Over 60 years ago, Calvin Rustrum came across a man and his 19 year-old daughter who had missed the last boat from Norway House at the North end of Lake Winnipeg to the town of Winnipeg.

I have enjoyed reading Mr. Rustrum's story of their trek down the lake and how it changed these novice winter travelers' lives. Over the next few days I will be posting excerpts from their story for you to read.

"A middle-aged, former Chicago businessman and his 19 year-old daughter, on a late fall boat excursion on Lake Winnipeg , followed by a two-weeks' stay in a cabin, had missed the last boat back to the city of Winnipeg. Panic seized the pair. The possibility of getting caught in the freeze-up of Lake Winnipeg 's shore ice excluded the trip south by canoe and paddle. It was the era before radio communication or planes. Also, the outboard motor idea at the time was just beginning to germinate in the head of Ole Evinrude, its inventor.......problem two moved in when they learned that their Gladstone bags and other luggage, with nearly all of the contents, would have to be left behind to follow seven months later on the first spring boat. The thought of arriving in Winnipeg with no other garments that the backwoods garb they would wear on the trail....seemed to them both embarrassing and amusing. The feminine member of our party, however, rather enjoyed the novel prospect of a full-scale shopping spree in Winnipeg, dressed, as she would be, in an Indian-made caribou parka and moccasins."