Tramping Lake - St. Michael's Parish
Saskatchewan
"The official geographical designation of the area in which St. Joseph's Colony is located is the Tramping Lake District. The lake is nearly at the center of the district. It can therefore be considerred that St. Michael's Parish at Tramping Lake is the center of St. Joseph's Colony. The first settlers who settled near the locality of the present twon arrived in 1906. A small group of land seekers had thoroughly investigated the area the year before with the prospect of settlement. They were: Anton Gutenberg, George Reiter, John Jahner, as well as three other men who did not settle there. On June 12, 1905, the above mentioned men walked from Battleford (about 75 miles in a northeasterly direction from Tramping Lake) in the troublesome search for good land. They were well satified with the soil they found. They returned to Battleford and registered their homesteads with the authorities. They recieved prompt service and satisfaction. Very happy with their success, the men returned to their families in the United States."St. Joseph's Colony 1905-1930 by Lambert and Tillie Schneider.
The first church of Tramping Lake was located on N.E 1/4 Sec. 28, Twp. 36, Rge. 21 was donated by Jacob Reiter. The church was stared July of 1906 and complete in September of the same year. The first priest at Tramping Lake was Father Laufer who blessed the new church at the feast of St. Michael.
Father Schweers replaced Father Laufer after he was transfered to the east side of Tramping Lake. Father Schweers lived in Father Laufer old residences north of Revenue, from this point he looked after several widely spread settlement as far a Provost, Alberta. There wasn't a designated church yet for this area so many of the small settlements were named after individual farms, namely; St. Francis was called Ulrich's District, St. Henry's was called the Leibel district, and Grosswerder was called the Schachtel Parish.
Due to the great distinces between many of the districts, it was very difficult to get to. Because vehicles werent' both to the area until early 1920, transportation was conducted by horse and buggy in the summer and by horse and sleigh in the winter. One very important point that should be made...."Charlie". Charlie was the Fathers faithful horse that accompanied many of the priests the to many faraway settlements on the open prairie.
In 1928, the old frame church was torn down to start the beginning of a new and bigger church for the growing number of families in the area of Tramping Lake. The decision was made in 1921 to erect a splendid church for the present and future generations. The new church was built in a pure Roman style of architecture. Being the largest brick church in St. Joseph's Colony, it measure ... length of 126 feet, width was 50 feet and it had a full basement.
The first Ursuline Sisters came to Tramping lake from Prelate to look after the school in January of 1924. They service both the adult and youth popular of the parish, the Sisters work was highly praised by everyone. St. Michaels was the first in the colony to use the services of the Sisters.
St. Michael's Cemetery is located one mile outside of the town of Tramping Lake. There were many very old graves in this cemetery, at the back under the trees. It is every sad to see the many unmarked graves ... but some of the graves have been marked with small metal crosses. I had noticed at many of the cemeteries I went to in this area, someone was trying to re-marked the graves.
I do believe that the town has built a church at the far end of town. This picture and several others on this picture is courtesy of Robert Ell
St. Joseph's Colony 1905-1930
A translation by Lambert and Tillie Schneider
Compiled by the Oblate Priests in the Colony.
Last Updated: Sunday, February 10, 2002
