Saskatchewan - Who Knew?

Saskatchewan!

 * 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 lanesto see which one is the fastest.

Now you  know!