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Elinor Florence (Company name) Elinor Florence

Ode to Eastend

During my writing retreat in tiny Eastend, Saskatchewan, I fell in love with its small town atmosphere and quirky charm.

Wooden sign at the entrance to Eastend, Saskatchewan has vintage gray lettering on cream background, decorated with red tiger lily, reading Welcome to Eastend, Est. 1914.

Welcome to Letters From Windermere, a monthly blog in which I write about:

  • HISTORY: mostly Western Canada history, plus anything else that interests me.
  • WRITING: behind-the-scenes info about my next historical novel.
  • BOOKS: I recommend a good book every month.

I was thrilled to be chosen as the 2024 recipient of the Wallace Stegner Grant for the Arts, which came with a month-long retreat at the childhood home of Wallace Stegner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who spent his childhood in Eastend, Saskatchewan. Read more here: Wallace Stegner House.

To be honest, my stay wasn’t much of a retreat. I did manage to complete the first round of edits on my new book titled Finding Flora, to be released in April 2025.

But the lure of the landscape called to me every day, and I found myself outdoors much of the time. I was also royally entertained by the local residents!

* * * * *

Eastend: The Landscape

Eastend is located in the southwest corner of the province, about one hour east of the Alberta border and one hour north of the Montana border. To reach the town, which is not located on any major highway, you must drive across some of the last remaining native grasslands in North America.

Then suddenly, you drop into a low, broad valley carved out by melting glaciers. At the bottom is the meandering Frenchman River, with Eastend (population 600) nestled on its banks.

Like many small prairie towns, this is not the thriving community that it once was, and many of the businesses on main street are shuttered.

Find more information here: Eastend, Saskatchewan.

Aerial view shows evenly spaced streets with green trees lining the streets, a green river valley in the background, and low green hills against the blue sky.

Nevertheless, you can’t beat the setting. The trees on the valley bottom are flourishing, and a lovely walking trail follows the river around the edge of town.

Smoothly-flowing river winds between grassy banks with silver shrubs reflected in the water at sunset

Above the valley lies the broad sweep of the prairie.

Broad, grassy plain dotted with yellow wildflowers and sagebrush stretch away to a blue sky filled with billowing white clouds.

This local lookout provides a spectacular view that stretches for miles in both directions. It’s called Jones Peak, named after early pioneer Corky Jones.

Rustic wooden sign on a fencepost, painted green with yellow hand lettering, reads Jones Peak with a finger pointing in the right direction.

I drove up there twice (on both occasions, the wind almost blew my head off), but the view is to die for.

Sweeping view from a high elevation on top of a cliff dotted with yellow flowers shows a broad green valley below, and a blue sky filled with white, fluffy clouds.

* * * * *

Eastend: The History

The area is ripe with history — the Indigenous people occupied this broad valley for untold centuries, followed by the Métis buffalo hunters, and finally the first contingent of North-West Mounted Police officers.

When Canada’s national police force was first formed, 300 men marched westward in 1875 and established outposts along the way.

One of them was called Eastend, Saskatchewan because it is at the eastern end of the Cypress Hills, en route to Fort Walsh.

A line of markers, lovingly maintained by volunteers, marks the trail followed by those first Mounties, and the main street of Eastend, Saskatchewan is named “Red Coat Trail.”

White post with a black metal sign on the top marks the North-West Mounted Police march west in 1874, the town of Eastend, Saskatchewan visible in the background.

Since small town museums are my passion, I have visited dozens over the years — and this is one of the best.

Don’t be fooled by the humble exterior, since the Eastend Historical Museum has several buildings at the rear including a homesteader’s shack and a schoolhouse.

Small white building with white clapboard siding and bright yellow door features rustic sign above the door reading Eastend Historical Museum in cursive handwriting

* * * * *

Eastend: The Dinosaurs

Aside from its human history, this region has relics that date back 65 million years! Once an inland sea, the area is now crammed with fossils and dinosaur bones — including the world’s largest tyrannosaurus rex.

She was found here about thirty years ago, and her replica (nicknamed “Scotty” because the paleontologists toasted their discovery with a bottle of Scotch, or so I’m told) now resides in an impressive steel and glass museum embedded into the hillside overlooking the town.

Smiling woman with shoulder-length brown hair and glasses, wearing a white shirt, stands below the gigantic skeletal head of the T. Rex dinosaur replica.

This surrounding hills are a paradise for fossil hunters. Rumour has it that these artifacts are so common that one individual has a bowl of dinosaur teeth sitting on his coffee table!

