Picture if you will, Morse in 1912. The city is bustling with people ready to grab their mail, sell their grain, or rush off to work. You ride through town, hoping to get to one of the five elevators and get the best price from this year’s harvest. Ecstatic people await the days train hoping for letters from loved ones, or that packaged that mother promised would be there today. Passing by the C.P.R Station you marvel at the new conveniences coming your way, Morse is a booming little town full of opportunity and every bit of that opportunity is right at your fingertips! Full of glee you sell your grain and sit at the station, watching the trains pass and hoping that this is just the beginning for Morse.
While Morse did not continue to boom like it had in the early years, it remained a rich and beautiful community of people. In fact, this rich history and community of Morse includes in large part the Canadian Pacific Railway, as Morse is located directly in the railway. In the past this was one of the major reasons why Morse was such a booming town. Having been the third largest grain marketing point in Saskatchewan in 1912, the railway allowed the grain and other goods from the town to be moved efficiently through the country. As well as the passenger train which allowed many people to visit and marvel at the town of Morse. During this time Morse was often referred to as the hub of activity, beating out almost all other competitors in the area, this was a time of true opportunity and growth. Since then, many things have changed, passenger trains no longer glide across the rails delivering people to loved ones and foreign lands, Morse no longer has any elevators to sell grain at, but the history and beauty of the simple time is not lost on the people of Morse. This elegant history is preserved through the people of Morse, through the historical buildings that they fight so hard to maintain, and through the spirits of every single resident. Morse may no longer look like the hustling town it once was, but the spirit of that boom has remained to this day. You can see all our latest updates and posts by following us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MorseMuseumAndCulturalCentre/and Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/morsemuseumsk/. Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Morse Museum & Cultural Centre, its Board of Directors or sponsors.
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All this week we have been posting about Heritage Day, which until this year hasn’t meant much to me. In fact, I didn’t even know there was such a thing until recently, so this left me with the question: What is Heritage Day? And what does it mean? Quickly I was enlightened with the importance of such a holiday, especially in the times that we find ourselves in. So, let’s take a look at Heritage Day!
Heritage Day was established in Canada in 1973 by the Heritage Canada Foundation with the goal to preserve Canada’s rich culture and historical buildings. Along with this special day comes a theme every year, and this year is no different. This year’s theme is Resiliency, with the challenging year everyone has gone through it is crucial to be resilient, and to remember the resiliency of our ancestors. In some way we are pioneers just as they were, cultivating a new society in the wake of a somewhat devastating year. Our resilience has led us through a very difficult time, just as it led the pioneers through tough terrain, weather and uncertainty. As Canadians we are and have always been resilient. So how does the Morse Museum connect to Heritage Day? Well, to understand this we have to go back, back 40 years to be exact. In 1981 an advertisement was put in the Herbert Herald stating that the old Morse School should be designated as a Municipal Heritage Property, and within the decade the Morse Museum had its doors open. Equipped with a new sprinkler system and 4 painted and renovated rooms for the public to view. Without this designation the old Morse School would have been demolished, and along with it over 100 years worth of community history. But here it stands, in 2021 educating and entertaining people with the history of Morse! Here’s to another 40 years, and happy Heritage Day! You can see all our latest updates and posts by following us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MorseMuseumAndCulturalCentre/and Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/morsemuseumsk/. Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Morse Museum & Cultural Centre, its Board of Directors or sponsors. Today we all walk around with one of the most powerful computers ever, sitting right in our pocket. The whole world is right at our fingertips, and communication is easier now than it has ever been. It’s hard to remember a time where this convenience didn’t exist. But there was a time, a time of no cell phones, party lines, and switch operators. And even before that there was a time of no telephones at all. Over a century ago Saskatchewan made the switch to the most up to date technology of the time, telephones. On June 12th of 1908 the provincial government created the Department of Railways, Telephones, and Telegraphs and set out to provide an affordable telephone service for everyone. I imagine things have never been the same since that day.
The advancement of technology moved slow at first, with 60 years of rotary telephones and switch board operators, not much had changed since the introduction of the telephone in Saskatchewan. That is until 1968, exactly 60 years after telephones had first been brought to the province, there was now an option to have a push-button telephone, however this new feature was only available in Regina or Saskatoon. With this evolution of technology, the next upgrade wasn’t far behind, in 1979 the first digital system was introduced to Saskatchewan, and just like that switch board operators faded away. It was a short 10 years later in 1989 when the first cellular service was introduces to Saskatchewan offered through Sasktel Mobility. Looking back, the past 30 years have been filled with innovation and advancements. It took 60 years to introduce push button telephones, and only 30 to advance from the first cell phones to the near supercomputers we hold in our hands today. Let’s hope the next 30 are filled with more innovation as well! You can see all our latest updates and posts by following us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MorseMuseumAndCulturalCentre/ and Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/morsemuseumsk/. Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Morse Museum & Cultural Centre, its Board of Directors or sponsors.
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