Why Saskatchewan is Special

Little Known Facts about Saskatchewan. Who Knew?

* Regina is in the Guinness Book Of Records.. It has the longest
bridge (Albert Street Bridge) over the shortest body of water
(Wascana Lake).

* The railway track from Regina to Stoughton used to be the longest
stretch of perfectly straight track in the world, at 85 miles.

* Battleford was the capital of the Northwest Territories before
Saskatchewan became a province. But lost out to Regina when the
province was formed. The original government House looked over
the former battle grounds of the rebellion until it burned to the
ground a few years ago.

* The very first Dairy Queen was started in Melville in 1953. The
original owner was Donald M. Patrick.

* In Saskatchewan there are over 100,000 lakes, rivers, and bogs. The
Province has three major river systems all of which empty into
Hudson Bay; the Assiniboine, the North & South Saskatchewan and
the Churchill.
*The Frenchman River, sourced in the Cypress Hills, empties into The Gulf of Mexico.
*The South west corner of the province was a part on the Louisiana Purchase.
* Over one-half of the province, or approximately 3,450,000 square
km, is covered by forests. Of the total forest area, 2,165,000
square km are classified as commercially productive forest land
and contain both hardwood and softwood species.

* Famed theorist/physicist Albert Einstein played goal for the
Canwood (SK) Canucks one winter while sojourning north to Canada
to ‘find peace and silence’ for his work on the Theory of
Relativity. He had played hockey in his younger years in Germany.

* Dr. Ballard of dog food fame was a veterinarian in Wolsely
which, incidentally, was also the home of the very first Beaver
Lumber.

* Dad’s Cookies were once made at the former roller skating rink in
White City.

* Brett Hull lived in a little log house a few miles out of
Whitewood.

* Gordie Howe was born near Saskatoon.

* Moose Jaw – The former Joyner department store was the western
distributor of Levis jeans. The stock would sometimes exceed one
million dollars. It had been reopened as a Gift/Craft/Souvenir
store. Tragically, this store and several nearby historical
buildings recently burned down. This store also owned the largest
Cash Cable Car system (over 1000 feet in length) that was still
operational. The only other one in working order is in Europe or
China and is between 600 and 700 feet.. Disney had offered the
Joyner family $600,000 for the system so they could put it into
their Euro-Disney complex, but the family honoured the wishes of
the original store owner that the system remain in Moose Jaw.

* In the 20’s Moose Jaw’s (AKA ‘Little Chicago’) River Street was
the home of gambling, prostitutes and the bootleg center of booze
running into the States. The tunnels under the streets there
connected the various businesses and were used by various
gangsters, and rumour has it, including Al Capone. The tunnels
were believed to have been dug years earlier by Chinese immigrants
as a way to escape. (Canada had Chinese concentration camps
although no one ever brags about that!)

* W.O. Mitchell, who wrote Who Has Seen the Wind, and Jake and the
Kid (both of which are regularly read in classrooms across
Canada), grew up in Weyburn. In 1976 the town of Arcola was the
site of the filming of Who Has Seen the Wind

* Estevan is the sunshine capital of Canada.

* Saskatchewan has the largest kimberlite field, (diamond-bearing
rock) in the world, located near Prince Albert, where DeBeers &
other companies are working now.

* Wilkie is home to the world’s largest Grasshopper – which
everyone hates because it’s a farming community. Apparently you
can fit eight people and three cases of beer comfortably on his
back.
* A small town called Saltcoats, (16 miles S/E of Yorkton PTH 16) has
been titled the salamander capital of Canada .. The town is
nestled on the side of Anderson Lake which is where thousands and
thousands (varies from year to year) of salamanders also call
home. On rainy nights they can be seen making their trek from the
water to land. It is a crazy sight to see so many lizards running
across the roads.. I will not tell you what it sounds like as the
cars drive by.
* Every tree growing in Regina was planted or reseaded by the trees planted.
* Manitou Lake is not in fact the 3rd ‘saltiest’ body of water –
The others are The Dead Sea and The Great Salt Lake in Utah. There
are many bodies of water in Saskatchewan that are saltier,
but none have the mineral content of Manitou. No one knows for
sure where Manitou gets the minerals from. In fact, in 1946,
there was a team of doctors commissioned by the Province to do a
medical study on Manitou (‘the lake of the healing waters’). The
doctors didn’t complete their study however, because at the time,
they felt the lake may dry up.

* Danceland – at Lake Manitou near Watrous – world’s only horse
hair padded dance floor.

* John Diefenbaker, former Prime Minister, lived in Wakaw and
Prince Albert. Interestingly, Sir Wilfred Laurier, Mackenzie King
and John Diefenbaker were all elected to the House of Commons from
the Prince Albert constituency. Laurier had actually run in two
seats–he ran in Prince Albert as it was a ‘safe’ Liberal seat,
but gave that seat up and represented his seat won in Quebec; King
represented Prince Albert from 1925 to 1944 (not a well known
fact). Dief’s story is well known. This marvellous bit of trivia
is added by Rod Thomson in PA—only because it was conspicuous by
its absence.
* Tom Sukanen, a Finnish immigrant, built an ocean-going boat near
Macrorie during the middle of the dust-bowl years. He was 15
miles from the South Saskatchewan River. He intended to take a
load of wheat back to Finland. He hand made every part, including
boiler and steam engine. He died before completion. The assembled
ship can now been seen on Highway 2 south of Moose Jaw.

* Wynyard is the chicken capital of Canada because they export the
highest amount of chicken per capita. Every summer during the
carnival days they host the ‘chicken chariot race’ where chickens
are hooked up to a homemade chariot and they are raced down lanes
to see which one is the fastest.

Now you know!

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