#4 Dominion City MB: That’s a Bit Audacious!

A few people tagged along on the first leg of the journey from The Forks to Dominion City. We were hungry and I had promised a special lunch, but first I wanted to tell three stories from local lore.

Countess of Dufferin

In 1877, together with her husband, the Governor General of Canada, the Countess of Dufferin was visiting Manitoba for diplomatic reasons. I hope she brought her rail-working clothes because she was roped into pounding in the first spike on the first railway in Western Canada. When finished, it would connect Winnipeg with St. Paul, MN. Having done the deed, the Countess and the Governor General boarded a paddlewheeler heading south up the Red River on their way home. En route they passed another paddlewheeler heading north and carrying the Countess of Dufferin. Confused? This particular C of D was a locomotive named after the lady in the other boat. They waved at each other (actually I’m not sure about that) never to see each other again. The locomotive began work on the railway that the lady had started until the last spike was driven in right where we were having our picnic in Dominion City. The metallic Countess of Dufferin would finish her career in the mountains of BC. She actually had one more brush with fame when Sir John A. MacDonald decided to strap a chair to her cowcatcher and ride through the mountains with an unobstructed view. We’re not sure why.

Dominion City

This might sound like an impressive name for a small town. But other little towns were doing similar things as the west opened up. They all had dreams of being great new metropolises in the New West with names like Rapid City and Crystal City. So the people of this little community figured they would dream big and claimed the biggest plum of all: Dominion City in the centre of the Dominion of Canada.

The whole idea of being a Dominion used to bug me. I figured Canada was it’s own place. It wasn’t dominated by England or any other country. But then I realized that this wasn’t the basis for the name of our nation at all! One of the godly leaders at the time suggested the name as a reference to Psalm 32:8. “He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.” It was a statement putting this new nation under God’s dominion. Under his Lordship. Suddenly I was thrilled to refer to the Dominion of Canada. And if the ‘seas’ in the verse could be mis-applied to the Atlantic and the Pacific, surely we could take it one step further and have the ‘river’ be the Red at the centre of our country, right?

The Big Fish

An actual-size replica of a lake sturgeon overshadowed our picnic spot in Dominion City. At over 15 feet long and over 400 lbs in weight, the original was the biggest freshwater fish ever caught in Canada. And that from the humble Roseau River just outside of town.

Patty and I were camping a little further up the Roseau last year. Walking down to the river, we saw several people fishing. Just for fun I asked, has anyone caught a sturgeon? I assumed nobody would catch the reference to the big fish but one fisherwoman said, “Funny you should bring that up. My grandpa was just a little boy visiting his uncle that day. The uncle had a farm right on the Roseau, and the two of them went for a walk beside the river. Suddenly they spied this huge fish caught in a shallow pool. The two of them hurried back to the farm and got a few neighbors and a tractor. All of them came back, hooked a chain around the sturgeon’s tail and pulled it out with the tractor.” Fun story.

Fish and Bread

The menu for our picnic at Dominion City was taken from the time Jesus fed the 5000. It consisted of fish - Winnipeg Goldeye - provided by me and buns from Gunn’s bakery offered up by our friend Terry Wall. Two Terry’s standing in for the little boy who brought what he had in his lunch bucket for Jesus to use. Oh yeah, I also added fig jam and grape juice because that seemed authentic.

Through all the stories and the picnic, a theme was repeated which we desperately needed to remember on our journey. There was one woman who pounded in one spike that became Western Canada’s first railway. There was a tiny town that had the nerve to call itself Dominion City. There was a little boy who helped catch Canada’s largest fish. And there was Jesus who multiplied another boy’s fish and bread to feed 5000 people. I know my limitations and what I’m able to do (and mostly not do) for Canada. But I know that my God is a multiplier and can take the little we have to offer and change this country. And ‘we’ of course includes all of you who are going with us prayer.

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