Tugaske, SK

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We got going bright and early this morning leaving Drumheller at 6:00am. I decided to take on the first leg of the drive as I knew I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep right away. Surprisingly I found the drive through the prairies extremely beautiful and relaxing. The drive itself is quite easy as its straight and flat and the landscape is full of rich colors with bright blues and whites in the sky, and green, yellows and browns all around. It took about 6 hours to get to Tugaske SK. When we arrived we weren’t really sure we would be able to do much here.

I knew my grandma had grown up in this area based on stories she had told me about “the old farm”, and my great grandmother’s obituary which indicated the farm was “8 miles west of Tugaske”. I also brought a few old photos of the farm and the town. But when we got to Tugaske it was pretty much a ghost town. The town basically has one gas station, an old hotel which looked to be closed, a butcher shop, a post office and an old town hall, also looking a bit worse for wear. We got out of the car and started walking around the few stores to see if anything was open, nothing was.

We must have looked out of place (me with my neon pink nails and bright yellow scarf), as a man shouted at us “you folks lost?” Dale approached the stranger and told him that we had come from Vancouver and we were looking for the old farm where my grandma Helen grew up. “What’s the family name” he said. “Swan and Amy Nelson” Dale replied. ”Swan Nelson, oh yeah, I know that name. Let me make a few calls I think I know exactly where that old farm is”, he replied.

This kind strangers name was Shane Oram, he was the owner of the local butcher shop, West Bridgeford Meats (www.westbridgefordmeats.com) Shane wasn’t able to get a hold of the people he was looking for, so he left them a message and took us to the old Tugaske Cemetery to see if my great grandparents Amy & Swan Nelson were there. We spent a half hour or so combing the cemetery with no luck finding them. We were just about to call it quits when Shane got a call. Good news, he had the exact location of the old farm! (seems like everyone knows everything around here!) But first, Shane wanted to find out if my grandparents were buried here, as he was sure they would be. So Shane led us to the home of Tom, the town’s historian.

We knocked on Tom’s door and explained who we were and what we were looking for. “Oh yeah, Swan Nelson, I know that name. Let me take a look in the old town’s history book, I’ll find what you’re looking for.” Tom needed some time to dig up what he knew, so we jumped in our vehicles and followed Shane down a couple old gravel roads which seemed to go on forever. We stopped in front of what looked like nothing really, just vast vacant farmers fields everywhere. But apparently this was the place. “Right here”, he said. He pointed to the land and began describing the neighbouring farms and pointing to the old school house where my grandma and her sisters went to school which was just down the road. He mentioned the neighbouring Voyse farm which rang a bell to me. I had jotted down a bunch of notes during a conversation I had with my grandma’s sister and Voyse was a neighbor that she remembered. I looked at all my scribbles and there it was “Voyse”. This had to be it!! Here we were, standing on the land where my grandmother grew up. What an incredible feeling. I honestly still can’t believe we found it.

The farm house was no longer there, replaced by grain silos built by the new owners, but the landscape was the same. Finding the land where my grandmother lived was more than we had hoped for. We came only with my great grandmother’s obituary and a few old photos and now we were here. Incredible. We couldn’t thank Shane enough for taking so much time hunting down my family’s land & history.

We left the farm and returned to Tom’s house. Tom had pulled out the old Tugaske History book which included write-ups of the town’s residents past and present. He opened it up to the page he had saved, and there it was; a photo of my grandmother with her sisters and father titled ‘Swan and Amy Nelson’. The write up described my families arrival to Tugaske, my great grandparents and their children (my grandma Helen and her two sisters), where my grandma and her sisters went to school, where they worked, who they married and even mentioned my grandma’s children and grandchild (me!). It was amazing, the whole story of my grandma’s family history published right there in the Tugaske History record. Unfortunately there aren’t many copies of the History book and they aren’t available for sale, so I snapped a few photos for my own records.

Tom had one more surprise, he had a map of all the residents of the Tugaske Cemetery and he had located my great grandparents, Swan and Amy Nelson. Dale and I returned to the cemetary, followed Tom’s written directions and there they were - we had walked right past them earlier that day.

This visit to Tugaske was so much more than I had anticipated. The hospitality and kindness of the people we met was so warm, and the experiences and memories they gave us are priceless. They took the time to take us on an adventure through the history of the town, and the history of my family.

After an exciting family history hunt in Tugaske, I was exhausted so Dale took over the driving. I fell asleep and by the time I woke up we were in Regina and I have no clue how we got there so fast (there better not be any more speeding tickets I don’t know about!). Having just woken up from a nap, and still sitting in this car, I was of course extremely grumpy. So when Dale suggested we keep going all the way to Winnipeg, I had a mild heart attack (more like ratch-attack- this is Dales contribution to this blog post ). Of course, it didn’t take much to agree and off we were. Around Brandon, MB my inner bear took over again and I became upset that our destination (his childhood home) was still about three hours away. Plus I was hungry. We were so close though, how could we stop now. So we ordered a large Pizza Hut pizza and ate it in the car on the way which was a perfect plan. I was no longer hungry and grumpy, and Dale was refreshed for the final leg of the drive.

At 12:20am, May 20, we arrived at Dale’s home where his Dad had been waiting. Finally. Let me tell you, 12 hours of driving is not pleasant...not at all. But it was worth it in the end as we arrived a day early, didn’t have to sleep in a hotel, and didn’t have to drive again this morning. We are spending the next three days in East Selkirk, MB where we will have a service for his late mother, Luella, visit family and friends, and recharge the batteries before the next leg of the journey.

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Comments

[Kumiko]

I loved reading your first blog post, Alana. I can not get over the kindness displayed by Shane - what a great person. Also: very much enjoyed seeing how the blog post started off so heartwarming and ended in the reality that being hangry (hungry+angry) is not good for anyone. In all seriousness though, what a wonderful way to start off this road trip by seeing so much of your family history come to life. XO P.S. Dale, your guest commentary made me laugh out loud.