Seaport of the Prairies | |
---|---|
Directed by | Frank Holmes |
Release date |
|
Running time | 64 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Seaport of the Prairies is a documentary film made in 1925, in an attempt to revive the construction of a railroad line to a new deepwater port at Port Nelson, Manitoba. [1] [2] It follows a journey of a group of prominent citizens as they transit the route.
The two-reel silent film was originally filmed on 35 mm acetate film, a technology abandoned because the film stock was unstable, prone to decay, and was highly flammable. [1] The only known existing print is a copy to 16 mm conventional film stock. The film is approximately an hour long.
Director Frank Holmes was just 17 years old when he made the film. [3]
The port, and rail link, were worked on from 1913 to 1917. The project was left incomplete, when World War I required its construction resources.
When funds were found to complete the project, its destination was changed from Port Nelson to Churchill, Manitoba, due to technical problems with maintaining a port at Port Nelson.
The party left The Pas, Manitoba, in an chartered train, travelling across northern Manitoba, to "the end of steel", at Kettle Rapids, Manitoba, where resources to build the railway ran out. [4] They then proceeded by canoe to near the port facilities, where they transferred to "Government boats".
Holmes had to go to court to receive his payment for making the film. [4]
Manitoba is a province of Canada at the longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's fifth-most populous province, with a population of 1,342,153 as of 2021. Manitoba has a widely varied landscape, from arctic tundra and the Hudson Bay coastline in the north to dense boreal forest, large freshwater lakes, and prairie grassland in the central and southern regions.
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. As of 2021, Winnipeg had a city population of 749,607 and a metropolitan population of 834,678, making it Canada's sixth-largest city and eighth-largest metropolitan area.
The Assiniboine River is a 1,070-kilometre (660 mi) river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a single main channel embanked within a flat, shallow valley in some places and a steep valley in others. Its main tributaries are the Qu'Appelle, Souris, and Whitesand Rivers. For early history and exploration see Assiniboine River fur trade.
Churchill is an Arctic port town in northern Manitoba, Canada, on the west shore of Hudson Bay, roughly 140 km (87 mi) from the Manitoba–Nunavut border. It is most famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leading to the nickname "Polar Bear Capital of the World" and to the benefit of its burgeoning tourism industry.
The University of Winnipeg is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It offers undergraduate programs in art, business, economics, education, science and applied health as well as graduate programs. UWinnipeg's founding colleges were Manitoba College and Wesley College, which merged to form United College in 1938. The University of Winnipeg was established in 1967 when United College received its charter.
The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway, the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.
James Gordon Carr was a Canadian politician, cabinet minister, journalist, and professional oboist. A member of the Liberal Party, he served as the member of Parliament for Winnipeg South Centre from 2015 until his death on December 12, 2022. Carr died days after his Private Members Bill, Bill C-235, An Act respecting the building of a green economy in the Prairies, passed the House and went to the Senate. He last served as the Chair of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, until his resignation on September 29, 2022.
The Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board, operating as Manitoba Hydro, is the electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1961, it is a provincial Crown Corporation, governed by the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board and the Manitoba Hydro Act. Today the company operates 16 interconnected generating stations. It has more than 527,000 electric power customers and more than 263,000 natural gas customers. Since most of the electrical energy is provided by hydroelectric power, the utility has low electricity rates. Stations in Northern Manitoba are connected by a HVDC system, the Nelson River Bipole, to customers in the south. The internal staff are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 998 while the outside workers are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2034.
Rosser is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba, lying adjacent to the northwest side of Winnipeg and part of the Winnipeg Metro Region. Its population as of the 2016 Census was 1,372.
Treaty Five is a treaty between Queen Victoria and Saulteaux and Swampy Cree non-treaty band governments and peoples around Lake Winnipeg in the District of Keewatin. Much of what is today central and northern Manitoba was covered by the treaty, as were a few small adjoining portions of the present-day provinces of Saskatchewan and Ontario.
The Manitoba Museum, previously the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, is a human and natural history museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as well as the province's largest, not-for-profit centre for heritage and science education.
Hudson Bay Railway is a Canadian short line railway operating over 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) of track in northeastern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba.
William Raymond "Toby" Sexsmith was a Canadian politician and ice hockey administrator. He was elected three times as a Progressive Conservative Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba representing the Portage la Prairie riding from 1933 to 1943. He served as president of the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association from 1921 to 1923, and sat on the association's executive committee for 25 years. He served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) from 1922 to 1924, and set a precedent that future CAHA presidents would also be given two-year terms.
Provincial Trunk Highway 1 is Manitoba's section of the Trans-Canada Highway. It is a heavily used, 4-lane divided highway, with the exception of a short 18 km section in the southeastern corner of the province. It is the main link between southern Manitoba's largest cities, and also serves as the province's main transportation link to the neighbouring provinces of Saskatchewan and Ontario. The highway is the only major east-west divided highway in Manitoba, and carries a large majority of east-west traffic within and through the province. It has full freeway status sections at Portage la Prairie and Winnipeg. The total distance of the Trans-Canada Highway in Manitoba is approximately 490 km (300 mi).
Grand Beach Provincial Park is a provincial park in Manitoba, Canada, noted for its large white sand dunes and ancient beaches from the end of the last ice age. It is located on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, and the largest lake completely within the borders of southern Canada.
The Forks is a historic site, meeting place, and green space in downtown Winnipeg located at the confluence of the Red River and the Assiniboine River.
The Nelson River Hydroelectric Project refers to the construction of a series of dams and hydroelectric power plants on the Nelson River in Northern Manitoba, Canada. The project began to take shape in the late 1950s, with the planning and construction of the Kelsey dam and hydroelectric power station, and later was expanded to include the diversion of the upper Churchill River into the Nelson River and the transformation of Lake Winnipeg, the world's 11th largest freshwater lake, into a hydroelectric reservoir. The project is owned and operated by Manitoba Hydro, the electrical utility in the province.
The history of Manitoba covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. When European fur traders first travelled to the area present-day Manitoba, they developed trade networks with several First Nations. European fur traders in the area during the late-17th century, with the French under Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye set up several trading post forts. In 1670, Britain declared sovereignty over the watershed of Hudson's Bay, known as Rupert's Land; with the Hudson's Bay Company granted a commercial monopoly over the territory.
The Hudson Bay Railway (HBR) is a historic rail line in Manitoba, Canada, to the shore of Hudson Bay. The venture began as a line between Winnipeg in the south and Churchill, and/or Port Nelson, in the north. However, HBR came to describe the final section between The Pas and Churchill.
Frank Holmes (1908–1990) was one of Manitoba's first filmmakers, filming the documentary Seaport of the Prairies in 1925 when he was just 17 years old. He is also remembered for the documentaries Beyond the Steel and Each Year They Come.
The film is silent, but title cards provide substantial narration throughout. Participants in the expedition are seen, including Thomas, Holmes, and businessmen and politicians including former Winnipeg mayor Charles Frederick Gray, and Member of the Manitoba Legislature William Ivens.
He was among Western Canada's most important commercial photographers, specializing in films for agricultural companies.