Carving the legacy of an artist: Bernie Smith

The art of transforming a block of wood into a bird carving has changed significantly compared to 50 years ago. Don Smith, resident of Mossbank, knows this better than anyone. Throughout the middle part of the 20th century, his father, Bernie Smith, became a renowned Saskatchewan bird carver whose legacy has become a part of the province’s pride.

            “Dad made close to a thousand (carvings)… See, he never had the tools we have now. He used just a file and oil paint… and he used cedar fencepost,” says Don in his comfortable house on

Main Street

in Mossbank, Sask. He was inspired by his father’s love for birds and eventually began carving too.

Don’s walls and shelves are filled with memories of his family. Whether it is family photos or his father’s bird carvings, Don wants to hang on to every memory he can, especially the memories of his father.

Bernie Smith came to Maxim, Sask. in 1906 with his parents and five siblings. The family had ran a large laundry business in Ontario. But Bernie’s parents decided to pack their children up and leave their comfortable lifestyle in hopes of discovering the many opportunities homesteading in the new province of Saskatchewan had to offer.

Don recalls his father telling him a story about the horned larks flying over his head as the family made their entry, in a covered wagon, in to the province. It was Bernie’s first Saskatchewan experience with his soon-to-be-beloved birds.

But over time, Bernie would have a complex relationship with birds. He appreciated their magnificence but relied on them for survival.

“When they homesteaded here, he had to hunt to feed his family. But now we don’t need to hunt at all. It’s just a killing sport,” said Don.

Bernie and his family relied on Saskatchewan’s abundance of birds for subsistence. Even when he was married and moved to Mossbank, he continued to hunt fowl with his Winchester shotgun, to feed his new family. Vera Willits, Bernie’s youngest daughter, remembers fowl being served at almost every meal the family ate.

Growing up in Saskatchewan, Bernie lived in a small sod house on a half-section of land. He and his brothers did their part to contribute to working on the family farm. But in 1914, things changed. Prime Minister Borden established the War Measures Act and Canada announced it would be conscripting its young men to provide aid to the allies in the Great War. At age 21, Bernie was one of these young men.

From 1914-1917, Bernie spent little time focusing on birds and, instead, became a signaler in the war, an occupation he would continue to follow once he returned home. Over the next five years, Bernie would be stationed at notorious battle sites including Passchendaele, Vimy Ridge, in Belgium and in Germany.

According to Willits, Bernie faced many obstacles during the war. But he learned things that he would apply to his life once he returned home. He was gassed with mustard gas and he was once shot directly in the helmet. He would often tell his children he was a lucky man to still be alive. 

            Once Bernie returned to Saskatchewan, he took his telegraphy exams and he became a CNR agent. He often moved around from one southern Saskatchewan town to another. It was in a bank in Craik where he spotted his future wife, Beatrice, working as a teller. Fittingly, one night they met on the railway tracks and their fate was decided. Bernie, Beatrice and their children [Dorothy, Vera and Don] would move from one small Saskatchewan town to another until they discovered Mossbank.

Bernie brought his family to Mossbank in 1941 where they lived above the railway station. Don suspects it was Lake Johnston, now known as Old Wives’ Lake that drew his father to Mossbank. It was known for attracting thousands of birds every spring. By car, it takes less than 10 minutes to get from Mossbank to Old Wives Lake, now a federal migratory bird sanctuary.

            Before he had moved to Mossbank, Bernie began to carve the birds he shot as a hobby. Don understands his father’s relationship with birds better than anyone. It was complicated.

            “Like the cavemen, (who) carved pictures of animals they hunted on the walls of their caves… dad carved a little goose because he hunted them,” said Don.

That little Canada Goose is what began Bernie’s future as one of Saskatchewan’s most well-known bird carvers. Bernie spontaneously sold that first carving to a persistent trainman who saw it sitting on the railway office counter.  At that moment, Bernie had turned his hobby in to an on-the-side business. Neither Don nor Willits can remember exactly when their father sold that first carving. But they believe it was just before they moved to Mossbank.

