1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (141 page)

As a federal, provincial, and municipal policing body, the RCMP is unique in the world.

Today the link between the RCMP and Regina is stronger than ever. The RCMP Training Academy, just west of downtown and referred to simply as “the Depot” by locals, has served for over a century as the agency’s primary training facility for new recruits. Guided tours of the academy and historic nondenomi-national chapel are offered after the Sergeant Major’s Parade, held weekdays March through
December at 12:45
P.M
., when trainee Mounties in full red and gold regalia strut their stuff on parade grounds or on Drill Hill. On July 1 and successive Tuesday evenings through mid-August, the Mounties also enact the Sunset Retreat Ceremony, an exciting 45-minute display of horsemanship accompanied by bagpipe and bugle bands. Also at the Depot is the brand-new, C$40 million RCMP Heritage Centre, designed by renowned Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. It relates the compelling, colorful history of the Mounties via exhibits and interactive media. From its earliest days of horseback patrols across an untamed land, the RCMP has been one of Canada’s most recognizable symbols, and the Heritage Centre displays an extensive collection of historical material and artifacts.

To gain more insights into the life and times of frontier Saskatchewan and the early days of the Mounties, time your visit to Regina to coincide with a performance of the long-running
The Trial of Louis Riel,
by John Coulter. Mounted each summer at the Mackenzie Art Gallery theater, the play is drawn from courtroom transcripts of Regina’s most famous trial. Louis Riel was a leader in the 1880s Northwest Rebellion, when the mixed-race Métis people, the offspring of French trappers who had intermarried with Native women, clashed with incoming settlers protected by the Mounties. After a series of armed conflicts between the Métis and the Mounted Police, the final episode of the rebellion was played out in Regina in 1885, when the Métis leader Louis Riel, after a long trial, was hanged for treason.
The Trial of Louis Riel
captures the compelling drama of two cultures in conflict, addressing issues of religion, language, race, justice, and prejudice on the Canadian frontier.

W
HERE
: 160 miles/257 km south of Saskatoon. Tel 306-780-5838;
www.rcmpheritagecentre.com
.
W
HERE TO STAY
: Hotel Saskatchewan Radisson, tel 800-333-3333 or 306-522-7691;
wwww.hotelsask.com
.
Cost:
from US$138/C$154.
T
RIAL OF
L
OUIS
R
IEL
: Tel 306-584-8890;
www.mackenzieartgallery.sk.ca
.
When:
Wed–Fri, late July–mid-Aug.
B
EST TIMES
: July–mid-August for the Mounties Sunset Retreat Ceremony; early Aug for Buffalo Days, Regina’s big summer arts festival (
www.buffalodays.ca
).

Native Prehistory on the Northern Plains

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Around 8,000 years ago, as Ice Age glaciers retreated from the plains of southern Canada, Native Americans first stood on the bluffs above the South Saskatchewan River, at the place that would be known as
Wanuskewin. Over the millennia, successive Native cultures passed through Wanuskewin, each leaving tantalizing clues of ancient ways and lives. On this same windswept ridge now stands Wanuskewin Heritage Park, a magnificent interpretive center at the hub of 21 separate archaeological sites that step across time from the post–Ice Age era to the 19th century.

Wanuskewin, a term from the Cree language meaning “seeking peace of mind,” was central for Northern Plains Indian bison hunting. The 300-acre area contains virtually every type of archaeological feature common to the pre-contact Northern Plains, all within walking distance of each other. Trails lead from the interpretive center across the prairie
and into the Opimihaw Valley, linking remains such as tepee rings (circles of stone that once held down the buffalo-skin walls of tepees), stone cairns that early hunters used to guide herds of stampeding bison, and a boulder alignment or medicine wheel, which may have played a role in early spiritual practices. Wanuskewin also contains two bison jumps, the cliffs over which early hunters stampeded herds of buffalo in order to slaughter them.

The visitors center, built in the form of a vast tepee, explores the history and culture of Northern Plains peoples, with a broad collection of artifacts and tools, interactive displays, and a fascinating collection of contemporary Indian art. In summer, First Nations dancers, resplendent in feathers and colorful costumes, perform ancient, rhythmic dances to the sound of drums and singing in the center’s outdoor amphitheater. The visitors center’s cafeteria lets you sample traditional foods such as bison, Saskatoon berry pie, and muskeg bush tea.

