Ha, that title sounds like a rock band.
The other day, Andrew and I took a bit of a drive out to see Bergthal. It’s only a few miles out of Steinbach… and this is all that remains of the village:
A lone monument, in a field. Listing all the names of the folks buried here. WOW that’s a lot of names. I’m not sure, can you read them all if I just put some photos in this post, like this?
I appreciate that someone took the time to have a rose quartz stone made for this site, and paints the tops of the little chain fence white, I suppose so that implements don’t crash into the site?
So. Bergthal. Full of Bergthalers, no doubt. The East Reserve has a Bergthal… and the West Reserve has a Neubergthal. I haven’t done my research thoroughly as I should have… but I was reading a bit about Neubergthal today and came across this little video, in which this fellow mentions that the Neubergthal barn he is examining had been transported to the West Reserve from Bergthal, East Reserve.
He says, “The village of Bergthal in the East Reserve was located a mile and a half from a major swamp, and the people who have had grandparents live in that area talk about how huge stands of tall tall tamaracks — and I’m thinking that these round beams that go thirty feet across would’ve come from there.”
Think of it. Those tamarack trees were HUGE. The stands of tamarack must have made a huge impression, you could’ve seen them from miles away, on this flat prairie landscape. I am so sad they were all cut down. I know we can examine the reasons etc. etc. etc. but honestly can I just point blank say that I wish those tamaracks were still standing? That’s what I wish.
I suppose the swamp was off in this direction… north of the cemetery:
The feature photo is taken facing northeast (you see the bridge over the creek in the distance). The village had actually run along where the Road 311 runs today.
The Historical Atlas of the East Reserve mentions that a unique factor of this village was that their Village Agreement was actually in English, from 1891.
I wonder how many people from Bergthal moved to Neubergthal…