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Rain can’t stop history buffs in Yorkton

Heavy rains might have prevented the actual walking tour part of the first of Randy’s Summer Tours of Yorkton, but that didn’t dampen the spirit of a room full of history buffs, eager to learn more about the history of Yorkton.
Land Titles Building
Kathy Morrell presented the first of Randy’s Summer Tours, a series of tours of the city highlighting history, nature and other resources that the city has to offer. Pictured, Randy Goulden also gave attendees a tour of the Land Titles Building, after rain stopped the outdoor portion of the event.

Heavy rains might have prevented the actual walking tour part of the first of Randy’s Summer Tours of Yorkton, but that didn’t dampen the spirit of a room full of history buffs,  eager to learn more about the history of Yorkton.

Presented by Kathy Morrell, the presentation covered two prominent families from Yorkton’s early history, the Patrick family and Harry Bronfman, as well as some of the historic buildings that are scattered through the city’s downtown area. Whether inspiring, such as tales of the Dr. Patrick and the Spanish flu epidemic, or legally dubious, with stories of bootlegging in the city, the stories shed light on the city’s early history.

Morrell believes there is a real appetite to learn about the history of the city, and the crowd that arrived at the event were evidence of this. While many of the heritage buildings within Yorkton are long gone, she points to the people working to save the brick mill as evidence that there’s increasing interest in saving the city’s early history.

Randy Goulden, who has been organizing several summer tours in the city this summer, says that while part of the tour was rained out, was a good start for the series of tours.

“As we do in Yorkton, we found a way to still do it, and we had a wonderful evening of storytelling  and hearing the history of Yorkton.”

The tour brought out people from B.C. and Colorado who grew up in Yorkton and were down for a visit to come out and learn a bit more about the history of the town where they grew up.

The inspiration for Randy’s Summer Tours was to give people a chance to look at things in the city they might not be aware of, or have otherwise not had a chance to experience. She notes that she’s excited to do a relaxing lunch in Sonja Pawliw’s Healing and Meditation Garden – on July 20 at 12 noon at 95 Wellington Ave – and doing a nature walk at the Ravine Ecological Preserve on July 27 at 10:00 a.m. with the Yellowhead Birding Trail Association.

“We’re making what we have available to everyone who lives here or comes to visit.”

They wanted to make tours that free for interested parties, and Goulden says they’re also planning to get out to the city’s long term care facilities to give information to people who otherwise are unable to get out and enjoy what the city has to offer.

“I look at sharing that information with them but also look at whether they have something which we can add to our self-guided tours.”

Goulden wants to make the tours a permanent fixture in the community, and she wants to find something that will work in winter as well as trying to get a bike tour going for the sake of getting out to more spread out local landmarks.

The next summer tour will be on July 14 at 2:00 p.m. with a tour of St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church.