#saskatchewan
In this video I take you through the beautiful resort village of Manitou Beach, Saskatchewan.
This small village sits on the southern shore of Little Manitou Lake, which is about 120 km southeast of Saskatoon. This is a salt lake with about half the salt content of the Dead Sea on the border between Israel and Jordan. This allows swimmers to float easy in the water, and this lake is often referred to as the Dead Sea of Canada!
There is also an interesting legend regarding the healing properties of the lake. The Cree people in the area of what is now Saskatchewan were exposed to smallpox and their population was heavily affected. The legend goes that a tribe was moving across the prairie and set up camp near what is now Little Manitou Lake. The men in the tribe fell sick and were too weak to travel further. It is said that the afflicted men were overcome with fever and thirst and decided to crawl to the lakeshore to drink the water and immerse themselves in the cool lake. The exhausted men slept on the beach overnight and in the morning they felt a bit better. They attributed this improvement to the water itself and stayed on the beach where they drank the water and bathed in the lake. Within a few days the men had regained their health and strength and reunited with their tribe. The tribe members were surprised by the rapid return of the men's health. Medicine men named the lake Manitou, which means great spirit, And so the legend of the healing waters of this lake was born.
This legend quickly spread to the European settlers, and many claimed the mineral content of the water and surrounding mud had therapeutic properties. In 1919 Manitou Beach was incorporated as a resort village. The popularity of the area quickly grew, and in the 1920s and 1930s Manitou Beach was the most popular summer resort on the prairies and often rivaled Banff and Jasper for visitors.
People would travel to the area by train when the nearby town of Watrous became a division point for the Canadian National Railway. Thousands of cars would be parked on fields on weekends and during peak times the village population would grow from 200 to 15,000 people.
The area declined in prominence as a tourist destination over time due to various societal changes.
However, this beautiful resort village still draws people from all over the world who wish to float in the salt lake and enjoy the therapeutic indoor pools. Manitou Beach offers excellent places to stay, eat, shop and enjoy your time in this area. This village has excellent outdoor facilities in and around town, and this is a place that really celebrates creativity!
This area also has a really interesting history and I look forward to exploring a little bit of that in this video and another video I am posting in a few days on the town of Watrous, about 5 km south of Manitou beach.
I hope you enjoy the video, I enjoyed my time here and I would highly recommend visiting!
I hope you found this one interesting and informative, and if you'd like to watch more of my content in general please consider subscribing to my channel - I upload at least one new video per week.
Thanks for watching!