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1926: The Immigrant Diary of Ivy Weatherall, Milorie, Saskatchewan
A Prairie as Wide as the Sea
What you need to know before your trail
Ivy Weatherall and her family leave a comfortable life in London for the promised riches of Canada’s expanding West. Expecting to make their fortunes on Uncle Alf’s ranch, the Weatheralls are shocked to find themselves living in a sod hut on a rented farm. Ivy is determined to taste life to the fullest, whatever hardships she may encounter. Writing in her diary, she recounts learning the new skills expected of a young farm girl. She struggles to help the family survive, but ultimately learns that responsibility brings its rewards.
Travel Guide
Saskatchewan, Canada
Milorie is a fictional town
The setting of Milorie is fictional but it’s a small town in the middle of the Saskatchewan plains.
The family journey from London in England all the way across the water pas the Scilly Isles ..”it was the last we would see of the old country”
Then they travel across the ocean to the Gulf Of Lawrence. She reads a book Lost in the Backwoods about pioneer families in Canada as they sail.
What is there is no Canada she wonders, thinking of the marvellous names she has heard of so far – Medicine Hat, Moose Jaw or Piapot? What if they sail and never reach canada. What if it’s trick? All the map makers and globe makers and news papers are in on this trick?
Then the fog clears as the boat sails closer:
We are in the Gulf of the St Lawrence River. “Far away on both sides are mountains woods, villages, puffs of smoke”
From Quebec station, starts the long journey across the land to the province of Saskatchewan and to Milorie where their auntie lives and where their new home is going to be. They change trains in Regina and the journey at least to the destination is almost over. The journey onward in life is just beginning.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: A Prairie as Wide as the Sea
Destination : Saskatchewan Author/Guide: Sarah Ellis Departure Time:1926
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