Edouard Beaupre: The Willow Bunch Giant
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Saskatchewan is the land of the living skies, and everything seems to be bigger here. While the land is flat, the prairie elevators are tall, the love for the Riders is extreme, and even the people tend to grow a bit bigger than elsewhere.
This was certainly the case with Edouard Beaupre, the man who would become the Willow Bunch Giant, one of the tallest men in recorded history.
Born in Willow Bunch on Jan. 9, 1881, he was the first of 20 children born to Gaspard and Florestine. Not only was he the first child to ever be baptized in the community, he would also become its most famous resident.
As a seven-year-old, he was of normal height but by the age of nine he was already over six feet tall. At 11, he was six-foot-six and it was at this point he stopped going to school. Despite dropping out, he was able to speak five languages, including French and English.
At 17, he was seven-foot-one, and unfortunately had to give up riding horses because of his height. To make ends meet, he would help his father, who worked as a freighter for local traders, going on trips to Moose Jaw and Regina.
With his height, which was estimated to be eight-foot-three inches by adulthood, he began to become quite famous locally and that fame led him to leave the ranch and begin touring. Traveling throughout Canada and into the United States, he delighted people by bending iron bars and lifting horses onto his shoulders.
With incredible strength and a robust physique, Beaupre promoted himself not as a freak of nature, but as a strongman without equal.
It was rumoured his feet were size 26, and 33 yards of material had to be taken to the tailor each time he needed a new suit.
In Montreal on March 25, 1901, he wrestled Louis Cyr, a strongman considered to be the strongest man to ever live. Despite having three feet on Cyr, Beaupre weighed three pounds less and lost the match. During the match, Beaupre barely touched Cyr not because he couldn’t, but most likely because he didn’t want to hurt him. Despite his great size, Beaupre was known for being a very gentle man.
Two days after signing a contract on July 1, 1904 with Barnum and Bailey circus, Beaupre died of a pulmonary hemorrhage and tuberculosis at the age of only 23. During an autopsy, it was found that a tumor on his pituitary gland was likely the reason that Beaupre never stopped growing.
Sadly, his body would not be returned home to Willow Bunch. At the request of the circus, the undertaker embalmed the body, which was put on display in St. Louis. It eventually found its way to the Museum of Eden in Montreal, then to a circus and finally to a warehouse where it was found by two children in 1907. The University of Montreal claimed the body, mummified it and put it on display.
In 1967, the family discovered that his body was in Montreal and in 1975, the process began to return his body to his hometown for a proper burial. The University refused to allow this to happen. In 1989, the family once again tried and used the media to help them. This time, the University agreed and cremated the body. His remains were buried outside the Willow Bunch Museum on July 7, 1990, 86 years after his death. Today, a full-sized statue is found where his remains are buried.
The Willow Bunch Giant
Standing at over eight feet, he was the tallest, and possibly, the strongest man on the planet during his short life. Today, you can visit the museum in Willow Bunch devoted to him.
Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan
Down on main street on a July morning in 2007.
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The Old Wives Lake Festival commemorated the first meeting between the North-West Mounted Police and a group of First Nations people, which took place August 8, 1874, near Old Wives Lake. The Festival, which took place August 2-4, 2008, in Mossbank, Saskatchewan, included ceremonies, First Nations performances, musical concerts and other activities. This video features excerpts from some of the highlights.
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Most to Ghost: Brooking - An Empty Town On The Prairie
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It all started with a dispute over a name. One side wanted to name the small community that sprang up in southern Saskatchewan after the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Stowe. The other side preferred that the name be Brookings, after a town in South Dakota. After some discussion, the Brookings camp won, and over time the name became Brooking.
Before we get to what Brooking became and what it is now, we need to step back and look at how the village came to be. The Mounted Police were the first Europeans in the area, patrolling through the land in 1900. O.A. Johnson is considered to be the first settler to the Brooking area when he arrived in 1904. One year later, more and more settlers began to arrive and by 1906, every homestead was taken. In order to get to the nearest town, it was a 55-kilometre trip to Weyburn. For farmers, that was a necessity as it was also where the closest elevator was found.
