Winnie the Bear 🐻 Virtual Cache

Upon the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Lt. Harry Colebourn of The Fort Garry Horse, a Canadian cavalry regiment, volunteered his service. On 24 August, while en route to Valcartier in Quebec to report to the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps (CAVC) as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, he purchased a young bear cub for CA$20 (equivalent to $457 in 2020) at a train stop in White River, Ontario. The bear's mother was probably killed in the spring of 1914 when the cub was very young and could most easily have become socialized to humans. The name of the hunter who sold the bear and who presumably provided the bear's early socialization is undocumented. Colebourn named the bear "Winnipeg Bear", "Winnie" for short, after his home city of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Winnie accompanied him to Valcartier and all the way to England, becoming the mascot of the CAVC and a pet to the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade Headquarters. According to Colebourn’s six diaries that he kept during the war, on 3 October 1914, he and Winnie departed Gaspé Bay enroute for England aboard the S.S. Manitou along with numerous other liners filled with troops heading for England. On October 17, they disembarked and left Davenport, Greater Manchester, for Salisbury Plain at 7:00 that morning.

Before leaving for France, Colebourn left Winnie at London Zoo on 9 December 1914.

Winnie's eventual destination was to have been the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, but at the end of the War, Colebourn decided to allow Winnie to remain at the London Zoo, where she was much loved for her playfulness and gentleness.

In 1919, the Zoo held a dedication ceremony by erecting a plaque that stated Colebourn as having donated Winnie to the Zoo.

Among Winnie's fans at the London Zoo was A. A. Milne's son Christopher Robin, who frequently visited the bear starting from 1924. Christopher Robin consequently changed the name of his own teddy bear from "Edward Bear" to "Winnie the Pooh"—a combination of Winnipeg Bear's name and a nickname he had given to a swan that he used to feed in the morning—providing the inspiration for his father's stories about Winnie-the-Pooh.

Formerly located in Assiniboine Park Zoo, the statue of Lt. Harry Colebourn and Winnie the Bear is now located in the Nature Playground. Originally unveiled on August 6, 1992, the bronze statue and plaque were donated by the Kinsmen Club of Winnipeg. The piece was sculpted by William Epp. The Winnie the Pooh Museum is located nearby in The Pavillion on Conservatory Dr. and Pavilion Cres.

Sources: https://www.assiniboinepark.ca/park/things-to-do/nature-playground

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg_(bear)

To log this Virtual cache:

At the given coordinates is the Winnie the Bear statue. Take a photo of yourself or a personal item (GPS, username, Winnie the Pooh item) and attach to your log or send to me privately. If you do not fulfill this requirement you have not truly found the cache and your log will be deleted.

Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023

This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.