morse saskatchewan

We awoke and saw the Prairie sky this morning (Saturday June 9)—that wonderful blue with the majestic clouds. What a treat. At breakfast we met a wonderful 81 year old man who was leaving his farm in Moosemin to move to High River Alberta to be closer to his daughter. His daughter was travelling with him as they were returning from the auction at the farm driving a huge truck and towing the Dad’s car. She was pretty comfortable driving the truck but was happy to have Dad along to help her back up the trailer. Their farm was 3000 acres which was considered huge for it’s time but small by today’s standards—it was a nice start to our day.

We found the Coates family with no problem and spent a wonderful hour over coffee learning more about farming in Saskatchewan and about the town of Morse. I definitely need to get Myrna’s chocolate cake recipe with the boiled icing. The town of Morse is very close to the highway on Reed Lake which is a salt lake with a road across it ( the road helped Morse prosper as farmers south of the lake were able to bring their grain to the Morse Elevators)—there are still two working elevators in Morse. George is on gopher patrol this year and has already fired at least 2000 rounds so gave us permission to run them over if we saw them on the road. The museum in Morse is exactly as the tour guides describe it, “the Morse museum is housed in a brick school built in 1912, the exhibits focus on the town’s development from the time of the early settlers to the 1970‘s. The displays include five themed rooms, a Victorian style parlor and an art gallery featuring works by local, regional and provincial artists. Tea is served at the end of the guided tour. “ It is definitely worth a stop and not at all far off the highway. We spent over an hour and could easily have spent a lot more time there—we were fortunate to have our own tour guide, Laurie, who was very well informed and shared her knowledge of the area with us. We did not take the time to stop for tea but if we are back thru the area we would certainly plan to stop and visit again. The museum is very well organized and cared for. It is in the original school so all the classrooms are used and displays are not at all crowded. It was special too because we knew the Coates connection.