Manitoba : Land of the Unexpected

Michel Grandmaison

Description

Manitoba—Land of the Unexpected is the culmination of author and photographer Mike Grandmaison’s years of exploration across his beloved “Keystone Province.” Come discover Manitoba’s untameable wilderness and myriad landscapes, from its prehistoric bedrock and imposing lakes to its endless tundra and vast prairies, in this elegant and enriching photobook. Espousing Grandmaison’s indefatigable attention, technical prowess, and keen artistic eye, Manitoba—Land of the Unexpected is sure to satisfy the most curious of minds regarding what may indeed be Canada’s best-kept secret.

Sujets

• Loisirs
• Collections photographiques
• Photographie Créative
• Landscapes
• Themes
• Subjects
• Canadá
• Photography
• Canada
• Manitoba

Informations

• Publié par: Éditions des Plaines
• Date de parution: 03 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781988182032
• Langue: English

Extrait

MANITOBA
LAND OF THE UNEXPECTED
DEDICATION
I dedicate this book to my grandchildren—Riley, Summer, Finley, and Charlotte. I hope you will cherish the natural spaces of this astonishing province and pass on your wonderment to the next generation.
© 2016 Vidacom Publications
ISBN 978-1-988182-00-1
Photographs Copyright © 2016 by Mike Grandmaison
Text Copyright © 2016 by Mike Grandmaison
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems—without the prior written permission of the publisher, or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, One Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario M6B 3A9. The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Manitoba Arts Council for its publishing program. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Government of Manitoba through the Publishing Tax Credit Program for our publishing activities.

Design: Dave Maddocks, Shine Branding
Editor-in-Chief: Joanne Therrien
Editor: Ben Vrignon
Copy Editor: Lynne Therrien
The publisher wishes to thank Marc Labossière and Suzanne Mireault for their important contribution in creating this series.

