 |
| Above: Saskatchewan prairie town, circa 2022, Google. |
 |
| Gray, Saskatchewan, June 2013, Google. |
In Canadian history, the square timber trade is one well-known exploitation of Canada's natural resources. Another less-known (but equally massive) trade in forest products occurred during the late 1900s.
Large quantities of clippings were harvested from Canadian newspapers in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba by my aunt and uncle and - subject to the frequent postal strikes of the late 20th Century - sent east to a waiting clientele. When LC Gagnon received these materials from his sister and brother-in-law, they were further processed into photocopies, trimmed, and carefully reassembled with Scotch Tape and staples. The originals were generally filed for future reference.
After processing, the photocopies found ready markets in the Kingston area. However, over the years, they were also sent to distant points in North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, to Vienna Austria and even Belleville!
While mining my cool subterranean collection of documents from decades past during this hot dry summer, I found this photocopy. From the 1990s, this delightful, snapshot of a vanishing aspect of prairie life probably originated in The Western Producer.
 |
| from: Canada Yearbook; 1967; Government of Canada. |