Our Essential Past:
Learning Products: About this Project
Origins & Purpose
The Town Hartney and the R.M. of Cameron completed the three
foundational projects which fall under the umbrella, “Our
Essential Past”.
These projects, (Special Places, Notable People and Pivotal Events)
have generated considerable material from which educational products
can be adapted. The purpose of The Learning Products Project is to
introduce these projects to teachers and to begin the process of
providing a framework within which the projects and other local
resources can be used to best advantage in classrooms.
In general we hope to make it easier to teach Manitoba and Canadian
History from a local perspective, and put students in contact with
sites, artifacts, photographs, maps, and texts that are connected to
their world.
It is you, the teacher, who will decide the best ways to use the
resources; our goal is to provide some starting points.
Source Materials Available
Special Places
Special Places Projects are Inventories of Sites, including an analysis
process that addresses the relative heritage value of existing sites.
Inventories of both the Town of Hartney and The R.M. of Cameron are
available.
Notable People
Such projects use the process developed for Special Places Projects
with the focus being on People as opposed to Buildings. The result will
be a comprehensive look at the influential people in the region’s
history and the relative merits of each person’s contribution. The
results are available in two binders; The Inventory of Notable People
and “We Made Hartney”, a more in-depth look at the contributions of
selected individuals.
Pivotal Events
Pivotal Events Projects aim to identify and explore the main themes in
a community's history and produce an illustrated Time Line that will
help communities recognize, explore, celebrate and promote the heritage
assets that every community has.
All materials are also available at: hartneyheritage.ca
Rationale for using Local History Materials
Blame Nellie McClung…
As a teacher and a student of history, I knew a bit about Nellie
McClung and her role in the battle for women’s suffrage. I had read at
least one of her works of fiction, and counted myself well informed in
general. But what I didn’t know, what my high school and university
history courses had neglected to tell me, was that she grew up just a
short distance from my home town. I had no idea that in the
numerous times that I had driven down Highway #2 in the Wawanesa area I
passed within sight of the school yard were she got her early
education, within a few miles of the homestead where she grew up. In
fact I knew distant relatives of hers, (there still are quite a few in
the area) before I knew anything about her early life.
My point is that I think I would have appreciated that information. I
think that knowing about a local concrete link to this prominent
Canadian would have made History a bit more real for me. In fact
Historians were, and still are, somewhat careless about physical
details that might establish more of a sense of place to the stories of
the past. Manitoba’s new encyclopedia (an excellent volume) lists
Nellie’s childhood home, incorrectly, as Millbrook.) I believe they
meant to say, Millford. Someone didn’t check even the most basic
of sources, or an editor simply made a mental error. Either way it
reflects a general lack of concern, a mindset in which such details are
of little consequence.
Well I believe that such details are of consequence. I think that
instead of bemoaning the fact that interest in History seems to be
declining, we should be examining the possibility that if we allow for
an easier connection between the somewhat abstract facts, figures and
dates, and the physical concrete places, buildings and artifacts, we
will find the people indeed do like history.
Experiences: How One Thing Leads to Another….
I learned about the local connection to the Nellie McClung story while
researching, of all things, canoe routes. In trying to learn more about
the country I was crossing, I discovered that there were many forgotten
town sites along the rivers and that their names were unfamiliar to me.
Millford was one of them. And one thing led to another…
Learning by accident…
Often while driving westward along Highway #2 near Wawanesa I’ve taken
a brief glance southwards as I crossed the bridge and thought, “That
looks interesting.” You only have time to catch a glimpse of a
steep cutbank cliff and the winding river that brushes against it, a
mere hint of a wild looking landscape. You get another glimpse as you
crest the hill and, for most of us, that’s all you see. We’re all busy.
We’ve got places to go. Were you to stop at the western rim of the
valley, as I did one day, you will be surprised to find out how easy it
is to get a much better view. A conveniently placed crossroad offers a
road allowance south from Highway #10 that you might mistake for a lane
to a farmyard. The road ends abruptly, and indeed does lead to the
entrance of private lane, but it is a public road allowance, and there,
a few hundred metres from a busy highway, if you get out of your car
and walk a few steps, you will be rewarded with a river valley view
that can only be described as panoramic. There on the ‘flats’ was the
village of Souris City, a tiny but important nucleus of settlement that
existed for a brief decade in the 1880’s until the railway routes were
finally settled and Wawanesa came into being. At its birth Souris
City was one of many speculative “cities” that came with the Manitoba
Land Boom of 1881-82, but although it is now long gone, it did have
more of an impact than most of its kind. This spot perfectly captures a
view of the entire flats, the dream and the reality that was Souris
City.
But I wouldn’t have known what I was looking at, in fact I likely
wouldn’t have stopped, if my rambling (and random?) inquiries spurred
on by my canoe route research hadn’t taken me there.
These “False Starts” exist all over Manitoba. The textbooks we are
given in schools usually don’t mention them. They are local trivia from
the national perspective, but they are essential to telling the
complete story of each existing community.
So is my point perhaps that, if you want your students to connect with
history, take them canoeing? Or hiking?
Maybe.
Or get them to to try this:
Go to Google Earth and enter the coordinates 49' 31'12.70 N and
99'49'34.35W.
With a bit of zooming you should find a view similar to this one.
![](images/2GMillGE.jpg)
What we are seeing is a stretch of the Souris River about 10 km
southwest of Wawanesa.
