Let’s face it. Brandon, Manitoba, the second largest city in the province, is not on most people’s vacation radar. It wasn’t on mine until I went to visit a friend who had just taken a position at venerable Brandon University, one of the older and finer such institutions in Central Canada.
I therefore found myself in Brandon on vacation with a little time to do some sightseeing.
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Brandon
Brandon is a city of 46,000, straddling the Assiniboine River at just about the geographical heart of North America. It’s a transportation hub and agricultural center and hosts a lively multicultural populace, including Native, Hispanic, and Asian as well as older founding families, often of Scottish and Ukrainian ancestry.
A good place to start touring is the Riverbank Discovery Cenre where the delightful Dawn gave me a history lesson and suggestions of places to visit and pointed out on a map how the riverbank almost discovered the Discovery Centre, thanks to flooding in 2011 and 2014. Ducks Unlimited makes its local headquarters here as well.
From there I headed to the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, a National Historic Site, that is located in vintage WW II era hangars at Brandon’s municipal airport (now with Westjet connections to Winnipeg). This is a not-to-be-missed blast from the past with vintage aircraft parked throughout, as well as antique vehicles, including a fire engine. With 1940’s music wafting through the hangar, which I had almost to myself, I half expected a flight-jacketed flyboy to step out from behind a Tiger Moth aircraft and ask me for a light!
If your taste for military history is not sated by this, simply make your way to CFB Shilo, about a fifteen-minute drive away, and visit the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum. It was closed when I was there, but the trip was worthwhile just to see the amazing array of outdoor displays of guns, tanks, missile launchers and vintage radar units. These date form the turn of the last century up to the Cold War era and make a fascinating collection.
Royal Canadian Artillery Museum, Shilo MB
If the little boy or tom-boy in you is still not satisfied by all this martial display, then visit the Westman Reptile Garden in on the way back from Shilo to Brandon. Watch for the Manitoba provincial logo with the shooting star which indicates premier tourist attractions.
The Westman has one of the largest collections of reptiles under one roof in Canada, as well as other creepy crawlies like tarantulas, exotic bugs and amphibians. Some very large alligators and crocodiles are the premier residents of the garden as well as giant boas and pythons. No petting zoo, though, for some reason…
African Bullfrog-Westman Reptile Garden
For a totally unique experience head an hour south to the North Dakota border and the International Peace Garden. You can get in without a passport but not out, as you have to clear Canadian customs to get back into Canada or proceed through American customs to North Dakota.
The park, half in Canada and half in the United States, houses the Peace Tower, Peace Chapel and gorgeous sunken gardens built right on the Canada-US border. Visitors can meander back and forth into Manitoba and North Dakota ad libitum while enjoying fountains, waterfalls, flower beds and other horticultural wonders, clearly demarcated as to which side of the border you’re on.
The Peace Tower straddles the international boundary line in the Peace Gardens
There’s an amazing indoor cactus garden at the reception center, plus a host of natural lakes and even a museum dedicated to game wardens. The gardens were built in the 1930’s to celebrate the long and amicable relations between the United States and its northern neighbor, Canada. Many service groups from both sides of the border contributed time and money.
Again, make sure you bring your passport and if you are going in and coming out to the same country DON’T make any duty free purchases.
Within Brandon visitors can tour the campus of Brandon Univerity; its main adminstration building is over 100 years old. The students and faculty add a cultural spark to the town with frequent visitors including the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and even the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. For a taste of local life in the late 1800’s visit the Daly Museum, the home of Brandon’s first mayor. Here you can see a period general store and a butcher’s shop and experience life the way it used to be in a prairie town. Be sure to have a look at the old medical and dental offices in the basement (a little spooky down there…we scared the heck out of one of the museum staff when wandering around in the gloom looking for the light switch). There is also an amazingly detailed doll house on display…just have a look at the photos and try to distinguish from shots of the home’s actual rooms!
Brandon University
Further afield, Riding Mountain National Park, an hour north of Brandon, is not really mountainous, but certainly a good prairie approximation. It is dotted with lakes, hiking trails and even a very special wishing well. As you would expect, there are even horseback riding adventures available for the equestrian minded.
The next time you’re on the Trans Canada Highway and passing through southwestern Manitoba why not stay a spell and check things out. I’m glad I did.
Downtown Brandon across the tracks
If you go…
Photo Credits
All photos by George Burden – All Rights Reserved
Recent Dr. George Burden Articles:
- Grand Prix Weekend in Monte Carlo
- Inside the Big Bang? Literally!
- How The Real Doctor Frankenstein Cured Lead Poisoning
- The Day The Sun Blacked Out
- Hot Times In Varadero At The Sol Caribe Beach Hotel
St Mary’s is a Ukrainian Catholic Church, NOT a Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
**See first picture**
A really different and lovely take on our Canadian prairies at Brandon, Manitoba. Thanks.
Moira
I’m glad you enjoyed the article Moira. I always try to ferret out the hidden treasures in any place that I visit.