New book delves into city’s past
Author delves into the stories behind the city’s everyday sights so we can understand how the past has shaped us, writes Stephanie McKay.
Amy Jo Ehman sees Saskatoon differently these days. While researching her third book, Saskatoon: A History in Words and Pictures, she learned some fascinating context for many familiar places.
“These are things in Saskatoon we see every day. The stories behind them were the things that really interested me, those things that I’d never heard before,” she said. “We can often be nostalgic for what was, for buildings that were torn down or institutions that no longer exist, but I decided instead of feeling that way and writing that way, I wanted to celebrate what we do have and show how it came to be.”
Until recently, readers looking to bone up on the city’s history were out of luck when they visited book stores. Though histories of Saskatoon have been written in the past, all of them are out of print.
Ehman was encouraged by her publisher to fill that void. She released the book, which chronicles the city from its Indigenous roots to the late 1960s, this spring.
Ehman focused on food in her previous two books, Prairie Feast: A Writer’s Journey Home for Dinner and Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens. She admits it was hard to break away from the culinary theme.
“The early draft of this had recipes in it,” she said with a laugh. “I just didn’t want to let go. But in the end, it just didn’t really fit.”
But because Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens was heavy on history, the new book was a natural move for the writer.
When she started working on the history, Ehman was overwhelmed by information and photos. Though it was tricky to narrow down what to include, Ehman was happy for the book to be an introduction to Saskatoon’s history. She hopes readers will feel encouraged to seek out more information on their own.
Saskatoon: A History in Words and Pictures draws on a bridge theme, with several chapters tied to a specific city bridge. The beginning of the book, which details the area prior to becoming a colony, is called History Abridged.
“From the moment the first settlers of Saskatoon chose this spot, they wanted a bridge,” she said. “We’re still building bridges. It’s been this constant through the lifespan of Saskatoon and I’m sure will go on into the future.”
In addition to learning brand new information, Ehman also had to unlearn some long-held myths. One tale, about how Saskatoon got its name, was so common Ehman learned it in school.
“It’s really fanciful and likely not true,” she said.
According to some, the settlement’s founder John Lake was an elderly man in Ontario when he recalled how the name was chosen. Someone brought him the dark purple berries on a hot August day. When he asked what they were, he learned they were saskatoons.
“Then he said this great line ‘Arise Saskatoon, Queen of the north,’ which is repeated all the time. But it’s just not possibly true,” Ehman said.
Cree scholar and minister Edward Ahenakew clarified the story in a 1919 article in the Daily Star. Saskatoon is the anglicized version of what the Cree people called it, not because of the berries, but because it was where people gathered Saskatoon berry bush branches for arrows on their way to the buffalo hunt.
“When those folks came here and settled Saskatoon, they adopted that name, but it had been that name for a very long time,” Ehman said.
The book answers many questions Ehman had about her city, including why it succeeded in becoming more than a typical Prairie town.
“Why did Saskatoon grow up into a city? It was just like every little town on the prairie when it started. And a lot of those little towns are still little towns on the prairie, but look at Saskatoon.”
Ehman will step back into the food world for her next book, a personal, non-fiction history of wheat.
From the moment the first settlers of Saskatoon chose this spot, they wanted a bridge. We’re still building bridges. It’s been this constant through the lifespan of Saskatoon.