            Gradually, Bernie became more and more known among certain bird-loving circles for his intricate hand-carved and painted wooden birds. His carving hobby took off once he retired. He had orders from all over the world - the United States, Afghanistan, China, Japan, Britain and Scotland. There was such a demand for the carvings that Audrey Tate, the Museum of Mossbank’s secretary, recalls hearing that people would send Bernie a blank cheque for him to fill out based on what he thought he should be paid.

            Eventually, Bernie would quit bird hunting entirely and focus solely on carving his birds. In May of 1978, Bernie told the Moose Jaw Times-Herald that he would rather see birds flying around than see them dead. Don remembers one specific occasion with his father.

            “I was out hunting with my dad when I was a young fellow and some geese flew over. And he didn’t shoot them. He just looked at them. I said, ‘Why didn’t you shoot those geese?’ And he said, ‘Well I just didn’t want to.’ He’d shot his share and just didn’t want to do it anymore,” said Don.

            Roy Tollefson, a retired farmer and contributor to Mossbank’s history book Furrows and Faith, bought four of Bernie’s carvings.

            “I was proud of the fact that we had a bird carver in our community. I was appreciative of his ability. We wanted to have some of Bernie’s work in our house. We never regretted buying it, I’ll tell you,” said Tollefson.

Bernie would go on to win contests and awards, including a silver medal for the Pacific National Awards in Vancouver. He would also show his work in galleries across Canada.

            But it would be another man who would become the face for bird carvings in Saskatchewan. His name was William Hazzard and after breaking his leg on the job, he would turn bird carving into a full-time career. He came to see Bernie in Mossbank because he has heard a lot about his carving abilities and he wanted to learn from him. Eventually, Hazzard began to gain recognition in Canada and he succeeded Bernie as one of Canada’s greatest bird carvers.

However, Willits remembers that Hazzard always credited her father, in any interview he did, for having inspired him.

            Don is eager to show anyone who has the time his and his father’s bird carvings. But he is aware that the handiwork isn’t as rare as it was in his father’s time.

            “There’s a lot of people that do this now, where years ago it was just decoy makers,” says Smith.

            Bernie continued to carve toward the end of his life. It was not until glaucoma blinded him in one eye that he had to stop. Don looked after him in his home until he died in 1990 at the age of 97. He was a happy-go-lucky man but near the end of his life, he told Willits he was simply “existing.” Willits believed her father passed away only a year after her mother because he couldn’t stand to live without her.  

Perhaps it was also because he could not stand to live without his second love, bird carving, too.

            Bernie Smith’s grave is tucked away in a humble corner of the Mossbank cemetery. Birds pass over his plot as they make their way to and from Old Wives’ Lake while his legacy can be found in the homes of bird-lovers from Mossbank to Asia.

By Roxanna Woloshyn
Photo credit Roxanna Woloshyn

Read more »

Mossbank's youth - coming home?

In the last five years Saskatchewan has experienced economic growth that leads the country. This has however caused problems for many small towns like Mossbank that may find their dot on the map erased sometime in the near future.

            While the economic prosperity has helped develop some areas of Saskatchewan, young people are drawn to bigger centres in the province, weakening the economy of small towns they leave behind.

According to the 2006 census, well over half of Mossbank’s residents are 45 years of age or older and only one-quarter of the town is in the age range from 20 to 45. From 2001 till 2006 the town has had a decline in population of about 13 percent, from 379 to 320. It has since risen to nearly 500, according to health region statistics, but the town still struggles to maintain services.

            Carl Weiss, the mayor of Mossbank, said that his town has seen first-hand the economic consequences of the boom.

            “There’s nothing here for them (young people) and they like to work, they like to drive trucks and cars and have the odd beer and they like to be employed” he said. “Right now all of our young guys are all there (on the oil fields) and they’re making nothing but money, but the unfortunate thing about that is that they’re not spending too much here.”

            Weiss said that it was important for young people to support the town. When they are gone they can’t.

            “Keep kids in school, support the rink, support the bar, and support everything really. It doesn’t have to be a hundred per cent support really, just some support, as long as there’s support that comes from them. Now we don’t have them at all, it’s all gone.”

            Mossbank resident Audrey Tate’s grandson moved away to attend the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Much of his graduating class did the same.

