City - Saskatoon State - SASKATCHEWAN Country - Canada
About
The South Saskatchewan River - a body of water as ill-suited for commercial navigation as it is possible to imagine. "One did not steam down the river" one captain from the 1880s reminisced, "so much as hopped from sandbar to sandbar." Our last commercial steamer slammed into the piers of the aptly-named Traffic Bridge during a run of high water in the spring of 1908 and sank. Saskatoon's only maritime disaster. Nowadays, river traffic is limited to pleasure cruisers, like this one. Ironically, perhaps, I was aboard for an preliminary archaeological "dig" for artifacts of the ill-fated City of Medicine Hat thought to be lodged in the sandy river bed a few hundred yards downstream of the bridge. It was a glorious way to spend a beautiful fall morning. And they even found some artifacts.
Shot in colour, converted to b&w and toned slightly.
Saskatoon - "the Paris of the Prairies", as I have heard it referred to (I think in a Tragically Hip song; I once spent a bit of time trying to track down the reference, with ambiguous results).
As the Medicine Hat sank, a large group gathered on the bank and on the Traffic Bridge to watch. At the height of the festivities, a couple of cowboys tried to drive a herd of cattle across the crowded bridge, with predictable results. People afterward agreed that it was the most entertainment they'd had in weeks.
Nice image and an interesting "about" Jon. The image itself, reminds me of some that I've seen before, shot in Paris. Seems funny to use Saskatoon and Paris in the same reference. :) Andre
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{K:54810} 3/24/2009
