The Great Trek Depression Migration into the Forest

The Great Trek: Depression Migration into the Forest Fringe of Saskatchewan Moving north, early 1930 s The Dust Bowl of the 1930 s, a time of intense drought and dismal commodity prices, pushed many rural families to the edge. With savings depleted and no prospects for a crop or even a garden, prairie families looked for solutions to get through the crisis. An estimated 45, 000 people moved north to the forest fringe throughout the Depression. The forest fringe zone was an integral part of “I looked out at the traditional First Nations life in the western fields and pasture interior. The ability to exploit more than one where I could see ecosystem offered a balance of resources one of our horses during tough economic times. The flight to pawing the sand the forest fringe during the Depression trying to get a mouthful of grass. ” Threshing machine 1933 represented a return to this basic strategy. Historians explain this “There being no mechanized method of clearing drought migration through the land, it was a monotonous ding-dong battle the perspective of prairie of chopping, clearing and grubbing. ” ‘bonanza’ agriculture and tend to focus on the failures of forest fringe farming. Pulling Poor soil, extensive bush stumps to cover, forest fires, muskeg, ‘make swamp fever and land’ in the mosquitoes were real forest. hazards that led to poverty, desolation, and desperation. “Great Trek” region Augustus Kenderdine started the influential Emma Lake Art Camp in 1935, during this forest fringe boom period. “We were young and going to a new land where dust storms were unheard of …I was fascinated by the tall trees …everything was so green. ” But the fringe also offered hope: trees for shelter and fuel, hay, water in wells and sloughs, garden produce, game and fish, wild berries, and the chance to earn cash from local commodities such as lumber and cordwood. Towns in the forest fringe experienced a mini-boom in the depths of the Depression. This boom defies images of prairie dust and despair and forest fringe descriptions of extreme poverty. “Our enemy, the poplar, became our ally when turned into cordwood. ” Local history books and oral interviews reveal that the majority of drought refugees sought a subsistence lifestyle that utilized all local resources, not just farming. Moreover, despite rapid rural depopulation in the south, Saskatchewan’s overall population continued to rise during the 1930 s, peaking in 1936 – in large part because of the forest fringe boom. This research bursts traditional historical narratives and offers a fresh perception of an important era in Saskatchewan’s history, an era that continues to resonate with Saskatchewan people. Research by Merle Massie, Ph. D (ABD) History