Böcker av Darren Bernhardt

In Prairie Oddities Darren Bernhardt recounts historical anecdotes from middle-Canada's past that were never given top billing, the ones that faded away in time but left their marks behind. Laden with archival images, Bernhardt's stories restore focus on the gunslinging fugitive who became a folk hero, the curious and chaotic battle for Kenora, the flower-bearing American spy, the ghost trail of the Bergen Cutoff, the lost bells of St. Boniface, how the bison were saved from extinction, Hudson Bay's missing gravity, and the many firsts accomplished in the northwest.The stories of what was - and what could have been - arouse imagination and kindle interest in a complicated and colourful past.

Shortlisted for the 2021 Manuela Dias Book Design AwardA 2021 Manitoba Day Award Honorable Mention Manitoba's history is one of being carved. Ice sculpted the land before nomadic first people pressed trails across it. Southern First Nations dug into the earth to grow corn and potatoes while those in the north mined it for quartz used in arrowheads. Fur traders arrived, expanding on Indigenous trading networks and shaping new ones. Then came settlers who chiselled the terrain with villages, towns and cities. But there is failure and suffering etched into the history. In Winnipeg, slums emerged as the city's population boomed. There were more workers than jobs and the pay was paltry. Immigrants and First Nations were treated as second-class, shunted to the fringes. Rebellions and strikes, political scandals and natural disasters occurred as the people molded Manitoba. In The Lesser Known, Darren Bernhardt shares odd tales lost in time paired with archival images, such as The Tin Can Cathedral, the first independent Ukrainian church in North America; the jail cell hidden beneath a Winnipeg theatre; the bear pit of Confusion Corner; gardening competitions between fur trading forts and more. Once deemed important enough to be documented, these stories are now buried. It's time to carve away at them once again.