Vidacom Publications
Les Éditions des Plaines Book Publishers
P.O. Box 123 Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R2H 3B4
[e-mail]
www.plaines.ca
www.vidacom.ca
T ABLE OF C ONTENTS
Introduction
The Prairies
The Forests
The Lakes, Rivers, and Wetlands
The Sandhills
The Low Arctic
Acknowledgments Wheat fields and clouds. Bruxelles
INTRODUCTION
Manitoba, often called the “Keystone Province” because of its shape and geographical position, is Canada’s easternmost of three Prairie provinces, located at the longitudinal centre of Canada at 96 degrees, 48 minutes, 35 seconds. It is Canada’s sixth largest province, and is surrounded by Nunavut and Hudson Bay to the north, Ontario to the east, Saskatchewan to the west, and by the neighbouring United States to the south. Winnipeg, its capital city, is situated in the heart and geographic centre of North America. With a total population of about 1.28 million people (nearly half of whom live in Winnipeg), Manitoba is a place where one can still experience much of its natural history without having to drive very far. Map showing the Province of Manitoba located in the geographic centre of North America.
Manitoba is not on most Canadians’ radar! In 1985, I transferred to Winnipeg after having lived in Edmonton, Alberta for some seven years. Yet, many of my friends could not understand why I was moving to Manitoba. I certainly did not expect to still be residing in Winnipeg thirty years later, the place that I have lived the longest since spending my first twenty-four years in Sudbury, Ontario. When my Forestry Canada position of some seventeen years was transferred back to Alberta, I had an opportunity to return to Edmonton, but decided instead to change career paths and launch a new career as a freelance photographer. Work was plentiful in Winnipeg and life was good.
In my eleven years working as a forestry technician and another twenty working as a freelance photographer specializing in nature photography, I have travelled throughout Manitoba in all directions. I have driven thousands of kilometres on its roads (paved and gravel alike), hiked hundreds of its trails, canoed down many of its lakes and rivers, and flown over much of its 647 797 km 2 surface area. While I had researched the province somewhat, I discovered many things that I had not expected to find here at all. I suspect many folks are also unaware of some of the interesting and unexpected things Manitoba has to offer.
I did not expect to learn that Manitoba ranks first in Canada for clearest skies on a yearly basis (Environment and Climate Change Canada), second for clearest skies in the summer, and sunniest province in winter and spring. While I was aware of Winnipeg’s “Portage and Main” intersection, the brunt of popular jokes referring to it as the coldest and windiest intersection in Canada, the long-standing cold weather legend is in fact unproven, as official temperature measurements have never been taken at any street corner to confirm which is indeed the coldest intersection in the nation. For sports fans, “Portage and Main” is the place where hockey captain Dale Hawerchuk signed his contract with the Winnipeg Jets, and where the “Save the Jets” rallies in 1995 and 1996 took place; the Winnipeg Jets finally returned to Winnipeg in 2011. The notorious intersection is also featured in the 1992 hit song “Prairie Town” by Randy Bachman and Neil Young, whose chorus repeats the line “Portage and Main, 50 below.”
Like most Canadians, I had envisioned Manitoba as a flat endless prairie landscape. What I did not expect was a province with very diverse habitats, from flat prairie to rolling hills, from heavily forested areas to interesting water bodies, to a subarctic region.
I had not expected the sights in the easily accessible subarctic tundra around Churchill, where polar bears roam freely for half the year, eager to spend the next half feeding on the pack ice of Hudson Bay. I simply did not expect a prairie province to have such a large saltwater coastline. I did not expect to find such abundant wildlife in Manitoba. In my home province of Ontario, which is more heavily populated than Manitoba, wildlife was not as commonly seen. From my Winnipeg backyard, I have sighted a black bear strolling down the alley and climbing a small tree in the neighbouring school yard, three white-tailed deer racing down the street as I looked out the living room window, countless rabbits, squirrels, and songbirds feeding and nesting in my trees and shrubs, and have observed many birds near the pond in a nearby park, including bald eagles, Mallard ducks, American pelicans, great blue herons, Great and American egrets, and Canada geese.
I did not expect to witness a celestial display of breathtaking and humbling northern lights from my own city backyard, but have done so on numerous occasions. When auroral activity is strong, you can see them almost anywhere, provided it is reasonably dark. I have gazed at them in awe, in silence and in darkness, all the while peeking at my neighbour’s windows to see if anyone else was watching them too. I did not expect that Manitoban fauna, flora, and landscapes would captivate the interest of such diverse international magazines as National Geographic (for the garter snakes of Narcisse) and Playboy (for the beautiful sandy beaches surrounding Lake Winnipeg, the second largest watershed in Canada).
I did not expect that Riding Mountain National Park was home to the largest black bears in North America, that the F5 Tornado that devastated parts of the town of Elie was the strongest officially recorded tornado in Canada, or that Manitoba had a “desert”—the Carberry Desert. I did not expect to see turquoise-coloured water as I did at Little Limestone Lake just north of Grand Rapids, or the huge limestone fissures covered in moss I discovered just recently near Pine Dock, and which can also be found further northwest in the province on the south shore of Clearwater Lake.
I did not expect to find such a large variety of agricultural crops. While I knew the Canadian Prairies were the breadbasket of the country due to their expansive seas of wheat and barley, I did not expect endless fields of canola, flax, oats, rye, sunflowers, buckwheat, alfalfa, soybeans, and corn to name a few.
Manitoba’s landforms or natural physical features have been shaped by many factors since the retreat of the continental ice sheet some 8000 years ago. The province’s land surface is formally classified into four major physiographic regions: the Hudson Bay Lowland, the Precambrian Upland, the Lake Agassiz Lowland, and the Western Upland. For the purpose of this book, however, I have sorted Manitoba’s landscapes into five chapters: The Prairie; The Forests; The Lakes, Rivers, and Wetlands; The Sandhills; and The Low Arctic.