High Water On The Qu'appelle Lakes

In spring of 1955 Bill Nevard was living just a stone's throw from the shore of Echo Lake. Here is Bill's account of a few days in May when he helped some of his neighbour's protect their property from the rising lake waters.
May 6: The rising waters of Echo Lake are getting close to his house so Tony Paidel moved all his stuff out today and stored it with his neighbours who helped him lay sandbags to try and keep the waters back. The Paidels will stay at Birns until they can get a place.

May 8: The neighbours are busy sandbagging their property trying to save it from the lake. Dick went down to help them at Bye's after he came home at 2 and I went down 2 hours later. Bye's have lost about 45 feet of their lake shore property they reckon.

May 9: I went to do some more sandbagging this evening. Dick had already been helping at Bye's. I went with others in John Strudwick's truck down to Regan's where they got the boat out of the boat house as the waves were washing in and threatening to wreck it. Then we went down to Ruddy's. A bulldozer was tearing out the side of a hill and banking the dirt around a house near Ruddy's which was pretty well awash. We came back and went to Hutchings and put a few sandbags down there. Frank Hutchings had come from Regina to help his father.


May 10: I went down to the Fort this morning and did some digging for Rev. Corkhill. I cashed Dad's pension cheque at the bank and got a ride most of the way home with Bennet. After dinner I went to help with sandbagging at Huber's and Bye's. The lake was not so rough as Monday but bad enough. Went back again after supper but did not do much.

Dick Nevard and my dad enjoying quieter times on the shore of Echo Lake in July of 1971.