Vol. 129 No. 23 Friday, August 12, 2011

www.minnedosatribune.com 90 cents + taxMinnedosa, Manitoba Canada R0J 1E0

By DARRYL HOLYK

Over 500 people took in the many festivities

at Sandy Lake over the weekend as the communi-ty hosted its annual West-ern Days celebration. An honourary guest at this year’s Western Days was Czech Republic Am-bassador, Karel Zebra-kovsky, who was touring the region with Dauphin - Swan River - Marquette MP and Sandy Lake resi-dent, Bob Sopuck. “We were fortunate to have the Czech Ambassa-dor in attendance which

is kind of a feather in our cap,” said Les Lewandoski of the Western Days orga-nizing committee. As in years past, Ukrai-nian culture, tradition and food was in high demand throughout the annual festival. Th e Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Muse-um hosted a lunch at the outdoor kitchenette Sat-urday featuring a menu of homemade borshch and bread which was baked in the museum’s clay oven. Th e Shevchenko Dance Ensemble held a BBQ sup-per at the outdoor kitchen-ette Friday with the Sandy

Lake Lions Club sponsor-ing a traditional Ukraini-an supper at the Drop-In Centre Saturday night.

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Sandy Lake Western Days

Photo by Darryl Holyk

A friendly wave and candy toss from the folks aboard the Lions fl oat in the Sandy Lake

Western Days parade last Saturday.

Rollerblading waterskiers ride along behind the Cottage Owner’s Association’s boat fl oat.

Photo by Darryl Holyk

By AMANDA BOYD

An exciting endeavour is underway at the aban-doned Whitewater Lake POW Camp, located in

the backcountry of Riding Mountain National Park (RMNP). From July 25th to August 28th six students from Brandon University’s Archaeology Field School will be assisting the Whitewater POW Camp Archae-ology Project, unearthing forgotten history dating back to WWII. Th e Whitewater Project is a joint partnership between Stanford University and Parks Canada and is being directed by Stanford PHD candidate, Adrian Myers. Myers, who is very interested in Prisoners of War being held in North America, surveyed many potential sights and found the one that was the least studied was Whitewater Lake. From 1943 to 1945 the Whitewater POW Camp housed 450 German Afrika Korps soldiers captured in Egypt after the Second Battle of El-Alamein. Th e remote location of the camp was ideal in terms of isolating the prisoners from society and the men were kept busy working for the local lumber indus-try and on nearby farms.

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Unearthing WWII in RMNP

Photo submitted

Students from Brandon University’s Archaeological Field School help excavate

the Whitewater POW Camp in Riding Mountain National Park.