Thunder Bay Forum: Small Piles of Rock Along the Highway???

Hi Kentyckybette,

Welcome to the THUNDER BAY TRAVEL FORUM.

The info here by AKAENT is “spot on”… I would just add that when I was a girl (40+ years ago) it was very common for Travellers to leave their mark along Canadian Highways by spray-painting their names and the date on the many rock cuts that you’ll see thru our Canadian Shield topography. The then way of saying "I was here".

This practic was particularly evident along the Trans-Canada as so many travellers then and now... see their journey on the T-Can (Canada's only true East West Highway) as a right-of-passage. With a country that is as BIG as Canada for many it truly is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

The leaving of an Inukshuk seems to have cut down on that practice... which is nice because it leaves a more organic marker than defacing the natural beauty of the landscape.

Below I've provided a link to Wikipedia which further explains Inukshuks… and it also has some info relating directly to this practice in Northern Ontario (see the section titled “Modern Usage”).

Overall the inukshuk in recent years has gained more prominence in Southern Canada since it is the official symbol of the Territory of Nunavut (which in 1999 became Canada’s 13th recognized Province / Territory). And also it was chosen as the official logo of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver (lol, so now even more people know about it's symbolism).

For more info see…

Wikipedia – Inukshuk = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk

Photo – Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Logo = ambassadors.net/images/vancouver2010_olympic…

Hope this is helpful,

Cheers!

Wine-4-2

Thank you for your replies,. It's quite nice to realize the pleasant significance of this symbol as opposed to what I feared it might be. We enjoyed our trip through your beautiful country and look forward to visiting other provinces in the future.

Bette

Hi KentuckyBette,

You are very welcome... and you are right, a far more pleasant thought... more than anything else, it also shows how Global our world is becoming and that something that was once really only known in Canada's Far North has migrated south to Central Canada.

Similarly, the practice of putting up white crosses where a life has been lost in a car accident (as you no doubt thought originally these Inukshuks might have represented) was something I first encountered in the Western USA about about 20 - 25 Years ago... something then unseen in Canada... today this practice is also quite common (shall we say too common, sadly).

Travel is a wonderous thing, it brings us together to share our common experiences and learn about new ones... may all your travels be safe ones.

Cheers!

Wine-4-2

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