Historic Shaunavon Hotel
189 Centre Street S0N 2M0 Shaunavon, SK, Canada

I call this image "Shiny and New" Here is one of Shaunavons early businesses. This shot was taken not long after completion as suggested by the fresh pile of wood still left on the side of the building and the stellar painted signage. If you are wondering what a Dray is, it was the carriages you see out front as well as a low centered wagon with no sides. Coming to town was often an all day event for some and the horses would need tending before returning home. I have hea...rd that we have small communities every twelve miles or so as that was the comfortable distance one could travel with horse and carriage. This image was purchased from the Grand Couteau Museum and I look forward to sharing these restored images of our community once they reopen. If your family has images that are preserved on the Saskatchewan Museum and you would like one restored, I would be happy to oblige. You could also support the museum by picking one you would like for your own walls. The cost paid to the museum is fifty dollars for the digital image and I will restore and make a print free of charge as my contribution and support. Of course that restored digital image would be donated back to the museum as well. This image will make a great addition to a downtown theme room here at the hotel or perhaps even a dedicated livery room. Be safe and stay dry.

I call this image "The Hitting Post" Seems we have always had something at our four ways to hit as suggested by the post that is off kilter. Traditions live on although hitting the barriers at our four ways now will bite back in a concrete way. I purchased this image from the Grand Couteau collection of images and after three hours of restoration there could be another three to finish it to perfection. If anyone could identify the car on main street to give us a date that ...would be much appreciated. There are all kinds of interesting details in this image. For example the fire alarm lamp that flashed red is all by itself on the top left side of the image. This image was originally a postcard and it easily could have been dodged out of the shot for production but was left in probably to portrait a modern community advanced in safety measures. It was particularly interesting for me to see my neighbour, Conways Restaurant as a one story Rex Restaurant. Also it was intriguing to see so many aerials were coming off all of the commercial buildings. Hope you enjoyed this restoration of our downtown. More Shauanavon history to come. Be safe. Still looking for early images of Shaunavon. Next month I will be focusing on Swift Current.

I call this image "Heavenly Harvest" I had second thoughts about buying this image from the Grand Couteau Museum as I was not sure how well I could restore it. It is a powerful image of a wonderful harvest some eight miles south of Shaunavon. A testament to the bountiful land that our community built its foundation on. Imagine unfertilized, non- genetically engineered wheat that grew upwards of five feet tall. Even if the two fellers in the field are Scotish or perhaps It...alian, one can appreciate just how healthy the land was in 1913. One hundred years later that stewardship continues. Wishing all our farmers a bountiful season! Be safe. This image will find itself uploaded into the farmyard gallery at vintagestockimages.com. Always looking for more early local pictures to restore and share.

I named this restored postcard image from 1913 - "Treeless" This image shows our community still under construction and entirely treeless. Kudos to Bergs Home Furnishings for their recent tree planting on main street. I remember planting our trees nine years ago and enjoying their growth each year. Our tree lined Centre Street is a very endearing element of our town! I also would like to add an apology to Lucy and Blair for recreating a pile of dirt in front of their new "...General Store" location. I am not a great artist and replicating the dirt in front of the "Empress Hotel" as it was known for a few years was my best option for replacing what looks like an acid blotch on the original. I have a sadness that in our centennial celebrations our hotel was deemed not to be one of the centennial properties despite it being a part of our community from its inception. Six months young! Did you notice that todays Centre Street was known as Central Avenue in 1913. It would be wonderful to learn when the street changed its name should someone have some insight to the past. This image will make a great image to share in all the theme rooms we have intentions for.

I named this image Terminally Optimistic This photo restoration is an early picture of the Shaunavon terminals. Shame to seem them leaving the prairie landscape as they have been. I call this finished restoration Terminally Optimistic as I sense that is just where all farmers live. For a town kid, like myself, farming appears from the outside like such a high risk venture. This image came from an early postcard for the community showing many of the terminals and a glimpse... into what it must have taken to fill with unending wagons post harvest. A call out for anyone that may have similar local images worthy of being restored. I will restore it no charge. You will let me donate digital image to our museum and possibly share it on a wall at the Historic Shaunavon Hotel. Have a great day and be safe. Additional Shaunavon images can be found at vintagestockimages.com

Horse Spelled with a C! Some "Brownie" cameras had a narrow slot on the back side where you could add a note onto the image. During the restoration of this digital image purchased from our Grand Couteau Museum, the word horse was scribbled over with a change from a c to an s or an s to a c. Either way in 1912 what was important was the ability to put in a long days work breaking the prairie. This shot come from the outskirts of town and gives a sense of the daunting task i...t would have been to turn the prairie soil for the first time. Additional images for Shaunavon can be found on the Saskatchewan Museum site where the community has one of the largest collections of images stored for everyone to enjoy. Be safe.