            “There were nine in Robert's graduating class and there are I think two of them around here so they chose not to go to university and the rest of them went.”

            Tate added that there isn’t enough opportunity for these young people. “Once you go to university what are you coming back to Mossbank with? What are you going to do with that education in a small town? There isn’t anything,” she said.

            She feels that to live in Mossbank, young people have to create their own opportunities.

            Seventeen-year-old Grade 11 student Carson Kowalski was born and raised in Mossbank. He plans on creating his own opportunities in Mossbank after high school.

            “My brother owns a concrete company he just started up the last couple of weeks, and I’ve been working for Bear Concrete out of Moose Jaw for the last three years,” he said.

Kowalski want to use his experience to one day start his own concrete company. He prefers to live in a small town.

            “It’s free roam. You can do whatever you want, really. The people are nice,” he said.

            However Kowalski added that because of the location many of his classmates will choose to leave.

            “All our young people are moving away but there are no jobs here really. The only way you can live here is if you drive to the city and work,” he said.

            While Mossbank may have difficulty keeping younger people, Tate said it’s still a great retirement destination.

            “People retire out here because it’s close to the city. I can be in Regina in an hour-and-a-half and I have other children there so I commute back and forth quite a lot. Moose Jaw is only 45 miles away and that’s nothing in this day and age.”

            Towns like Mossbank are trying to benefit from the boom. They are trying to find ways to keep their young people, but for now they may have to wait a little while before they younger generation comes back.     

By Martin Weaver      

Photo credit Nathan Frank

Read more »

Mossbank CAREs about its senior citizens

The town of Mossbank is not waiting on the provincial government to care for its senior citizens.

The townspeople created a committee in July to put plans into action for an assisted-living senior citizen’s home called the Community Assisted Retirement Endeavor (CARE). If the home is built, senior citizens will not have to leave Mossbank once they can no longer take care of themselves.

Although Mossbank has a population that has grown from 330 people to nearly 500 since the last census, the town does not have a care home for its senior citizens.

The new care home will serve Mossbank and surrounding municipalities like Lake Johnston and Sutton. It will be built on Main Street across from the Prairie Heritage Restaurant and will provide 12 units, housing up to 19 tenants.

 “There was a feasibility study done in the community (in 2006). It shows we have a large aging population and we are all very aware that once our seniors begin to need assistance, they have to move out of the community. That’s very, very difficult because a lot of these people have lived in the community all of their lives,” said Bev Singbeil, chair of the CARE committee.

The project has not received any financial aid from the provincial government.

At the end of November, the committee will release a new financial plan for the project that will not include any government support.

Provincial government officials indicated the province may consider contributing financial support to the project once it is complete, according to Singbeil.

Singbeil describes the committee’s financial plan as a co-operative in which townspeople and businesses will be invited to become shareholders in the care home.

They will need to sell 200 shares at $5,000 each to cover the $1 million price tag.

A previous committee conceived the idea for the project 10 years ago and approached the provincial government for support. But the original plans did not meet the government’s criteria. The original location needed an expanded lagoon for waste.

“During a survey (for the feasibility study) that went to the community, a lot of people wrote that they would like to be within walking distance of the store, the post office, the library and all those buildings. So to have it right on Main Street where they’ll be right in the centre of the community, we feel will be a healthy location,” said Singbeil.

Now that the committee has found a new location, there is no extra cost or any standing conflict with the government over needing to expand the lagoon. The new location is already equipped for waste deposition.

The government’s protocol also required the care home have Level 4 status for senior citizens who required long-term care, if the group wanted financial backing.

Today’s CARE committee has opted for minimum status for assisted-living care for seniors who can still look after themselves.  According to Singbeil, this is more practical and affordable for Mossbank and area’s senior citizens.

The new plan means seniors citizens will not have to wait until they reach palliative care status before they can move into the care home.

It will enable spouses to continue living together even when they can no longer care for each other. In the 1980’s, Vera Willits, a former resident of Mossbank, faced the dilemma of how to care for her parents as they reached the end of their lives.

“(My brother) Donny Smith looked after them. And I’m so grateful for that because when we went to see about maybe them going into a home they said they wouldn’t be in the same room,” explained Willits.

