June 7 – Anniversary of the End of a Manitoba Voyage

nPostednon June 7, 2015

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Donyou know what the “mouth” of a river is?

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nIt’snone end of the river – the end that is “downstream” – thenpart where the river flows into a lake, reservoir, ocean, or maybenjust another river.

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nThatnis the opposite end from the “headwaters,” the source of thenriver, which is often an underground stream or a melting glacier butnis sometimes a lake or a marsh.

nOnnthis date in 1800, famed explorer David Thompson reached the mouth ofnthe Saskatchewan River, in what is now Manitoba, Canada. The rivernempties into Lake Winnipeg.

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nManynAmericans don’t know much about Canada, especially the centralnprovinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. These two provinces arenlargely prairie, and of course a few lakes. n

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nAndnwhen I say “a few lakes,” I mean over 110,000 lakes in Manitobanalone, including the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the entirenworld, Lake Winnipeg.

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Indon’t know if you noticed that I referred to David Thompson as an“famed” explorer. He is widely known by Canadians, but not sonmuch by citizens of the U.S. Thompson surveyed huge swaths of landnand traveled miles of rivers; he filled in gaps of knowledge aboutnalmost two million square miles of Canada!

This map shows Thompson’s exploratory routes.

nHere are some cool things to see in Manitoba:

ThenCanadian Museum for Human Rights has interactive exhibits and a Towernof Hope.

nTheninterior of the Manitoba legislative building features hieroglyphics,nfree-masonic symbols, and numeric codes – but in a pretty subtlenway. A tour guide is helpful to point out such things as a bust ofnMedusa, the repeated use of the numbers “666” and “13,” andnEgyptian sphinxes!