Man, times have changed around campus.

I’m doing some researching on Norway House, Manitoba for my story “The Wendigo Killers” that has about 1200 words to it so far. Norway House was a fairly major fur trading post in the early twentieth century and is the location of my story. Unfortunately, I’m finding it exceedingly difficult to find out details about Norway House, small but very important things. Like how long it took get there from Winnipeg and what mode of transport would have been used in 1907. Did Norway House have a telegraph? How many people lived there, and were they all trappers or was it a bit more sustantial with a variety of merchants?

These things may not seem like much but they are absolutely critical for writing a realistic story. I supposed I could simply make it all up but it would be so much better to have concrete details. There are lots of books in the UW system about outposts for the Hudson’s Bay Company but very few mention Norway House in anything more than passing.

With a little help from the librarian, I happened across an article entitled “FAMILY MEMORY, PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE FUR TRADE: THE SINCLAIRS AT NORWAY HOUSE, 1902-1911.” Hmmmm. Sounds suspiciously like exactly what I was looking for and, according to a somewhat odd record in the UW library database, it appears as though it was available in the State Historical Society Library. To make a long story short, the UW system has a book of bound journal articles from “Manitoba Magazine” but its the wrong volume. Drat!

Thanks to technology, however, I put through a request to libraries which have the correct volume. They’re going to find the article, scan it, and email it to me. Free of charge. This kind of service ain’t available at the Madison Public Library, I’d like to note. And it wasn’t available way, way back when I went to college and email had only just become common.

I’m still suspicious of anything this good, though. I’m waiting to hear that the article doesn’t exist, or it can’t be found, or it’ll cost me $450, or something to dump on my parade.

But I’ve got my fingers crossed.