by Bruce Cherney (part 1)
To the list of extraordinary calamities it had compiled since an elephant stampede and a lion escaped in 1907, spreading panic among Winnipeggers, a riot was added in 1909. On August 9, Happyland, the amus...
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by Bruce Cherney (Part 3 of 3)
The claim that sparks from passing trains were the primary cause of prairie fires possessed the potential to create a public relations nightmare for railway companies. To counter the assertions made b...
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by Bruce Cherney (part 2)
The village of Bagot, between Portage la Prairie and MacGregor on the CPR mainline, was almost entirely destroyed by one of the many fires sweeping across the prairie in Manitoba. “There are only thr...
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by Bruce Cherney (part 1)
“The soul-thrilling cry of Fire!” was heard throughout southern Manitoba farming communities on October 2, 1897. While today the odd hazy day is experienced during stubble-burning season, Manit...
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by Bruce Cherney (part 1)
When he first viewed the Sault la Biche (Deer Rapids), North West Company fur trader Alexander Henry was quite impressed by the bounty of the land surrounding the rapids. On August 16, 1800, after passing ...
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by Bruce Cherney (part 2 of 2)
The Liberal Party accused Premier Rodmond Roblin’s Conservative government of being “commercial bandits” for advocating the expropriation of the Bell Telephone Company’s assets...
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by Bruce Cherney (part 1)
Bell Telephone of Canada company officials at times must have felt they could count the number of friends they had in Manitoba on one hand. Almost daily, Manitoba newspapers criticized the company’s ...
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by Bruce Cherney (part 3 of 3)
The impostor aristocrat, who with a silky-smooth tongue and a bogus pedigree had convinced so many to part with their money, hatched another scheme to elude the law, which he sensed was once aga...
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by Bruce Cherney (part 2)
After escaping American justice, the bogus Lord Gordon Gordon settled into a peaceful life in Manitoba, taking on the trappings of a peer of the realm, including hunting pheasant at Brokenhead River, as we...
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by Bruce Cherney (part 1)
Where to go to escape the pervasive reach of American justice and one of that nation’s richest men? It was a question plaguing a man who gained notoriety using the name Lord Gordon Gordon.
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