Author: Province of Manitoba; Manitoba Department of Natural Resources; Manitoba Parks Branch
Title: Spruce Woods Provincial Park
Description: Winnipeg: Manitoba Department of Natural Resources, 1982. Paper bound, oblong octavo, illustrated with maps, photos, and line drawings. Pp32. Tight and unmarked - a very good or better copy. 140 grams. From the Prelude: As a young man Ernest Thompson Seton roamed the hills of Spruce Woods, pen and paper in hand, capturing for all time his impressions of those glorious hills. The wind whispered its wisdom, the changing seasons brought a wealth of new experiences, and Seton responded with a life-long love affair with the Carberry sandhills. A hundred years later, visitors to Spruce Woods Provincial Park can experience the same sense of discovery. Wandering over this great stretch of undulating landscape one recalls vividly the geography lessons of Grade School -- how Manitoba was once covered by a massive blanket of ice, a shifting ice-sheet that shaped the land as it advanced and retreated. By 12,000 years ago the sun had once again warmed the earth, and the ice had begun to melt. Glacial Lake Agassiz, larger than any lake found on earth today, was formed in the depression caused by the weight of the ice and by northward-flowing rivers which ran up against the huge ice dam. A tract of land 6,500 square kilometres formed when the surging Assiniboine river emptied into Lake Agassiz near Brandon, moving rapidly into the still lake waters and depositing a great volume of sand and gravel in the delta area. Spruce Woods Provincial Park today lies in the former Assiniboine Delta. Over the next few thousand years as the ice disappeared the land rebounded. Subsequently, new drainage channels formed and the lake began to dry up. As the water levels fell the deposits began to stand out above the surrounding plains. Exposed and barren, the sandy delta was shipped up by winds into dunes 6 to 30 metres high. The winds battered the land, shaping and reshaping the sand into shifting dunes, their crescent shapes adorned with ripples that danced and moved. The resulting dunes were favourable to white spruce and dry prairie because of good drainage and little moisture-loss through evaporation. Over many generations a succession of plant life crept across the dunes. Like an advancing army invading the desert, these plants trapped the sand grains between their roots carpeting the rolling dunes. Sand reed grass, lichens, the pin-cushion and prairie cacti and other drought-tolerant plants then made room for denser troops of bearberry, wolf willow and creeping juniper. Entering the area is rather like stepping back in time, for much of this land exists as it did hundreds of years ago. Paper bound, stapled wraps, quarto, first edition. Illustrations in black and white, includes maps. 50pp includes suggested readings section, and appendix. Previous owner name neatly and modestly on front cover else in very good condition. 180 grams. Two copies available. From the introduction: This booklet is written for the general public and its main purpose is to provide an outline of the prehistoric events that have taken place in northern Manitoba over the last 8,000 years. The north is stressed because a lot of research which has disclosed the rich and complex prehistory of the area has been conducted there in the last ten years.

Keywords: Carberry Sand Hills, Spruce Woods Provincial Park Manitoba Guidebook, Self-Guiding Trails Spruce Woods Provincial Park


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