"Country Vacation Farms"
offer Bed and Breakfast with a delicious
difference. You even get to help with the chores.
Fresh milk anyone? Not your average sod shanty, and
well worth seeing is Motherwell Homestead National
Historic Park, near Fort
Qu'Appelle. Called
Lanark Place, it was the gracious homestead of
William R. Motherwell, Saskatchewan's first
Agricultural Minister and an M.P. in Ottawa. The
main residence is an Italian-style mansion, built
in 1897 of
cut fieldstone. Saskatchewan Country Vacation
Farms. Beatrice Magee (306) 672-3970.
A 'Toon'
with a Berry Named After it:
I went to school in Saskatoon
for a term, and have seen the city from all angles
-- by bicycle, raft, horseback, train, aircraft and
the Chev coupe I spoke of earlier. The Ukrainian
Museum of Canada salutes an ethnic group whose
names appear in cities, hamlets and hockey rinks
throughout the west. A center of scientific
research, Wanuskewin Heritage Park has an on-site
archaeological lab, diggings and trails devoted to
the Plains Indians cultural legacy. An hour north
of here at Batoche is a sadder legacy -- one of
civil unrest. A Gattling gun, military
installations, and grave sites, give testament
to the last armed conflict on Canadian soil. An
audio visual show at Batoche
National Historic Site,
north of the city, relives the days during the
1880s Northwest Rebellion, when Louis Reil's Metis
faced off against the British Empire. Hollywood's
Mountie movies pale compared to the real McCoy.
Fort Battleford National Historic Site is an
example. Here on the Battle River, Chief
Poundmaker's Cree ransacked Battleford, then
Capital of the Northwest Territories, sending 400
settlers scurrying to the fort's sanctuary, and
Colonel Otter's force off in hot pursuit.
Government House,the stockade, and several original
buildings remain. Side
trip: Prince Albert National
Park: White
pelicans, bald eagles, beaver, badgers, bison,
wapiti and woodland caribou, plus numerous species
of fish and fowl -- it's like Noah's Ark. And the
hills are alive with flora; meadow rue, prickly
rose, high-bush cranberry and wild sarsaparilla,
aspen parkland and boreal forest. Small wonder,
world famous naturalist Grey Owl, called it home.
At Waskesui Lake, a golf course, riding stables,
paddle-wheeler cruise, and interpretive center
await visitors. Lobsticks -- trees from which
Indian trailblazers lopped off the lower branches,
mark some of the park's 140 km of hiking
path. Click
to continue: Visit
the Yellowhead Trans Canada Highway Web Site:
http://www.transcanadayellowhead.com/main.htm
ite:
http://www.transcanadayellowhead.com/main.htm
Man-Sask
Alta-BC
Roads
to Adventure
Yellowhead
Alaska
Hwy
Rogers
Pass
Okanagan
Columbia
Icefields
Pkwy
Goldrush
Trail
Pacific
Route
99 and
1-5
Sea
to Sky
Manitoba-
Sask.
Winnipeg
Yorkton
Saskatoon,
North Battleford
Lloydminster
Yellowhead
Alberta-BC
Vegreville
Edmonton
Jasper,
Kamloops
Prince
George,
Smithers
Terrace
Prince
Rupert
Queen
Charlottes
Keynote
Address
Alaska
Highway
Rogers
Pass
Okanagan
Valley
Hope-
Princeton
Columbia
Valley
Icefields
Parkway
Gold
Rush Trail
Sea
to Sky
Imagine
your auto is a time capsule, cruising down a broad
ribbon of Canadiana, in the wake of nomadic
hunters, voyageurs, missionaries, traders,
sodbusters, fortune-seekers and railroad builders.
From Lake Manitoba to the Haida Gwa'ii (BC's Queen
Charlotte Islands) , it's a 2600 km journey into
history, with Indian encampments older than Egypt's
great pyramids, national parks, ancient shrines and
battle sites. Ethnic dances and pageants salute
every facet of our heritage. Before we dim the
lights and start the movie, you're curious to know
how the name Yellowhead was derived -- right? In
the 1870s, a roving Iroquois guide, dubbed Tete
Jaune for his golden locks, gave title to a
mountain Pass near Jasper House and gained instant
immortality. Fly-Drive
Holidays
are all the rage, in an age when time has become
more valuable than money. You can fly the "Air
Highways" to dozens of gateway airports; then take
your pick of ground transport.
..
Canada's breadbasket begins at the Saskatchewan
border. Your first stop is Yorkton, with its
Western Development Museum. Further down the
Yellowhead is Big Quill Lake, one of 94,000 that
dot the face of Saskatchewan. Over half contain
fish -- and 90% of these have never been fished.
With 68 species hatching each year, small wonder
our forebears always kept a spare canoe in the
driveway. A side trip from Lanigan leads to
Watrous
and Lake Manitou, (Lake of Good Spirit), whose
mineral waters rank with Europe's great spas. After
18 holes at Manitou Beach Club, a plunge will set
you up for dinner.
Yellowhead
Highway:
Alberta and BC Section