News Articles: 2006 Story Telling Contest Winner
In October and November, visitors to the "Every Story Tells a Picture" lobby exhibit were eligible to enter a story telling contest by picking one of the items on display and writing a short story that answered some of our questions or even their own questions about the object's history.
Barbara Wickstrom was the winner of the Adult Category and received two tickets for Globe Theatre's January production Dogbarked, two RSM Centennial wine glasses, and 1 bottle of Saskatoon champagne. Click here to read her story.
Presenting the 2006 Story Telling Contest Adult Category prize to Barbara Wickstrom in the Life Sciences Gallery.
(from left to right: David Baron, Barbara Wickstrom, Margaret Hanna, and Penny Pedersen)
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Category: Adult Object: Butherian bombofron (Muskox bones) Author: Barbara Wickstrom Title: Ernest Wickstrom's Grave |
We have a tradition to dig (if at all possible) the graves of our family members. It is the last earthly thing we can do for our loved ones. The grave was dug at the Tompkins, Saskatchewan, cemetery in April 1994 for our dad, Ernest Savid Wickstrom who had just passed away. He was the third son of Victor and Anna Wickstrom, Swedish pioneers who homesteaded six miles south of Tompkins. He lived his eighty-four plus years on the farm and village of Tompkins.
The men in our family had dug family graves before, but this time my brothers, sons, and nephews were in for a great surprise! Although we were sad, we were also excited as we all knew these strange-looking bones were meant to be in the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. I think my dad, who was very much a history loving man, is really smiling, knowing there is a display here now at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum made from bones that were discovered at the bottom of his grave.
The irony of it all! My dad is still sharing his interest in history from his final resting place.
Our parents, Ernest and Hazel Wickstrom, taught us to preserve things. They brought us here—all the way from Tompkins—in 1959 for our summer holiday so we could see the newly opened museum, and we were thrilled. That was a big trip in the fifties for farm kids.
After the joy of discovering the bones, we all speculated about how did this animal die, are there more bones buried in the Tompkins cemetery, and what was our little corner of the world like ten thousand years ago? We still discuss these interesting questions at our family gatherings and wonder about the answers. I hope someday someone finds out more about the bones and that I am still around to learn.
At the time of the discovery, my brother Allan Wickstrom was interviewed for a story on a history television channel and my son Jeffrey Woodward was interviewed for a CBC radio history clip. I now live five blocks from this wonderful museum and visit often with my grandchildren Joseph and Anna Woodward.
P.S. My brother has had the privilege of appearing on the RSM stage, as he is the one and only Gus “The Pig Spleen Weather Predictor” Wickstrom, but he did not predict the finding of the bones in this story.
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