The Wednesday, May 13 edition of History Corner had the title Queen Victoria Monument with no location cited, instead of the intended title “Queen Victoria Monument in Ottawa on Parliament Hill.” No doubt most readers knew that Queen Victoria’s monument is not in Yorkton! If a few came out to check, I hope they had a good time even if they did not find what they sought! We in Saskatchewan have erected very few impressive statues and monuments, especially of the pioneer leaders of our country, province and communities. To provide a few examples, in Regina, there is a statue of our first Prime Minster J.A. Macdonald in Victoria Park and one of Queen Elizabeth II on horseback. Heading west on #1`Highway, you can’t miss the large moose at Moose Jaw. Out Redvers way in southeast Saskatchewan, you will see a statue of a North West Mounted Police on horseback to announce the Red Coat Trail--No. 13 Highway. Saskatoon has a statue in the downtown of Prime Minister-to-be Wilfrid Laurier buying a newspaper from then paper boy John Diefenbaker. In the Yorkton region, there is a tall statue of a Ukrainian-Canadian woman at Canora, and one of Russian citizen and famous novelist Leo Tolstoy in Veregin. At Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills, there is a statue of a Mounted Police and an Indian both on horseback greeting each other. A statue of Ste. Jeanne d’Arc is in the cemetery at Dollard, in southwest Saskatchewan. Certainly, province-wide we have numerous historical markers. However, as one disappointed visitor said to me last summer “Where are the monuments?” Yorkton has not given enough credit to its founding company, the York Farmers Colonization Company of Toronto. Yes, we have a large plaque at the old colony site telling the history, but there should be a monument of the three main officials pictured here: N.C. Wallace, James Armstrong and J.J. Cook. Such a monument should be large enough to draw the attention and interest of the tourists. It should be situated at a southern entrance of the city, because most of the pioneers arrived from that direction. There would not be a “Yorkton” if it was not for these men and their corporate colonizing venture of 1882.