A dancer in traditional Ojibwa (Chippewa in the U.S.) Nation clothing.

Wanuskewin Heritage Park is just minutes north of Saskatoon, a pleasant city with deep agrarian roots yet a youthful vibe due to the University of Saskatchewan’s 20,000 students. Downtown is dominated by the Delta Bessborough Hotel, a historic fantasy built in the style of a turreted French château. Originally constructed in the 1930s by the Canadian National Railway as its showcase in western Canada, the Delta Bessborough remains just that.

W
HERE
: 3 miles/5 km north of Saskatoon. Tel 306-931-6767;
www.wanuskewin.com
.
D
ELTA
B
ESSBOROUGH
H
OTEL
: Tel 877-814-7706 or 306-244-5521;
www.deltahotels.com
.
Cost:
from US$124/C$139 (off-peak), from US$160/C$179 (peak).
B
EST TIME
: 10 days in early Aug for the Saskatoon International Fringe Festival (
www.saskatoonfringe.org
).

Catching Gold Fever in the Klondike

The Yukon

In 1896, the cry went up: Gold! Three prospectors panning for nuggets on a remote tributary of the Yukon River had discovered gold, and lots of it. Word of the Klondike gold fields quickly spread, and the lure of easy riches drew
men and women from every corner of the world. By 1900, Dawson City, just 165 miles south of the Arctic Circle, counted more than 30,000 inhabitants (thousands of them living in tents), a boomtown if ever there was one. While some early prospectors made easy fortunes, many other Stampeders eked out livings without ever holding a pan, working as merchants, cardsharps, bankers, saloonkeepers, and dance hall girls. By the 1910s, most of the easily panned gold had been harvested and industrial dredging replaced prospecting. More than US$360 million in gold had been shipped out.

The Palace Grand Theatre opened in 1899 during Dawson City’s heyday.

However, unlike many gold rush towns in the Yukon, Dawson City refused to die. It served as capital of the Yukon Territory until 1953, when the torch was passed to Whitehorse, and with its solid core of late Victorian hotels, saloons, false-fronted stores, and all manner of private residences from mansions to miner’s shacks, it has become one of western Canada’s most fascinating open-air museums.

Dawson City today has a year-round population of 1,800 (with the entire territory of Yukon ringing in at 31,000 and more than half living in Whitehorse). Much of the town is protected by Parks Canada, which has done a masterful job of preserving and restoring the remaining frontier structures, most of which are still open for business. The park service offers walking tours, with stops to view a replica of novelist Jack London’s log cabin (he would later return home to California and write
The Call of the Wild
) and to hear actors recite the verses of Robert Service, whose many poems, such as “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” immortalize the Klondike spirit. The SS
Keno,
built in 1922 and just one of the hundreds of riverboats that once linked Dawson City to the outside world, is now permanently moored to the Yukon River docks.

In summer, stroll along the boardwalks under the midnight sun and listen to traditional Yukon fiddle tunes drifting from barrooms. Honky-tonk piano and dancing girls provide the entertainment at Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall, Canada’s northern-most casino. Several vintage hotels are in operation, authentically old but comfortably up-to-date. One of the most unusual is Bombay Peggy’s Victorian Inn and Pub. Built in 1900 as the town brothel, it’s a stylish inn now, peddling hospitality of a more reputable kind.

W
HERE
: 333 miles/537 km north of Whitehorse.
D
AWSON
N
ATIONAL
H
ISTORIC
S
ITE
: Tel 867-993-7200;
www.pc.gc.ca/lhnnhs/yt/dawson
.
D
IAMOND
T
OOTH
G
ERTIES
: Tel 867-993-5575;
www.dawsoncity.org
.
B
OMBAY
P
EGGY’S
V
ICTORIAN
I
NN AND
P
UB
: Tel 867-993-6969;
www.bombaypeggys.com
.
Cost:
from US$79/C$89.
B
EST TIMES
: Feb for the Yukon Quest dogsled race (
www.yukonquest.org
), which runs between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon, stopping for a mandatory 36-hour layover in Dawson City; June–mid-Sept for long summer days and Parks Canada sites; mid-Aug for Discovery Days celebrating the finding of Klondike gold.

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Inn at Saw Mill Farm, Vt.,
109

Inn at Shelburne Farms, Vt.,
105