(It’s required to report any significant findings to government, but not everyone does. And area ranchers, for the most part, discourage fossil hunters because they traipse around on precious grazing land.)

* * * * *

Eastend: The Arts Community

This house is one of the first things you notice when driving down main street. It is occupied by local artist Trea Jensen, whose talent overflowed from her studio to the exterior of her home!

A two-storey house is painted bright blue, and decorated with a huge mural of pink and peach flowers, leafy vines, and green fantastical creatures that resemble a dragon and a rabbit

This town has seen many writers and artists visit over the years, who were granted permission by the Eastend Arts Council to occupy the Wallace Stegner House.

After I left, I was replaced by an artist from Providence, Rhode Island for the month of July; and she will be followed by an artist from London, England.

Like me, many of the former occupants have fallen in love with the place.

I met one Danish writer who was back for the third time, to visit friends and explore the area. And at least three residents have wound up purchasing homes here!

The town also boasts several permanent potters, painters, and craftspeople.

* * * * *

Eastend: The People

One of these potters is Melanie Graven, who owns The Blue Dog Studio. She transformed a small bungalow into a coffee shop by adding tables and filling the walls and shelves with art. Not only does Melanie produce excellent pottery, she’s also a master chef who churns out delicious lunch specials and home baking every day in her wee kitchen. Here she holds one of her own creations.

Pretty smiling woman with curly hair pulled back into a topknot, wearing white overalls and brown tank top, stands in front of a shelf filled with pottery, as she holds in both hands a beautiful brown and white vase.

Down a different side street is another house that has been turned into a bookstore by Will Wilson, called Antelope Books and Rare Maps.

With a doctorate in geology, after completing his career he moved here along with several truckloads of books and installed shelving from floor to ceiling in every room in the house, including the kitchen!

A burly middle-aged man with a brown beard and eyeglasses, wearing a plaid shirt and black suspenders, stands in front of a wall filled with books while other books are heaped in piles around him.

There’s only one grocery store in Eastend, Saskatchewan, named Hidden Valley Foods. Every time I bought something, the young man behind the counter named Dylan would tell me a joke!

Here’s one example: “What’s the difference between a hippo and a Zippo? A hippo is heavy and a Zippo is a little lighter.”

Smiling young man with long dark hair and a beard, wearing a black and white T-shirt, stands behind a grocery store counter

This lovely couple, Ken and Ethel Wills, took me out for supper one night and regaled me with tales of the old days.

They are pictured here with the most intact brontothere ever discovered, which was a mammal resembling a rhinoceros. Ken found it by accident some thirty years ago when he was repairing a road with his grader.

According to Ken, who is a loyal Saskatchewanian, the experts wanted to take the whole thing to Toronto, but he insisted that it stay in his home province, threatening to bury it again!

As a result, the original was moved to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina, and the replica sits here in the entrance to the Eastend Historical Museum.

Elderly white-haired couple, he in plaid shirt with rainbow suspenders and jeans, she in white top and dark pants, stand in front of full-sized dinosaur replica

Local historian John Schmitt showed me some tipi circles, located only a few kilometres from Eastend, Saskatchewan. These are made from the stones gathered by the Indigenous people to anchor the hides of their tipis.

Tipi rings are prehistoric and may be thousands of years old. After the whites arrived, the Indigenous adopted metal tent pegs, or used axes to cut wooden pegs.

The stones are hard to find because the grass has covered most of them, but John showed me several circles with their openings facing eastward toward the sun.

It was a very powerful and moving experience.

Smiling man wearing plaid jacket and jeans and ball cap stands on a grassy plain dotted with stones, blue sky in the background

* * * * *

Eastend: The Charm

The owner of Nic-Nak Shop has both a house and a huge yard full of items on display twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

It is a measure of Eastend’s lack of crime that a sign on the front door tells people that if they want to buy something in the yard, to drop their cash in a money box or email the payment to the owner!

(There is no police presence in Eastend, Saskatchewan. The nearest RCMP detachment is 35 kilometres away in the town of Shaunavon.)

Two-storey house with blue clapboard siding and white trim and glassed-in verandah is surrounded by furniture, pottery, and other second-hand items while a sign on the side of the house advertises Antiques and Collectables

Jack’s Café, which has been in operation for decades, is the only eating establishment  in town that serves supper. (There is a second lunch place in town called The Kilted Kitchen, but I tended to visit The Blue Dog Studio since it was closer to the Wallace Stegner House.)

