Simply outdoors the small group of Watrous, Saskatchewan, Manitou Seaside sits on the so-called “Useless Sea of Canada.”
“Little Manitou Lake, carved out by glaciers exposing bedrock and minerals which were absorbed by water over time,” mentioned Jeff Siegfried, group enhancement director of the Watrous Manitou Seaside Advertising and marketing Group. “It’s known as a terminal lake which means water flowing into it has no approach to escape and so the minerals which might be within the mattress of the lake leach into the water.”
The water is as much as 5 occasions saltier than the ocean and mentioned to have therapeutic properties. The identify Manitou means religious power or mysterious being.
Indigenous individuals first used the water for its therapeutic talents. Oral custom suggests the water was used to deal with illnesses resembling smallpox.
“I assume of their day, as a result of they needed to transfer to observe the buffalo,” mentioned Lionel Sproule, Watrous Manitou Seaside Heritage Centre chairman. “They left these ailing individuals behind… they’d come again by this manner a month later and there could be the ailing individuals healed after which stick with it with life.”
Sproule, who managed the spa in Manitou when it opened, has many different tales of the therapeutic waters, together with a woman named Lydia from the southern a part of Saskatchewan.
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Lydia got here to Manitou Seaside not with the ability to stroll by herself. She soaked within the water over 10 days and by the tip of it, she was in a position to take small stiff steps.
She moved to Watrous and lived there the remainder of her life.
However the water isn’t the one factor Manitou Seaside is understood for. The land is wealthy with historical past and greater than 3,000 artifacts have been discovered alongside the shore, left by Indigenous individuals over centuries.
It’s additionally residence to The Salty Cinema Drive-In Theater, one in all simply three remaining within the province.
“Drive-ins are you understand not as in vogue, however it’s simply one other expertise that goes on right here at Manitou that makes us distinctive and persons are prepared to journey for it,” mentioned Lane Manson, overseer of the drive-in.
Simply outdoors the theatre sits a mix from the unique Tornado film.
The Manitou Seaside sights usher in individuals from throughout Canada and past, with the realm seeing about 150,000 guests a 12 months.
“I recovered from my hip harm, however I come out right here for the water and you understand the magnesium within the water, it’s actually good and I discover that it actually works nicely. I imply final 12 months once I was right here with my arm harm, I used to be within the water and I may do issues with my arm I couldn’t do earlier than,” mentioned Bob Dobko from Rocky Mountain Home, Alberta.
Watch the video above to be taught extra about Canada’s saltiest physique of water.