Shaunavon #1 - Fraternal Brothers of Shaunavon Unite Here is a restoration of the Shaunavon Fire Department in 1915. What is particularly compelling for me is that this is likely the same fireman that helped put out the Shaunavon Hotel fire in 1914. The hotel was originally called the Empress Hotel but during the year of 1914 the Empress of Ireland sank, the Empress Hotel of Moose Jaw burned down and the Empress Hotel in Shaunavon were all lost. It was superstition that ch...anged the name after being rebuilt the next year. The hotel burned down on December 15,1914 and this spring of 1915 restoration image is likely the very crew that ensured no lives were lost in that ferocious fire that took down the entire block. Our thanks to some of the early heroes of our community. I am dedicating this month to restoring images of early Shaunavon. If you go to the Grand Coteau link you will find many early images of our community. If you have some early family pictures or find one that you would like on our Saskatchewan museums site please email me at [email protected]. You can also go to my vintagestockimages.com site where if you can scroll down to Shaunavon where you will see several images that your family may have ties to. Thanks for all the kind likes over the last month as I "restore" some of my photo restorations skills. Have as great a day as you can. Be safe. saskcollections.org/grandcoteau/ vintagestockimages.com

May 31, 1938 - Gotcha I enjoyed restoring this image of various parking meters. It is intriguing to know that all of these meters accepted either a penny or a nickel and gave the parking space twenty or thirty minutes. In 1938 there were 49,000 parking meters in the United States. It has some metaphorical properties that apply today. If the government does not get you one way they get you another. A penny here and a nickel there. Never mind the ticket/fine you get for n...ot paying up in a timely manner! On the positive side of things, I look forward to using this as a sign that displays forms of payment that we accept. Should be a fun way to advertise on a website as well as the lobby of the hotel. So many old images lend themselves well to designing some fun signage. Be Safe. Hope May was a great month for all.

May 30,1911 - Government Response to Pandemic Wreck This Marengo, Washington railway wreck May 30, nineteen hundred and eleven, reminds me of our governments handling of our pandemic right now. How are our waiters and waitresses going to be protected come June 8 when phase three comes into play and restaurants open to table service. How do they serve everyone in the room and be six feet away? Do they wear a shower ring curtain around themselves and in conclusion, if it is ...all ok to open on June 8, why is it not ok today? And yet we are not allowing family to fly across the country to attend a funeral for their father.... or families on this side or that side of our border to reunite despite months of being apart? No compassion or common sense. I guess common sense isn't. Not sure this restored train wreck image will make a CPR train theme room. For the month of June I will be shifting my restorations to focus on early homesteader style local pictures. If you have or know of a family album that may have some images worthy of restoration, just drop me a line. I have added an image I purchased from our museum sharing some of the early days of our community in Shaunavon. If anyone knows of any Matheson relatives highlighted on the first grain terminal, drop me a line. I would like to donate to them a copy of this mostly restored image. Be safe.

May 29,1925 - I call this - You will take the garbage out and you will like it! Here was a fun restoration of a member of the ladies rifle club. Everybody wants to participate in goffer season I guess! Hope the day was great and the weekend better. Be safe. This will make great signage in all the rooms advertising the noise policy. "This is your only warning as far as noise and disturbing other guests".

May 28, 1922 - Herman the Babe Ruth What an amazing story for someone with a suspect start to life. George Herman Ruth Jr. was born on February 6, 1895, in Baltimore where by the age seven had become such a chewing tobacco, drinking and local police taunting youth, his parents sent him of to reform school for 12 years. That is where he came under the eye of Jack Dunn, the Baltimore orioles minor league team owner. It was his pitching that initially caught his attention. R...ules dictated for Jack to sign him to a contract when he turned 19, he needed to have a legal guardian signature for him to play professionally. That was when Dunn became his legal guardian and Herman was nicknamed Dunns' Babe. The nickname stuck and few would know who Herman Ruth was without some reference to Babe. Dunn's team was the minor development arm for the Boston Red Sox's where he was quickly called up to play in the big show. In the next five years, the Babe helped them win the championship three times. The owner of the Boston team, however, came under some fiscal stress and was forced to sell the Babe to the New York Yankees. It took till the year 2004 for the Red Sox's to win their next championship and thus the "Curse of the Bambino" was eliminated. This is a great restoration of Herman signing one of many bats and balls that were distributed as awards to Citizen Military Camps across the United States. What is not often known, is that professional baseball players did not make that much money and often had winter jobs. I added an additional image that shows Babe Ruth carrying what is described as a "300lb" log at his winter Lumber Jack job. Not sure it weighed that much but interesting to know how times and salaries have changed. He held many records which included a total of 714 home runs held until 1974 when Hank Aaron came along. Others that still hold include a record for pitching 13 scoreless innings in 1916. The Toronto Bluejays would have gone through six starter and relief pitchers by the thirteenth inning. Here's to the league being able to get some ball in this year. Thanks for you time and have a great weekend. Be safe. This image will make a worthy contribution to a sports theme room.

May 27, 1905 Never Join This Club! Pictured here are two couples dancing the four hand reel dance at the Monaghan Men's Irish Club. In what men's club would any dance include the men holding hands! Definitely consider the Elks before considering an affiliated membership into the Monahan Men's Irish Club. Is it any wonder that by the prudish Victorian era developed by the early twenties the free love, flapper girl era had evolved. It was only after starting to restore th...is image taken on May 27,1905, that I realized the men were holding hands. No wonder everyone is looking rather sedate! :) Hope you are having a great May. Be safe. This image will make a fun addition to a Dancehall themed room at the hotel.

May 26, 1911 - Do Not Try This At Home This photo restoration is definitely not CSA approved! I don't think we will ever know exactly what the five men were trying to accomplish. You may have an idea. Perhaps turn, perhaps build up power on a short runway? The year 1911 was is in the very early days of aviation and I guess everything was legal unless you were caught or hurt. I like to add a little bit of interesting info into my posts and as a result have added a littl...e something extra that would never have been in the sky during that era. Do you see the contrail in the sky? Todays jets fly at extreme heights and depending on the temperature and humidity the engine exhaust will create a white trail which is moisture that has formed into ice formations leaving a streak across the sky. You were very observant if you noticed this anomaly I have in the sky restoration portion of this image. A small way to have a little fun as my photo restoration skills improve. Hope you are having an excellent day. Be safe. This image will make a worthy edition to an aviation theme room although I will have to make a few changes before any production printing!