In a subsequent telephone conversation,
Mr. Brown extended an
in¬vitation to Mr. Kaiser from the Assiniboine Historical Society, to
attend the April 8 meeting of the society and talk to the group about
the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen and the efforts being made
by that organization to focus attention on the signifi¬cance of the
rivers of North America.
"The Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen", said Mr. Kaiser in his
letter, "is an organization dedicated to preserving the rivers of North
America and a finding such as that of the Assiniboine Queen is indeed
of great interest to our organization."
Mr. Kaiser accepted the Historical Society invitation and will speak at
the regular monthly meeting to be held at 8 p.m., April 8, in the
lecture theatre at Neelin High School.
Highways were not passable, vehicles were ordered off the roads ... and
Mr. Brown and Mr. Kaiser headed for the security of a warm hotel room
rather than take a chance on the Trans-Canada.
They telephoned, however, during the historical society meeting, and
that's where we learned about something even more interesting.
Mr. Kaiser told me during the telephone chat, that when Roy Brown
mentioned Grand Valley, Mr. Kaiser heard a familiar tune.
His home town, he said, the 200-year-old city of Wheeling is located in
what is known as the Grand Valley, a stretch of the Ohio River valley
that separates the panhandle of West Virginia from the state of Ohio.
About five years ago, picking up the Grand Valley name as an
attrac¬tive label, the people of the area began to promote interest. It
has really paid off, with increased tourist attention and an annual
"Whistle Blow Day" on June 6 the featured item of the year.
Grand Valley is probably an older name in the Brandon area than in the
American southeast. The community grew up a few miles east of the
present location of the city in the late 1870s when the Assiniboine was
an important highway for transport through the
pioneer Prairies.
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