Delta Marsh History Initiative, Steering Committee Meeting

9:00 am, 17 January 2005
Home of Shirley Christianson, Portage la Prairie

Present: Barry Bills, Maurice Blanchard, Shirley Christianson, Gordon Goldsborough (sec), Heidi den Haan, Winnie Pauch, Glen Suggett

1. Minutes of the last meeting (22 November 2004) were approved by consensus with the following changes: a) misspellings of den Haan were corrected, and b) misspelling of Verwey was corrected.

2. Business

a) Bob Johnson – He lives in Portage la Prairie. Suggett has had trouble reaching him – no response after an initial email exchange and several missed phone calls – he will try again in a few weeks.

b) Delta cottagers – den Haan and Goldsborough will work on a newsletter and contact the RM of Portage to obtain updated mailing addresses.

c) Terry Atkinson slides – Suggett has scanned 35 mm slides borrowed from him, and put them on a CD. He will mail them back to Mr. Atkinson and provide a CD copy to Bills for our archives.

d) Writing – Suggett will work two days per week at the Delta Marsh Field Station, focusing initially on the hunting history.

e) Womens’ history – Four people attended this event organized by Pauch and den Haan: Joyce Ward, Sheila Cook, Doreen Dow, and Edith Arnold (Joyce Tomalin and Joan Hochbaum were not able to make it). It lasted about two hours. They talked of raising a family and domestic chores. A few photos were scanned by Suggett. It was thought generally to have been a successful event, and similar projects should be organized with other groups, such as fishermen and farmers (see items I and L below).

f) Rutherford slides – Three 35 mm color slides showing the Charles Snyder cottage circa 1960 were borrowed by Suggett for scanning. Christianson reported that Mr. Rutherford has some good stories. (He was a pilot at Macdonald during the World War 2 training period.) Christianson will arrange to interview him.

g) Fish fry – It was agreed to arrange a fish fry on Canada Day again this year. Merle Vust has offered to donate another quilt for a raffle. His generous offer will be accepted. den Haan will contact the Delta Waterfowl Station to check on availability of the hall, and inform the RM of the date so they might include a notice of the fish fry with tax assessment notices to be mailed to all cottagers.

h) Cruzille album – A copy of this interesting album of photographs and documents was donated to our project by Dr. McKenzie of Medicine Hat, a grandson of the Cruzille family of Delta.

i) Men’s meeting – den Haan will pick a few possible weekdays in early February (not a weekend) for an event to be held in the new residence at the field station. Some potential participants were identified: Andy Rutherford, George Storey, Jimmy Turner, Maurice Blanchard, Bob Johnson, Bill Linden. When a date is selected, Christianson will call to invite them to attend and remind them to bring photographs. Pauch will prepare a list of standard questions to guide the proceedings. Transportation might be a problem, so it may be desirable to pick them up. Suggett has a Surburban and could do it.

j) Tin Town survey – Suggett is holding off on this, waiting for a response from Mr. Johnson (a “trial run” to make sure the right questions are being asked) – a mailing list of Tin Town residents is now up-to-date.

k) Cuthbert anchor – Suggett asked Cal Cuthbert about the rumored large anchor salvaged from Portage Creek. He knew nothing about it. He will call Norm Cuthbert to check further.

l) Farmer meeting – den Haan will give potential dates to Suggett, potentially sometime in February. They will both call people from a list in our last meeting’s minutes.

3. Next meeting: The next meeting will be held at the home of Shirley Christianson (118 Wilkinson Crescent, Portage la Prairie) at 9:00 am on Monday, 21 February 2005.

4. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 10:35 AM.