We arrived late in the afternoon to Fife Lake yesterday and decided to head to Assiniboia to check into our hotel and come back to visit the Willow Bunch Museum and Fife Lake again tomorrow.
It is only about 20 minutes until we see the signs touting Willow Bunch’s most famous son.
Edouard Beaupre. He grew to be 8’3″ tall due to a pituitary gland tumor which wasn’t discovered until after his death. He died at age 23 from complications of TB. He earned a living as a Ringling Brothers Circus attraction. I do remember my Mom mentioning him.
The Willow Bunch Museum has a whole room devoted to him. In the museum there is a wall dedicated to Willow Bunch residents that served in the war. We found Aunt Winnifred, Uncle Walter and Auntie Jean, in a group almost together. In another document it says that my Auntie Jean joined the Air Force as a Tailor. I did not know that. She was an amazing seamstress, I knew, but not that she was a tailor in the Air Force.
There is also a story line in Willow Bunch about Chief Sitting Bull. He apparently fled to Canada after he and his warriors massacred Custer and his men at Little Big Horn. I don’t recall my parents mentioning anything about Sitting Bull. Seems like a big story, so not sure why?? Maybe they weren’t aware.
In the museum we find some books that look familiar to me. I think we have copies at home 🙂 I guess I could have done some reading before we left. Hahahah. I find a couple paragraphs in one book describing how my Grandfather (Pete Seigo, Reeve of Fife Lake for 6 years) heading up the building of a dam that bore his name and a second telling of the annual Seigo Dam Sports Day. Interesting!!
We drive up to the Willow Bunch Golf Course. This sign may seem odd to people from BC, but here in Saskatchewan it is common to have dirt greens on golf courses. This one is proud to have grass greens!!
Our next objective is to find the Little Woody Cemetery. My Maternal Grandfather William Hutton is buried there. To accomplish this next task we must “travel the gravel” a term we learned later. We drive about 30 kms of gravel roads, miss the cemetery and double back to find it.
Mission accomplished!! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Next up Fife Lake where my Dad was born and raised. We turned right and see something odd in the road ahead of us. At first we aren’t sure what it is. I guess I still don’t know what it is called 🙂 Even google couldn’t help me put a name to this piece of farm equipment. He must have seen us coming as he pulled over to the right to make room for us, but kept on moving. Not something we see at home driving down the road.
We are getting closer to Fife Lake. I was there once when I was about 13. I remember the adults visiting in the hotel beer parlour while all of the kids hung out in the street. In 1965 or 66 Fife Lake was a bigger town.
We stop in for lunch. The hotel says they have the “Best Steaks in Town”. I believe them, hahaha. The on duty bar tender says she can do a burger, but she won’t do a steak. OK a burger it is!! It takes a while, so we wander around looking at the photos on the walls and laminated into the tables. This is the Fife Lake Museum 🙂 🙂
There are photos from a reunion held in 1994. I am certain that my parents came back for that event. I will have to look up the photos that we must definitely have from that reunion.
The Beverage Room has a little fenced off area called the Bull Pen. The Bull Pen houses 3 slot machines. Not only is this the Fife Lake Museum, but it is also the Fife Lake Casino!! No Joan, there are no Long Horn machines in the Bull Pen!! There are 2 ladies in the Bull Pen playing their favourite machine and chatting. They pop out every once in a while, so we chat them up about the history of the Village and the families that are still there. We talk about names that I recognize from my life. The Cowans, cousins of my Mom. The Lutz’s, cousins of my Dad. Bollinger’s, more cousins of my Dad. Eger’s, Fritz’s, Strange’s and a bunch that I have already forgotten again. They remember Seigo Dam and try to give us directions, but it is too vague for us. We decide to head back to Assiniboia. Happy, feeling like we saw so much today. We leave Fife Lake passing by this. It puts a smile on our faces 🙂
There are some very beautiful scenes along the way back. We can’t help but photograph them. Here are a few more scenes of the “Big Muddy” area of Saskatchewan.
