During the last few months a number of local tourism attractions have won very prestigious awards for their excellence.
Several factions have come to the realization this region of Saskatchewan has the potential for providing visitors with a number one, first rate holiday experience that could be the highlight of their summer vacation, providing memories that will last for years.
In March of this year a popular Saskatchewan magazine, Prairies North, conducted a readers' survey of provincial tourist attractions. The poling recognized Frenchman Butte Heritage Center and Museum as the "Best Small Town Museum in Saskatchewan." This award underlines that volunteer-based organization's hard work in providing visitors to their facility and nearby historic sites with a congenial immersion in our western-Canadian heritage.
Last month, Tourism Saskatchewan identified the St. Walburg Wild Blueberry Festival as the "Best Limited Budget Fair" in the province. This multi-day event has grown in stature over the years, and now attracts thousands of visitors to town in late August. From this event tourists venture outward into the surrounding communities, exploring and embracing what they too have to offer.
A prestigious award of this magnitude serves as a strong incentive for other organizations within the community to strive toward matching this achievement; one success building toward another.
This month it was the turn of the Fort Pitt Provincial Historic Park to be honoured, achieving a "gold" rating just behind a "platinum" allocation awarded to the Tunnels of Moose Jaw in yet another survey. RV West Magazine readers identified the local historic site as being in with the "big boys," coming second best in the province.
Oddly this accolade was bestowed in spite of the limited development of the site's historic features by Parks Saskatchewan. This provincial historic park, along with the Battle of Frenchman Butte National Historic Site, have the potential of becoming major attractions for Alberta tourists seeking out our colourful early western history, including the 1885 North West Rebellion.
The potential for our success became evident last fall with a heritage oriented bus tour organized by Lloydminster's The Roots Community Emporium and Onion Lake Charter Bus Service. Amanda Amundrud, the visionary operator of Roots, partnered with Eugene Lewis of Onion Lake to develop a guided bus tour of the 1885 North West Rebellion sites of Frog Lake, Onion Lake, Fort Pitt and Frenchman Butte.
This tour, guided by Lewis, provided history buffs with a unique opportunity to appreciate the First Nations version of the conflict that erupted along the North Saskatchewan River in 1885. This outstanding experience proved to be a resounding success, participants spending the day immersed in history and First Nation culture. It proved to all, there is immense interest in our early western history and the desire to understand it more fully is prevalent.
A second event was a historical presentation sponsored by the Lloydminster Archives Support Board. Historian Paul Sutherland provided a PowerPoint presentation on what might seem a boring subject - The Fort Pitt to Fort Edmonton Trail, The Forgotten Highway.
A rather surprised Sutherland stood before an after-dinner crowd of over 80 enthralled diners and described the old Red River Cart trail's existence and the huge importance it played in the opening of the Canadian West. This too proved the extent to which our history is being recovered by dedicated amateur historians sleuthing out the long-lost facts, and the extent to which this work holds importance to all of us.
These awards and events come at a crucial time with Saskatchewan's tourism industry as it currently undergoes a renaissance. About five years ago government recognized tourism in our province had declined to the lowest level of all the provinces in Canada, and consequently the economic benefit was only a trickle of its real potential. The challenges to success have since been clearly identified; being a lack of infrastructure, our scandalous road conditions, (especially Saskatchewan's Worst Highway, Highway 21 north from Paradise Hill, gateway to the Lakeland, in a CAA on-line survey) as well as severely limited marketing budgets of individual local attractions as they compete against major events in neighbouring provinces.
The recent honours and recognition has positioned our visitor attractions perfectly for the future as our province focuses on preparation for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Canada's confederation coming in 2017. With such a significant event to celebrate, both provincial and federal governments are expected to commit substantial attention to preparing for the celebration. Since many of these improvements cannot happen "overnight," site identification, planning and budgeting must be accomplished now, with any actual enhancements occurring during the intervening time prior to 2017.
The Northwest region is the "open front door" to Saskatchewan for the Alberta tourists travelling the Yellowhead Highway. The region will benefit economically the most, so with governmental help, we must set an example for what future travellers will experience, thus enticing them into exploring the rest of this unique province
