2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the Selkirk Settlers in the Red River Valley.
Winnipeg’s creation owes much to Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, who proposed formation of a colony in British North America following a successful Prince Edward Island project in 1803.
All did not go easily for the first group of settlers the Earl convinced to leave their native Scotland, their ship was not properly equipped for the journey. The Edward and Anne took 61 days to cross the Atlantic and down into Hudson’s Bay. The ship’s destination was Fort Churchill, but ended up stuck in York Factory in the winter of 1811. After getting through a horrendous first winter, the settlers landed in what is now Point Douglas in late August 1812. Things didn’t really start turning around until 1817, when Lord Selkirk himself arrived, and began making deals with Chief Peguis.
There are many stories to be told of the hardships faced by these early settlers to be found in the history books, but one of my favourites is a story told during a performance of “A Red River Christmas” at the St. John’s Anglican Cathedral about one of the good Scottish settlers, who, on being forced to endure church services with the English Anglicans, and faced with their insistence on using an organ during their worship services, became so angry that he swore he would never set foot in that church again. Good to his word, he refused to attend services over the issue, that was, until his daughter was hired as the organist.
While not a descendant of the Selkirk Settlers, or of Scottish or Irish descent, I have a love of history, and have been involved with in a number of events that are linked to the English, Irish, and Scottish heritage of both Winnipeg and Manitoba. It was in discussion with a friend about some of the upcoming events around the bicentennial of the Selkirk Setter’s arrival and my own interest in Celtic art thst the idea for this cache originated.
I have therefor done 12 drawings for this cache as the clues for solving it.
The cache can be found at
N AB CD.EFG
W 97 J.KLM
In order to find the final location of the cache you will have to look at the each of the pictures and determine how many cords are used in the design. This could be tricky as the number used can be deceptive, consider, the cross pictured above used only one cord.
A. 
B. 
C. 
D. 
E. 
F. 
G. 
J. 
K. 
L . 
M. 
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.
First to find will recieve a hand-drawn Celtic bookmark.