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166 Toronto-Vancouver
Saskatchewan: Not Just a Breadbasket
There is an old saying in Saskatchewan province that “you can watch your dog running away from you for hours.” It’s a saying promoted
by the traditional image of vast flat, wheat- laden prairies. But “The Canadian Breadbasket” is now also an important industrial and mining province, with vast reserves of potash, uranium, natural gas and oil, and boasts the fastest growing economy in Canada.
The traditional home of the Algonquian, Cree, Assiniboine, Chipewyan and Blackfoot tribes, it wasn’t until the 1870s, when Canada acquired territories run by the Hudson’s Bay Company, that European settlement really began to take off.
Settlement was fuelled chiefly by the expansion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in 1905, Saskatchewan became a Canadian province. Over the next 30 years, its population grew by almost 1,000 percent, making it the third most populous Canadian province by 1931. Its current population, at almost 1.1 million, is the highest in its history.
Mile 140: Wainwright
Founded as Denwood in 1905, the name and the fortunes of this town both changed dramatically with the arrival of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1908. The railway surveyed a route 3 miles west of the original site, naming it after the vice-president of the GTP, William Wainwright. In 1910, the town was incorporated as Wainwright.
Agriculture has always been important to the local economy, but the discovery of oil and gas in 1921 prompted an industrial boom. The use of DDT, a commonly
used pesticide, caused a dramatic fall in the peregrine falcon population in Canada. But since the 1970s, Wainwright has been a key location used by the Canadian Wildlife Service in their attempts to replenish the population. Bison enjoyed the protection of a buffalo preserve in this area until 1941, when the resident animals were moved to the Wood Buffalo National Park. The preserve, south of Wainwright, is now occupied by a Canadian Forces Base.
Mile 149:
Photo Opportunity
The Canadian soars 61 metres (200 ft) above the Battle River on an 884-metre (2,900-ft) long trestle bridge. Look north for a panorama view of the immense Battle River Valley.
Mile 184.5: Viking
Viking is named in honour of the many Scandinavians who settled the area in the early 1900s. The area was significant for the plains tribes who hunted buffalo before the arrival of Europeans.
Mile 206: Holden
Look for the dramatic onion-shaped dome of the Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church. Over the decades, immigrant pioneers of the Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches have built several Eastern Byzantine-style churches in the area. They are distinctive thanks to the eastern domes that stand above the timber building exterior, while inside they are beautifully and elaborately decorated.
Mile 225-227: Beaverhill Lake
The town of Tofield at mile 226.2 is home to Tofield Museum and Nature Centre, which features a collection of gigantic Ice Age bison skulls. Just outside Tofield is the Beaverhill Natural Area — a protected
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