Even a curious and observant person might not notice the pair of lines
running north-south to the west of the river channel. A person who did
notice them might at first suppose that they were some sort of trail,
but they don't seem to be going anywhere, at least the one on the right
doesn't seem to go anywhere. And why would there be two parallel
trails?
I'm happy to report that they aren't landing strips for alien
spaceships or even ancient aboriginal linear mounds. They're much more
recent. In fact they date from about 1890 and they represent the hopes
and dreams of one of the area pioneers.
How do I know? Again … blame the canoe.
Stuff Happened Here!
Once I made my own personal connection between the abstract past and
the very real artifacts, locations, buildings that exist in all
communities the list of things I wished I would have learned in school
kept growing.
I hadn’t really though about sawmills and the lumber business, because
my history and geography courses had led me to believe that lumber came
from B.C. I hadn’t known much about fur trade forts because my
school texts gave me the impression that they were all northern and
didn’t mention the ones that were right here. I knew about explorers
like LaVerendrye and David Thompson but had no idea that they had spent
time nearby.
It not that this information wasn’t readily available. Its just that
the standardized textbooks our teachers relied upon were written from a
national perspective. We were supposed to get the big picture.
We learned about Louis Riel but not so much about Cuthbert Grant, we
learned about the C.P.R. and not so much about the branch lines and
upstart companies that brought our small towns to life.
Which brings us to the simple purpose of this project.
The aim is to just make it a bit easier for teachers to make the local
connection by providing this collection of resources.
It’s not a self-contained learning package. It is not a definitive
manual or textbook. It won’t take the place of mandated texts.
I can’t, and shouldn’t, tell you what to do with these resources,
although I may have included a few general suggestions. Teachers will
know what to do with them – I’ve just done some of the legwork in
pulling them together.
Ken Storie
Best Practices in Local History Teaching
Historical Thinking
At the end of 12 years of studying history in school, students should
have more than an accumulation of memorized dates and facts. Students
need to understand their lives in the historical context of the past.
Historical Thinking fosters a new approach to history education. It
involves a shift in the teaching and learning of history. Historical
Thinking is central to history instruction and students should become
competent Historical Thinkers as they progress through the grades.
The Six Historical Thinking Concepts that provide a way of
understanding history and communicating complex ideas are:
1. Establish historical significance
Our local histories are full of information about our communities. The
Hartney Pivotal Events Project is one source teaches can use to get
students thinking about which events are significant and why.
2. Use primary source evidence
The Hart-Cam, Museum has photos, diaries and other materials that can
give student first hand experience with primary sources.
3. Identify continuity and change
Old photos, maps and newspaper clippings can be used to introduce
discussions about Continuity and Change.
4. Analyze cause and consequence
Examining the creation of town and villages is one way of considering
how events are related.
5. Take historical perspectives
How did people in another era see things differently than we do?
6. Understand ethical dimensions of history
Do standards of right and wrong change? What knowledge brings change?
Adapted from:
http://www.stclementsheritage.com/index.php/learn-our-heritage/teachers-corner
Specific Strategies
Connect with controversy and contemporary issues
Make it real by making connections. In 2014 farmers in Western Canada
were concerned about what they saw as inadequate resources for movement
of grain to market. This was also a big issue in the 1880’s.
Use art to display history – create
Hartney has a good assortment of historic buildings and some good
photos exist of some of the earliest buildings that are now gone.
Artistic re-creations of neighbourhoods can be a part of investigations
into the ownership and use of those sites.
Connect with the unique elements of a community
The Hartney area was home to fur trade posts and on major
pre-settlement trails. It was served by Canada’s two main railway
lines. It was the home to to brick yards, a flour mill and a sash &
door factory.
Make it personal
Many students have a grandfather or other relative that can serve as a
source for stories about earlier days.
Produce Content
Students can write history and historic fiction. They can create maps,
sketches and plans.
Use Technology
Digital Technology makes it easy for students to product videos,
documentaries, podcasts, and to do both desktop and web publishing.
Social Media such as Facebook can be used to create “Interest” pages
and link with other communities.
Connect artifacts to experience – touch – see - build – use
Using information gathered from photos and from museum visits, student
can re-create tools and devices from an earlier age.
Use photos to stimulate questions
A Gallery Walk is just one of many simply managed activities that can
use historic photos to stimulate thought, questions and understanding.
Have students circulate through a “Gallery” of about ten historic
photos (or artifacts, or ….). They should record one question that
comes to mind for each. The questions then are posed to the teacher
and/or each other.
Establish Historical Significance – A Sample
The past is everything that ever happened anywhere. How do we make
decisions about what we wish to remember as history?
Historically significant people and events include those resulting in
great change, over long periods of time, for large numbers of people.
Whether or not a person or event is significant depends upon one’s
perspective and purpose.
Historical people and events can acquire significance if we can link
them to larger trends and stories that reveal something important for
us today. The story of a Ukrainian family member, who immigrated to
Canada 1897-99, may become significant if it is told in a way that
illustrates the larger history of immigration in Canada at that time.
In that way the insignificant becomes significant.
Why was James Hartney historically significant? (Substitute any one of
the people profiled in “We Made Hartney”.
He established on of the first large successful farms in the region.
He applied for and received the first Post Office in the region which
he operated out of his home. It was named after him.
He became an advocate for his community and tried to use his influence
to improve his community.
He opened the first store in the region, also on his property.
When the C.P.R. located a town near his property which they called
Airdrie, local citizens protested and the name of the new town was
changed to Hartney.
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