Thursday we rented a car to go to two places about 50 km east of town: the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village and Elk Island National Park.
It seems that this part of Alberta has the heaviest concentration of Ukrainians this side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. One sign of this is that lots of restaurants - including a fish-and-chips place we ate at - have pierogies on their menu. A Ukrainian who migrated in the late 1800s went back home and sold lots of his countryfolk on the virtues of settling in East Central Alberta, and Ukrainian towns sprouted up all along the rail lines.
The Village is a collection of original buildings that were moved to the site and meticulously restored, complete with furnishings and all the stuff that would have been there back then. People in period costumes are in the buildings, playing the role of an actual person who lived or worked in that place. Here is the interior of an early Orthodox church. The settlers had to make a lot of compromises, but did their best to maintain a traditional feel. While a full-scale Orthodox church would have a wall covered with gilded icons in the front, the settlers made do with a mail-order church decoration kit.
This humble church was beautiful and is sometimes used for liturgies. Thus our tour guide asked the woman you see in the background to come out of the further part of the church because it was considered holy and only the priest (who comes in from Edmonton a few times a year) was allowed.
The photo below is of a more elaborate one as the community became more prosperous. I find these domes so beautiful!
To the left of the church you see the grain elevator which sits adjacent to the rail lines. It was explained that this ensured that if there was a fire (grain is highly likely to spark a fire) the rest of the town would be far enough away to be safe.
After the village, we went to the Elk Island Park, which is supposed to have lots of bison, elk, moose, and other wildlife. Suzanne saw one bison from the highway before we even got to the park, but once in the park they seemed scarce - even on a road called the "Bison Loop." We went to a good-sized lake and walked around there; saw a lot of interesting birds, including a white bird that nose-dived straight down into the water from 25 feet up, in order to catch fish. We couldn't get a good picture of that, but here's a red-necked grebe:
We decided to try the Bison Loop again, and Steve did see a few in the distance from there. But on the way, this guy was hanging out in one of the roadside picnic spots!
It seems that this part of Alberta has the heaviest concentration of Ukrainians this side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. One sign of this is that lots of restaurants - including a fish-and-chips place we ate at - have pierogies on their menu. A Ukrainian who migrated in the late 1800s went back home and sold lots of his countryfolk on the virtues of settling in East Central Alberta, and Ukrainian towns sprouted up all along the rail lines.
The Village is a collection of original buildings that were moved to the site and meticulously restored, complete with furnishings and all the stuff that would have been there back then. People in period costumes are in the buildings, playing the role of an actual person who lived or worked in that place. Here is the interior of an early Orthodox church. The settlers had to make a lot of compromises, but did their best to maintain a traditional feel. While a full-scale Orthodox church would have a wall covered with gilded icons in the front, the settlers made do with a mail-order church decoration kit.
This humble church was beautiful and is sometimes used for liturgies. Thus our tour guide asked the woman you see in the background to come out of the further part of the church because it was considered holy and only the priest (who comes in from Edmonton a few times a year) was allowed.
The photo below is of a more elaborate one as the community became more prosperous. I find these domes so beautiful!
To the left of the church you see the grain elevator which sits adjacent to the rail lines. It was explained that this ensured that if there was a fire (grain is highly likely to spark a fire) the rest of the town would be far enough away to be safe.
After the village, we went to the Elk Island Park, which is supposed to have lots of bison, elk, moose, and other wildlife. Suzanne saw one bison from the highway before we even got to the park, but once in the park they seemed scarce - even on a road called the "Bison Loop." We went to a good-sized lake and walked around there; saw a lot of interesting birds, including a white bird that nose-dived straight down into the water from 25 feet up, in order to catch fish. We couldn't get a good picture of that, but here's a red-necked grebe:
We decided to try the Bison Loop again, and Steve did see a few in the distance from there. But on the way, this guy was hanging out in one of the roadside picnic spots!
Red-necked grebes! I saw a whole bunch in Penobscot Bay last summer. They have such weird feet.
ReplyDelete