ECHOES OF OUR PAST A WALK ALONG THE HISTORIC

SEINE RIVER IN OLD ST. BONIFACE

Saturday

May 2, 2015

Noon

Join local historian and storyteller J.P.

Brunet for a guided walk from

Lagimodière-Gaboury Park (Thibault

Street at Notre Dame Street, 1 block

north of Provencher) to Gabrielle Roy

House Historic Site (375 Rue

Deschambault). More details about this

1.5 to 2-hour walk are on the back.

Leader: Jean-Pierre Brunet, a former long-time member of the Save Our Seine Board of Directors and author of The Seine River Trail - Echoes of Our Past - Suggestions for Historical Interpretation, will guide the tour. He will be assisted by current members of the Save Our Seine Board of Directors. For more information, contact d-gautron@hotmail.com .

Duration: 90 minutes to 2 hours Footwear: Dress for the weather. Hiking boots might be required as some parts of the trail may be wet. Description: Join Save Our Seine for a walk that will commemorate two special anniversaries – the bicentennial of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière’s legendary 5-month 1800-mile walk to Montreal that began on October 17 of 1815, as well as the 25th anniversary of Save Our Seine River Environment that began in October 1990. The walk will visit one of the most historic areas of Winnipeg, including the parc historique Lagimodière-Gaboury Historic Park along the Seine River in Old St. Boniface. The dedication of this park is but one of the many accomplishments stemming from the efforts of Save Our Seine. This park, and south Winnipeg’s 100-acre Bois-des-Esprits, are SOS crowning achievements - bookends to the 26 kilometers of Seine River within Winnipeg that SOS has nurtured, protected, and restored in its 25-year history. When local residents met in a living room on Egerton Road in October 1990 to rescue a much maligned and ignored little river – little did they know, that the group would go on to become one of Manitoba’s most successful grassroots environmental groups in the province’s history. In the course of this walk, you will visit some of the many historic destinations along the Seine River and learn about:

The land grant bestowed by Lord Selkirk on Lagimodière as a reward for his services as a courier. Visit the site of the original homestead of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière and Marie-Anne Gaboury, the first woman of European descent to settle in Western Canada. Together they are one of Western Canada’s greatest pioneering couples.

The parcel of land that marked not only the beginnings of St. Boniface but also laid the foundation for the birth of the new province of Manitoba and became the seat of much of our province’s history—including the birthplace of Louis Riel.

The carding mill operated in this area by Louis Riel (Senior) the Miller of the Seine.

The Seine River as transportation hub, from Canada’s most celebrated voyageur (Lagimodière is the reason behind Western Canada’s largest winter festival - St. Boniface’s Festival du voyageur), to the first overland route from the East - the Dawson Trail and the introduction of Western Canada’s first locomotive, the Countess of Dufferin, unloaded at the mouth of the Seine.

The first military presence in Western Canada - the multi-ethnic de Meurons regiment, whose settlement on the Seine marks the first urban neighbourhood in Winnipeg that ushered a new era of peace, calm and prosperity for the burgeoning colony of Red River.

The world-renowned Francophone author Gabrielle Roy who grew up and worked near the Seine River—including her family home, where she went to school, and where she taught school early in her career.

The hard-won battles to reclaim the north corridor of the Seine by Save Our Seine, with its waves of volunteers during a 25-year period, including:

The cleaning up the worst of the urban Seine—the industrial north

The cleaning of a 70-year-old contaminated site that oozed tar from an earlier roof tile manufacturing plant

The laying of one of the most picturesque trails in Winnipeg, the Gabrielle Roy trail leading to her original restored home on rue Deschambault, that has become an international pilgrimage for multitudes of fans, and where the author found solace and described the river as: “our small Seine, a narrow watercourse that twisted its way onward like a snake between thickets filled with rose haws, a tiny river buried in the grass, muddy secret, of little danger to us, even when we plunge in headfirst, my pretty river, green as cats eyes."

The walk will conclude at La Maison Gabrielle Roy (Museum). The house is open for tours Saturday May 2nd from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The museum admission is $5.00 for adults or $3.00 for students and seniors.

This walk is part of Save Our Seine’s 25th Anniversary celebrations. Find out more regarding upcoming SOS events at www.saveourseine.com .

Photo: Bob Tinker

Photo: Bob Tinker