“I said, 'Well, that’s no good because they’ve been together for 64 years. We’re not going to separate them now.' And Donny said, ‘I want them to stay at home (in Mossbank); I’ll look after them.’ And he did. And they never had to go and be separated,” said Willits.

Singbeil was faced with the same problem. But she was not as fortunate as Willits. Five years ago Singbeil’s parents were split up when they moved in to a care home in Moose Jaw. She attributes her father’s premature death to his separation anxiety. 

Over 30 per cent of Mossbank’s population is over 60 years old and about 10 per cent of people over the age of 15 provide unpaid care or assistance to the seniors. Singbeil believes the new care home will take pressure off people caring for aging family members.

Senior citizens are often forced to move in to care homes in larger municipalities like Moose Jaw, Gravelbourg and Assiniboia. But these care homes have waitlists seniors must get on before they can move in and receive care.

The care home will also address other issues in the community. Right now the location is home to several empty buildings. The committee has bought them from a firm in Calgary and the town donated the rest of the land on the block. Singbeil thinks the building will beautify this long-unused part of Main Street.

The care home will provide jobs and available housing for residents and potential residents of Mossbank, according to Singbeil.

“When (these seniors) would move in, then their homes would be up for sale… So those homes will also give a place for some of these people to move into. When we can have young families come back, that also supports our school and our stores. So we need to provide not only homes but employment too,” said Singbeil.

A recent study conducted by the Saskatchewan Co-operative Association indicates the problem of unavailable senior’s housing is going to get worse within the next 10 years.

Singbeil is aware of the promises to advance care for senior citizens made by the two major parties running in the provincial election. She would like to see the future government keep its election promise.

“I don’t care which government. I think we need to recognize the need for better care for our seniors… there needs to be some grants to build, especially in rural communities,” said Singbeil.

The building stage of the project is set to begin in the spring of 2012.  

By Roxanna Woloshyn

Photo credit Roxanna Woloshyn

Read more »

Mossbank senior boys looking to continue success streak

“Number 15 is up for adoption,” said the father of Riley Wilson, number 15 for the Mossbank senior boys volleyball team. His son’s offence? Serving the volleyball straight into the net and losing a point for his team.

He’s joking, of course, but when one considers that the Mossbank team has four straight top-four finishes at provincials in the last four years, it seems reasonable to have high expectations of the boys.

Fortunately, one missed serve didn’t hurt the team too much; they finished second in the tournament held at Regina’s Campbell Collegiate Oct. 13 to 15. Mossbank lost the final to the home team, the Campbell Tartans, 17-25 and 17-25, after beating Nipawin, Swift Current, Yorkton and Regina’s Balfour Collegiate. The final game was a rematch from the round robin, when Campbell beat Mossbank in two sets and finished first in the pool.

The team, coached by Joel Mowchenko, an organic farmer in the Mossbank area, attended the Saskatchewan 1A provincials for the first time in 2007, and came home with bronze medals. It was the first team medal for Mossbank School. Over the next three years, the team earned another bronze medal, a fourth-place finish and, finally, a gold medal last year.

“It’s amazing how we can win a gold medal in (so few) years at provincials,” said Wilson, who is graduating this year and has played on the team since Grade 10. Wilson has won a bronze and gold medal playing for Mossbank.

When Mowchenko moved to Mossbank from Saskatoon in 2003, he was interested in coaching a football or basketball team. However, Mossbank didn’t have either sport so he asked for a volleyball team instead. Mowchenko coached the bantam boys team for two years, then moved up to take over the senior boys team with his players when they reached Grade 10. In 2007, the team made their first appearance at provincials and returned home with a bronze medal.

Since taking over the senior team, Mowchenko has been working to make the team both highly competitive and inclusive. This means that while the starters see the most court time, every player is an important part of the team and no one is cut during try-outs.

“It’s not that the starters are working on something and the rest of them are just watching or shagging balls for them,” said Mowchenko. “Everybody is involved in every drill.”

This inclusive style has earned Mowchenko the respect of many of his players and their parents, though there have been questions posed regarding the fairness of playing time. Mowchenko is quick to let those who doubt his decisions know that there is more to being a part of a team than just seeing the court.

