THE RURAL HISTORY & CULTURE ASSOCIATION
OF SASKATCHEWAN

No fanfare was spared at the media event held June 25 at the RCMP Heritage Centre to formally announce the details of the upcoming six Celebrate the NWMP Trail festivals.  The media event attracted a crowd of nearly 50 people who received a  sneak peak at what to expect the festivals that will take place at five Saskatchewan communities and Fort Walsh National Historic Site between July 1 and August 2 this summer.  Finn Anderson, the Executive Director of the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society, moderated the event and provided background o the SHFS’s efforts to mark the NWMP Trail that was in use by the NWMP between 1875 and 1912.  Special guests included Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Dustin Duncan and announced that his department was providing a $45,000 grant to support the festivals through the Building Pride Program.  Historian and author, Garrett Wilson, provided a dramatic reading from his award-winning book Frontier Farewell: The 1870s and the end of the Old West and Saskatchewan singer/songwriter Tommy-John Ehman debuted a new song written especially for his appearances at the NWMP Trail events, aptly titled, North-West Mounted Police.  Regina actor Geordie Grassick portrayed James Walsh of the NWMP and performed a small part of the “Spirit of the Trail” dramatic storytelling, which is a major aspect of each festival. 

CTV television, CBC TV and the Leader Post were all represented at the media event. The television stories can be viewed to the right and look in the June 26 Leader Post for a picture from the media event.  The Celebrate the NWMP Trail events were also featured in a Leader Post story in the June 22 edition, as well as in the most recent issue of Folklore Magazine, as well as the Museum Association of Saskatchewan’s Megaphone and Christopher Moore’s Canadian History Blog.

Craik’s Tommy-John Ehman will be debuting a new song at the media event being held tomorrow to promote the Celebrate the NWMP Trail festivals taking place in South West Saskatchewan July 1 to August 2, 2009.  Ehman’s song, appropriately titled “North-West Mounted Police” was written especially for his upcoming concerts as part of the NWMP Trail  events. The media event is 10:00 am, Thursday, June 25, 2009 at the RCMP Heritage Centre in Regina. The event is open to the public and will also include Regina actor Geordie Grassick portraying James Walsh and awarding-winning historian Garrett Wilson.

The Wolseley Heritage Foundation is sponsoring the Wolseley Historic Homes Tour 2009, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday July 18. Seven homes, which include the 1896 fieldstone home of Wolseley’s first mayor, will be featured, as well as the 1895 Territorial Courthouse, the only Territorial courthouse surviving in Saskatchewan.

 Tickets, at $15 each, are available at 306-698-2271, and may be picked up, along with the tour map and information on each building, at the Courthouse.

 The leisurely stroll through the town named as one of Harrowsmith magazine’s “Ten Prettiest Towns in Canada,” plus the adventure of crossing Fairy Lake on the swinging bridge, are free.