Highway # 3
This is probably the longest route and the only one that takes you from Oak Bluff right to our doorstep (well, five k’s from our door) without changing highways.
Oak Bluff has a 24 hour Petrocan (southeast of the perimeter intersection). Take # 3 Highway to Carman. This is a fairly bleak stretch of road – a good opportunity to find shapes in the clouds or otherwise feast on the sky. The farms on this stretch have become large and therefore the farmyards are quite a distance from each other. You are driving on the bottom of what was Lake Agassiz thousands of years ago. Geographers refer to this area as the First Prairie Level because it is the lowest agricultural area on the Prairies. You’ll notice there are few native grassed or wooded areas and no wetlands. Farmers have been encouraged to drain the wet areas. Consequently you will not see many animals, domestic or wild, along this stretch.
At Sanford you’ll come across a welcome distraction from the bare prairie, the La Salle River. This stream gathers water from as far as Portage la Prairie and deposits it into the Red River just south of Wpg. You might notice how the smaller towns differ in character. Some, like Sanford and Sperling a little farther along, just happen to be beside the highway. We don’t have to slow down for them and so we see little of them unless we deliberately turn in. Others like Brunkild require us to slow down and invite us to stop or at least check out what the place has to offer. Semi truck drivers and some commuters don’t like this inconvenience. They lobby the government to build bypasses around these small centres. Those of us who depend on services in our nearest small town, counter-lobby to keep the roads as they are, so as to attract visitors and cash.
You’ll go past Homewood where my mother’s family (The Klassens) grew up on a farm. Of the 15 children and 100 (or so) grand and great grandchildren born as a result of that union only 3 families are still farming in the area.
Carman has been built up in the woodlands along the Boyne River. At the stop sign turn left to stay on the main tour route. You’re now traveling south through farmland that sports a few more trees and farmsteads. There is a large U-pick farm on the left along here. Carry on crossing a few eastbound streams until you come to a stop sign. Winkler is a side trip on your left and Morden is on the main route on your right. These are sister towns; both prosperous and highly influenced by the Mennonites who settled here 80 to 100 years ago. Morden has a wonderful, small annual folk festival on the first Sunday in June. You’ll find us there.
Coming out of Morden you’ll start your ascent out of the Lake Agassiz plain up onto the second prairie level. There is more mixed farming up here and so you’ll begin to see cattle, horses and more wild life especially around the lower, wetter areas. If you time it well, you can join the town of Manitou in its annual early September Maple Syrup and Garlic Festival – lots of great food and entertainment. The streams and ditches in this area take water south and west toward the Pembina River. Past Manitou you suddenly encounter the Pembina River by following a steep ravine down to the town of La Riviere. The good people of the area host a passion play in summer. In winter there’s a downhill ski resort – where I learned to ski as a kid.
Back up on the prairie you’ll go past Pilot Mound and Crystal City. Keep a keen eye open for an intersection south of Crystal City. If you go straight you’ll end up at the US border. You can either turn right on #3A to go past the beautiful village of Clearwater (home to the Harvest Moon Festival in September) or go past the #3A until you get to the place where the # 3 Hwy turns right. You’ll go past a few small towns, around the left overs of a country gas station and around ‘Pancake’ Lake – as we called them when we were kids -and you’ll come to a dead end where you meet the # 18 Hwy going north to Killarney. Turn to Killarney and then turn west/left again when you get to Killarney’s outskirts. The # 3 along here is a cool road because you can see the Turtle Mountains (they’re mountains to us!) to the south and you’ll drive across and along a couple ravines that take water down from the hills to the Pembina river system. Ravines are a distinctive feature of this Highway. Most are fenced and provide native pasture and wildlife habitat. Keep your eyes open for beaver and muskrat huts, white tail deer and coyotes.
25 k’s west of Killarney you’ll come to the corner of #3 and #10. Go west toward Deloraine from this intersection. (About 5 k’s along you’ll go past what used to be our family farm – where I grew up – on the left/south of the road.) 6 k’s along you’ll see a sign for Lake Max. Turn south along the gravel road and move up into the treed parkland. The snow or water you see in the creeks and wetlands eventually reaches Winnipeg via Cherry Creek, Pembina River and Red River. Just past the cultivated prairie (a bit more than 5 k’s from # 3 Hwy.) you’ll see our sign ‘Room To Grow’. Turn right. The Straw House is on your left when you’re on the yard.
Welcome.