“I had a guy off our team last year who was a starter at the championship and one of our star players. I talked to him at the end of the summer and he said, ‘You know, when I think back to our season last year, my best memories aren’t stuff on the court. My best memories are hanging out with the guys before games and after games, at the hotel, and bus trips. And even practices. Those are the best memories. I don’t remember much from being on the court or games.’”

Rather than ruling his team with fear and scare tactics, Mowchenko is more likely to deliver pep talks from the sideline.

 “I’ve have quite a few coaches. He might not be as technical as some of the ones I’ve had for Team Sask, but he’s really encouraging. And postitive,” said Carter Howe, who has played for Team Saskatchewan.

Looking to the rest of the high school season, Mowchenko and his players are hoping to make their fifth appearance at provincials and come home champions again.

“There’s no reason why we wouldn’t win,” said player Riley Wilson with a laugh.

Nothing wrong with being confident and the team definitely has the talent but, as Wilson’s dad pointed out, it starts with a serve.

By Tonaya Marr

Photo credit Tonaya Marr

Read more »

A camp by the dam

Ninety km south-west of Moose Jaw, Glad Tidings isn’t your stereotypical scenic camp. Instead of a pristine lake, Glad Tidings Bible Camp is surrounded by two dams in the middle of miles of crop land. This is a real deal prairie camp.

The two dams and trees surrounding Glad Tidings Gospel Camp were established in the 1920s. The camp itself opened its doors for bible camp in 1953 under the Christian charity Canadian Sunday School Mission . It is one of 11 bible camps in Saskatchewan supported by the mission, which camps over 6,500 kids in a summer, according to Lori Durksen, secretary for CSSM Saskatchewan.

Algae lines the shore of the dam. But, remembering my time at camp, I imagined most kids wouldn’t hesitate to jump in any body of water, no matter how slimy.

Katy Halgrimson, 21, the full-time camp director assured me that the kids swim in it and have yet to get the itch.

This summer was Halgrimson’s first year as director and only her fourth year attending the camp.

Halgrimson and I parked the car beside the chapel. A light breeze and bare trees exaggerated the quiet while we walked the grounds. Most of the buildings have been built and maintained by faithful volunteers throughout the years, such as Jim Erb, 77, and his wife Hilda, 75, the camp grandparents.

Jim Erb has been involved in the camp since he was a teenager and helped with important features of the camp, such as building the chapel and the swimming pool.

The camp used to run better when there was more help, he told me. He pointed to changes in farming as the reason for fewer volunteers.

“Times have changed. Farmers are larger, they have more land to take care of and don’t have as much help. Of course that ties them down, so they are not available to donate a lot of time,” he said.

Halgrimson’s biggest hope is to have more older people from Mossbank and surrounding communities come out to volunteer as cabin leaders for the over 200 kids that come to camp in the summer.

“We had two senior cabin leaders who were over 50. That was one of the best weeks we had, with the testimonies that the kids shared. We need parent figures and grand-parent figures because their (the kids) parents are generally so busy they have just been abandoned by them. So they need those role models,” she said.

As Halgrimson led me around the camp she spoke with simple pride of the modest surroundings. Pointing to the painted theatre style seats surrounding the camp fire she told me of the special moments shared. Next she eagerly showed me the craft shop, wall-to-wall graffitied with kids' names from years past. She won’t be the one to paint over it she assured me.

Once we got to the dining hall, Halgrimson and I sat down for a chat and she explained to me that camp is not about the facilities or even about how much fun it is, but about something closer to her heart.

“When I was in high school, I hated it. I was struggling with who I was. I didn’t feel very good about myself. I didn’t have a lot of freedom and joy in my life. For me the biggest thing for growing free of that was the support of my parents and mentors.”

Because her friends and family prayed for her and supported her, she wants to build an environment like that for the kids.

“I want kids to know that God loves them and wants to meet them where they are at,” she continued. “I want more people to get on board with kid’s lives. I just really want to see older people pouring into younger people.”

More information on how to become involved with Glad Tidings Bible Camp is available on their website, gtbc.110mb.com.

