tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post7883867626343363518..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Stories of Stone, brieflyCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-82337236441888770222013-11-04T14:02:16.096-05:002013-11-04T14:02:16.096-05:00These are AMAZING suggestions Christine! Thank you...These are AMAZING suggestions Christine! Thank you so much for being my tour guide. I'm really looking forward to Manitoba!Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-34665211254165594962013-11-02T18:20:50.806-04:002013-11-02T18:20:50.806-04:00I'm delighted to think you will be at my under...I'm delighted to think you will be at my undergraduate alma mater, U of Manitoba, Jeffrey, even if you must face the legendary Winnipeg winter. As all Prairie folks will tell you: it's a dry cold--so bring your long-johns and a toque, and you'll be fine.<br /><br />Growing up in Winnipeg means stone is also a significant part of one's world. The area is know for Tyndall stone, a dolomitic limestone quarried from the Selkirk member of the Ordovician Red River Formation, in the vicinity of Garson, Manitoba, Canada. The Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg, and many other major buildings across the country have Tyndall stone in their construction.<br /><br />The rock is famous for its cream colour (limestone) with its pervasive coloured mottling (dolomite), caused by the burrowing of marine creatures when the limestone was deposited. It also contains numerous gastropod, brachiopod, cephalopod, trilobite, coral, and stromatoporoid fossils.) One famous Manitoban (and U of Manitoba English faculty) author who left us too soon, Carol Shields, mentioned it in her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Stone Diaries. <br /><br />The Winnipeg Art Gallery (a famous modernist structure that is a study of Tyndall stone designed by Gustavo da Roza) houses the world's biggest collection of Inuit art, which means that as a kid you spend a lot of time learning about Inuit soap stone carving. It's worth a look if you have the time.<br /><br />Another wonderful Manitoba stone story is located just east of Winnipeg in the Whiteshell, a provincial park featuring the beauties of the Precambrian Shield. Here you find the Petroforms of Bannock Point, beautiful figures of turtles, snakes, humans, and abstract shapes made by rocks laid out onto the bedrock in the midst of forest glades. Archeologists date the formations to 500 C.E.--which is to say we do not know who used this space for ritual, though their rock art has also made this a sacred space for the Anishinaabe whose home this area has been for the past few centuries. Bannock Point may not have the drama of the volcanic or the lure of Stonehenge, but I love this unprepossessing landscape as a miscellany of stone stories, the epic told by the Shield itself and the fragile stone tales left by human storytellers on top of it for others to find.Christine Neufeldnoreply@blogger.com