Around this time, to make things easier for farmers, a small cement bridge was built during the winter of 1906 by the provincial government. The goal was to ensure that farmers could cross the small creek in order to sell their grain. That small bridge would become an important landmark, although it is long gone today.
Also in 1906, the Buffalo Valley School District was formed and a school was built in 1907, opening in the summer of that year.
With more and more settlers in the area, a petition was sent to the Minister of Railways, Telegraphs and Telephones in 1910 asking that the railways be extended and a town be created along the line. The town did not have a name at the time, so it was called Ceylon. Later in that year, it was suggested that the town be called Buffalo Valley but this was too long of a name. The debate over Stowe versus Brooking was then held and Brooking was chosen.
The first store to operate was owned by the Lewerton Brothers, who provided everything settlers needed. On March 1, 1910, the first post office would open with one of the brothers serving as the first postmaster. Bob Keyes, a local carpenter, would build many buildings in the town including the three-storey hotel.
The community quickly thrived and had three elevators, two stores, a hotel, pool hall, school, lumberyard and much more. All of this happened thanks to the Grand Trunk Pacific branch line coming through, running from Radville to Willow Bunch.
In 1912, it was decided to create the Radville just down the road from Brooking and to turn that community into the divisional point for the railway. For those who had worked hard in the community to establish their businesses, this was a crushing blow. While the population of the community continued to grow into the 1920s, reaching 118 people, the trend was already to move businesses to Radville. Several fires, including the hotel fire in 1914, did not help matters.
In the 1920s, Brookings hit its high point of 118 people but times were about to change.
By the time the 1930s came along, better roads and the greater use of automobiles caused many to move to Radville, which was very close to the east. By 1935, only five services were found in the community.
Oddly enough, the Brooking Rural Telephone Company would be formed only a few years before the last gasps of the community. The company was created in March of 1958 and the shareholders immediately went about buying the old Khedive Rural Telephone line. Unfrotunately, while the six shareholders were tearing down the line, one pole fell and killed Howard Yingst in December of that year. In 1959, the rural telephone line was connected to Radville. The company would operate for the next 19 years.
The post office would officially close in 1961 with Royden Wallin being the last postmaster. That same year, the Brooking Co-op Association would shut down as well. In 1968, the elevator closed, three years after the Brooking train station had closed its doors.
Today, nothing remains of Brooking except for the elevator and the old Buffalo Valley school, which became the home of the Brooking Community Club in 1962 after they bought it for $200, and it was used as a community hall.
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Justin Bieber's Twitter Prank Lands Him A Lawsuit
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Justin Bieber is getting sued and it's all because of some prank action on Twitter. You'll probably remember awhile back when the musician posted Call me now on his official page along with a phone number. Well, not just any number - but definitely not Justin's phone number. In fact, JB posted a bunch of digits, but one shy of creating an actual contact, so followers were forced to guess the last digit. As far as the lawsuit goes, two people living in Texas are claiming that they got a crazy flood of calls from Bieber fans that day and for weeks after the post. Keep in mind that the star deleted the tweet. On a side note, the two adults want money for the cost and inconvenience of receiving 1-thousand plus calls. And according to TMZ, they're requesting an apology while one person wants JB concert tickets for her grandkids and the other would like an endorsement for his online project. Some are saying that these people are abusing the fact that they can link back the calls to Justin Bieber's prank and that their lawsuit seems a bit like extortion. Think about it. I'm Dana Ward in Hollywood - don't forget to subscribe to ClevverTV. Bye!
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Sarah Kathryn York - The Anatomy of Edouard Beaupre
Sarah Kathryn York is a PhD candidate at University of Waterloo in English. She discusses her novel, The Anatomy of Edouard Beaupre.
Video by Mariam Zahir, Alumni Outreach Assistant - English Dept. (Spring 2012)
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Let me know in the comments down below what is the MAIN fandom that makes up the most of your collection? Is it Transformers? Jurassic Park? He-Man? Marvel? Let me know!
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