By Nathan Frank
Photo credit Nathan Frank

Read more »

American hunters flock to Mossbank

On a mid-October Sunday morning the sun hung low in the sky, casting golden rays across a rolling field of barley stubble southeast of the town of Mossbank, Saskatchewan. In a dip between two hills rested a group of birds.

The tell-tale green heads of mallard drakes were mixed in with the pointed feathers of several pintail ducks. Beside the ducks, a group of white snow geese mingled with a few “specks,” local slang for Canadian white-fronted or Specklebelly geese. In the air a group of mallard ducks flapped their wings as they approached.

Silhouetted against the sun in the distance were hundreds of ducks and geese, traversing the continent on their yearly migration south for the winter. A group of pintail ducks passing overhead called to the birds on the ground. Without hesitation, the birds on the ground quacked back at the passing flock. Satisfied with the response, the flying ducks circled, losing altitude as they came in for a landing.

As the ducks reached the landing spot they flared their wings, beating them forward and backward, slowing down to land. At that instant the sound of quacking ducks and beating wings was broken by a voice that, in a slight Texan drawl, said, “Shoot’em.”

The incoming ducks had no idea the feeding flock of birds were actually plastic decoys or that the beckoning quacks had come from green and black plastic bird calls hung around hunters’ necks like ornate necklaces.

Even the mallards coming in for a landing were a set up. Known as mojos, the plastic decoys ‘flapped’ their battery powered wings by spinning black and white wing-shaped pieces of plastic atop a meter high post.

The elaborate ruse had been set up before the sun had peaked over the horizon by Texans Damron Henson, his wife Dayna, his friends Eric Starnater, Colby Kirchner, and local Clay Stark. Dressed in white jumpsuits, the team had lain in wait since day-break, blending in with the flock of white plastic snow geese.

            As soon as Henson called “shoot’em” the trap was sprung. The group greeted the approaching pintails with a wall of thunderous booms from their 12-gauge shotguns. Three ducks pitched sideways, the force of the impacting steel shot blowing tufts of feathers in the air. The ducks dropped out of the sky, impacting the ground one by one with low thuds.

Mariah, Henson’s black lab, yelped at the downed birds before running out to grab them in a morbid version of fetch. While the dog gathered the birds at Henson’s side the hunters traded good natured jabs about each other’s shooting. A downed pintail struggled to flap its wings on the ground, dying but not dead. In one motion Henson grabbed the duck by the head and spun its body around with a snap of the wrist, wringing its neck.

Across the Saskatchewan prairies a similar scene unfolds every fall. Migratory birds heading south for the winter meet Americans heading north looking for a good hunt. Over 10,000 non-resident hunters, mostly Americans, bring some $9.6 million dollars annually to the Saskatchewan economy, according to a 2006 report by Saskatchewan Environment.

In a distinctive southern accent Wayne Todd, or Captain Todd as he’s known locally, invites me into the small house he owns on the edge of town. A charter boat captain from Tallahasee, Florida, the Captain will spend two months living in Mossbank and hunting in the surrounding farmland. Todd tells me he enjoys coming up to Mossbank because it restores his faith in humanity. Numerous friends will come to visit and hunt with the Captain during his stay. During their stay, Todd and his guests will spend thousands on gas, groceries, home repairs and hunting supplies. Todd and his current hunting partner, Tim Baroody, even frequent auction sales in the surrounding towns.

The very nature of their passion sends hunters into rural communities, adding thousands of dollars to local business coffers. “Shotgun shell sales go up by about 50 per cent,” said Patrick Bahuaud, manager of the local Co-op gas station. The station clearly has hunters in mind instead of chocolate bars, the display case underneath the cash register is filled with ammunition.

The migrating Americans aren’t just tourists, though. Instead they establish a network of friendships north of the border. “I got invited to a wedding up here for a buddy of mine,” said Colby Kirchner, who calls Amarillo, Texas home. The Americans become regulars in town; Todd has been hunting in Mossbank for 15 years while Henson started in 2005. When I ask why they return to Mossbank year after year, they both agree that it’s the people.

“You can’t always guarantee a good hunt, but you can always guarantee good people,” says Kirchner, adding with a grin, “and good beer.”

By Matt Duguid

Photo credit Matt Duguid

Read more »