Statement of Significance:

Hudson's bay company Fort Qu'appelle

This brick building was built in 1897.  This building was used as The first hudson's bay retail store instead of a fur traiding company.


Carissa Esplin
Grade 1
Balcarres Community School
Balcarres

Statement of Significance:

Elévateur de Zenon Park construit en 1924

Cet endroit est important paree que les pionniers aimenaient du grain pendant bien des années.  Aujourd'hui on s'en sert encore.  Certains groupes de fermiers l'ont acheté.

Zenon Park elevator, built in 1924

This place is important because the pioneers brought grain here for many years.  It is still being used today. Some groups of farmers bought it.


Christian Larochelle
Viveau: 4e année
École Zenon Park School
Zenon Park

(English translation provided by The Office of French Language Co-ordination, Department of Government Relations)

Statement of Significance:
The Seager Wheeler farm is important since agriculture is a big part of Saskatchewan's culture.  My picture is of the Seager Wheeler Farmhouse where he lived and worked.  The house is full of his old journals, wheat samples, books, articles, and other stuff.  The list goes on and on.  His wife's household items and his children's stuff are also there.  The equipment he used for farming is still there (excluding the horses) and most of it is running.  The first house (later given to the hired man), barn, chicken coop, and other buildings are still standing.  His wife's flowerbeds still bloom.  The whole farm is being restored to its 1919 self.

What's so great about Seager Wheeler?  Would it be the five World Wheat Championships?  Or the three varieties of wheat that he developed?  Or the many trees he introduced to the prairies like the Saskatchewan Cherry and a type of silver willow?  Or was it simply his methods of farming? He never cultivated his land.  He planted right among the stubble.  During the dirty 30's his land didn't blow away like the rest of the province.  His land was still fertile and could produce crops, not a dustbowl of parched dirt.  I'm pretty sure he was an organic farmer.  He won the World Wheat Championships five times!  He had high yields every year too.  He constantly experimented with different wheat varieties and farming methods.  He was a farmer and a scientist.  I think even modern day farmers could learn a lot from him.  Many farmers where I live still burn their fields and cultivate it every spring.  They would probably have higher yields if they farmed like Seager Wheeler.  If the dirty 30's ever happened again they would be in a lot of trouble.  Seager Wheeler helped write the history of Saskatchewan.  I went to Seager Wheeler farm and it was amazing learning about the farm and Seager Wheeler.  He had a saying and I believe everybody, farmer or gardener, small or big, crops or animals, should live by it.

"The Soil is ours to make or mar,
And we should aim to leave it
When the time comes for us to pass it on,
In as good or better condition
Than when it first came under our hand."

-Seager Wheeler, 1919


Charlotte Corbett
Grade 7
Bruno Central School
Bruno

Statement of Significance:
This drawing depicts myself looking back on the past.  The colored section represents the here and now: the penciled section represents the past.  My friend who lives on the farm takes care of several horses and during the summer, now that I am old enough, I ride the horses to keep them active.  There have been many times that I have reminisced about the past weekends and summers spent on that farm.  The constant excitement and hustle and bustle of the farm is what attracted me away from the mundane repetitious days in the city.  I enjoyed waking up in the morning to go feed the rabbits, check the cows or fix the chicken wire.  Some times I would go out on a request to help bailing or clean out the swather.  After a full day's work in the hot sun it was so wonderful to be invited to the family table for a hearty meal that you were welcome to seconds, thirds and fourths!

Even though I am a city dweller I can't help but think about the huge part that would be missing in my life if I had never been to a farm.  That thought is what brings me back to what Saskatchewan is built on and what makes Saskatchewan different from any other province.  I think that any resident of Saskatchewan that has not visited a typical family farm has missed out on our real Saskatchewan heritage.

The sign at the driveway at the Hemmerling family farm states that it is "Just another farm".  For whoever has been there it's more than a place, it's an experience.


Matthew Hannigan
Grade 10
North Battleford Comprehensive High School
North Battleford