Winnipeg historia obscura

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This article was published 30/12/2020 (1802 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Reporter and local historian Darren Bernhardt has surfaced from the city’s archives with a set of new stories for his book The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent.

Great Plains Publications, a Winnipeg-based independent publisher, took notice Bernhardt’s articles on local history for CBC and pitched him the idea of creating a book.

The story that started it all was a piece he wrote about ghost creeks: dozens of waterways that once snaked through the city before early Winnipeggers filled them in.

“As a reporter, you have your eyes and ears open to all kinds of things, so when I started tapping into those types of oddity stories, I would inevitably come across others,” Bernhardt said.

Chasing a story often started with a picture, Bernhardt said. He would sift through filing cabinets packed with thousands of documents before striking gold.

“It took me three months just to go through pictures,” he said.

Bernhardt said he wanted the book to be an equally visual history as it is a written one, using photos to springboard the reader into each story.

The Lesser Known hit the press with over 200 images. Singer-songwriter Christine Fellows made the cover art collage.

The stories in The Lesser Known are quintessentially Manitoban — for better or worse.

Bernhardt said some of the darker elements of the book demanded attention because no single story can stand alone — all are linked to broader narratives of struggle and progress.

He gave the example of Canada’s first Black Olympian John (Army) Howard, who was born in Winnipeg. 

Bernhardt said he was originally going to write a quirky profile on the track and field athlete but the story ended up warranting a deeper look into the racism Howard endured throughout his career.

“It’s just part of the web of how the stories are threaded together in history. You want to put these stories into the greater context,” Bernhardt said.

The Confusion Corner bear pit tale came to mind for Bernhardt as the “most Winnipeg” of the bunch.

Built in 1966, this defunct concrete seating area — nicknamed for its resemblance to the old bear enclosure at the Assiniboine Park Zoo — lies at the centre of a perennial bone of contention in Winnipeg’s mythology: brutalist architecture.

“It’s one of the places where clues to the past can still be seen,” he said.

The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Content is available for purchase directly from Great Plains Publications or other online vendors.