Bright green stucco building bears the words Jack's Cafe in blue mosaic letters on the front of the building, with a red truck parked at the curb outside the front door

The most impressive aspect of Jack’s Café is a huge mural that runs around all four walls. It was created by Greek immigrant Angela Doulias, who owned the restaurant from 1975 to 2003 with her husband George.

After closing time, she spent many hours painting this impressive work of art that depicts the history of the town, starting from pre-contact with the Europeans.

This restaurant wall mural shows painting of Indigenous people with their tipis and campfires along the edge of a blue river, while below the mural is a mounted deer head, a stuffed owl, an advertising flip clock, and a coffee station

(Did you spot the vintage advertising flip clock in the photo above? The advertising panels automatically revolve every few minutes.)

The artist concluded her depiction at the turn of this century with a panel showing prosperous farms, oil wells, and the Calgary skyline rising in the background.

Restaurant wall mural shows grassy fields, yellow canola crops, and farmstead with house, barn, and circular steel grain bins, a train with red boxcars, a river, and a city skyline on the distant horizon. Below the mural is a booth with red leather banquette seating and a wooden table bearing a plate of food.

* * * * *

Eastend: The Unexpected

One sight that surprises visitors is the presence of two passenger trains parked at the edge of town, each with its own engine and about a dozen passenger cars!

These were acquired from various locations and trucked here by Gary Southgate, a farmer from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, who plans to open a private rail service.

Two streamlined train engines with yellow and black fronts lined up in front of a grain elevator, green grass in front and blue sky overhead

Everyone in town is waiting eagerly to see if he can get this train to leave the station, since the track running through the Frenchman River valley would be a wonderful way to experience the stunning landscape. The Ministry of Transport is proving difficult, and the permitting process is still underway.

Long view shows a train parked beside a grain elevator with about a dozen green, yellow and blue passenger cars and even a yellow caboose, with an arching blue sky and fluffy white clouds overhead

However, Mr. Southgate, who even had a sign made, is determined to succeed.

As his wife asked: “Couldn’t you have just collected stamps instead?”

Large sign mounted on two black posts has vintage black lettering on a white background that reads Eastend Scenic Rail Tours, and adorned with an image of a puffing steam engine on each side

* * * * *

Eastend: The Real Estate

I am baffled why anyone would choose to live in an expensive city when they can enjoy a much higher standard of living in almost any small Canadian town.

Just look at this lovely home and yard, available for $140,000.

Bungalow with blue siding stands in a large grassy yard with huge trees

If that price is still too high, check out this cottage for HALF as much. That would make the mortgage payment $350 per month!

This little gem has a huge back yard, mature trees, and a garden shed to boot!

White bungalow facing the street has bay window with brown trim

If it were not for the fact that I have five grandchildren here in Invermere, British Columbia, I would be sorely tempted to move.

In the meantime, I plan to return here again next summer to explore the area further and visit my new friends.

* * * * *

Book of the Month

It’s only fitting that I should highlight a Saskatchewan author this month, award-winning mystery writer Anthony Bidulka of Saskatoon.

Livingsky is the first book in his new trilogy featuring sleuth Merry Bell, who lives in a city that resembles Saskatoon. The title is a play on words, since Saskatchewan’s motto is “Land of the Living Skies.”

Book cover has creamy pink and gold background resembling a sunrise, with white title LIVINGSKY in capital letters, and smaller black type with the name of author Anthony Bidulka

One of the things that makes this series so arresting is that Merry Bell has recently transitioned from male to female, and the resulting challenges (how to apply makeup, for example) make her a very likeable and human character. I’m now deep into the second book in the trilogy, From Sweetgrass Bridge.

* * * * *

Finding Flora

Each month I will update you on my new novel’s slow march toward the shelves of your local book store. This month, I completed the 2P (Second Pass) which gave me the opportunity to review the manuscript once again and check to make sure the changes I requested to the 1P (First Pass) had been made.

I also met via Zoom with my new publicist and my new marketing manager from Simon & Schuster, who will start promoting the book very soon.

You can help by pre-ordering Flora. This just means that you order (and pay) for the book now, and will receive it immediately after the release date on April 1, 2025.

If you have any questions about how to pre-order, please drop me an email at elinor@elinorflorence.com.

* * * * *

Friends, I’m glad to be home, catching up on chores and visiting the grandchildren. So far, we have experienced not even a breath of forest fire smoke, which is a blessed change from last summer. And my husband’s roses are in full bloom!

Fondly, Elinor

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