How Would You Like to Celebrate Our Bicentennial?
by Elizabeth CampbellThe bicentennial of the arrival of the first group of Selkirk Settlers at the Red River Colony in 1812 is rapidly approaching. If you could manage all the preparations, how would you celebrate? Would you indulge in a pilgrimage to Scotland to see your ancestors’ homes? Would you go on a tour of RRS related historic sites here in Canada? What would you like to see TLSARL put together as part of the celebrations?
May 14th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I’d love to go to Scotland or Winnipeg to see where my ancestors came from, but I am too far away. I will have to content myself with reading. I have been enjoying the daily journal entries you’ve been sharing.
It might be good to have a new bibliography of not only books, but also magazine articles and things that are available online. The publications on the Manitoba Historical Society website, for instance, are very interesting. They have some very old writings.
I know quite a bit about the Highland Clearances in Sutherland, but I have asked several people if there is anything available about the effects on the people of Argyll, and no one has given me any sources. So if someone knows anything like that, they could share with the rest of us.
Regarding your question of several days ago, about the source of salt: I thought first of a salt spring, because of a story regarding a sister and brother-in-law of my dad’s mother. They had a farm in northwestern Pennsylvania, just a little south of Lake Erie, and they had a salt spring on their farm. When the story was written in the late 1800s, it said there was still evidence of the Indians’ fires where they had made salt. White settlers had begun to come in there around 1800, so the fires were a long time before.
If the Red River settlers did not have a spring, there may have been something like a “salt lick.” Surely the native people, and probably the animals too, knew about any source of salt.
There is an article I just found in the Transactions of the Manitoba Historical Society about the geology of the area, and it mentions salt springs. I do not know the geography, so do not know how far away they were from the settlement.
To find it, go to Manitoba Historical Society, then find the Manitoba Historical Journal, and it will have links to Transactions and Pageant.
May 15th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Thanks edithm!
I pasted your comments on salt into the thread on salt making, too.
June 8th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Someone emailed me today with the following comment:
I was thinking perhaps the 2 of us (great great, and great, great, great grand daughters [of original settlers] might somehow do some commemorative march on snowshoes?
Anyone else interested in this idea? Say April 2012, from Churchill Creek to York Factory?
August 16th, 2009 at 10:38 am
I think it would be great to go to Scotland to see the areas of our ancestors. I also think it would be great to spend some time visiting areas of significance to our ancestors right here in Winnipeg. It would be wonderful to spend time in Northern Manitoba to retrace their route down the rivers to Winnipeg (RRS), too. Too many mosquitoes and black flies, though!
August 17th, 2009 at 11:33 am
“Too many mosquitoes and black flies, though!”
Is that a vote for the snowshoe trek?
We are hoping to get enough interest in a group trip to ancestral sites in Scotland (Mull; Kildonan, Sutherland; and Orkney; perhaps Sligo in Ireland if any of the Irish descendants sign up…). Anyone else interested?
Bus tours to significant Red River sites have also been seriously considered by the Executive. Feel free to add your voice in support here, or to suggest other activities you’d like to get involved in!
August 17th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
I am not sure about a snowshoe trek. I would die of exhaustion. It would be great to get to York Factory, Fort Prince of Wales, etc. etc. to see where the ancestors landed. Trips to that area are expensive, I am sure.