Editor: Dorell Taylor

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I have met so many wonderful people since we started this project. The enthusiasm and exuberance I encountered whilst talking about Waskesiu and PANP has been incredible. There have been people who said, "Oh, I can't write a story!" But when they put pen to paper, they came up with great `memories.' The number of mainly "amateur" writers who now are published writers in these three books is amazing... over 130 people have contributed stories and pictures. We congratulate you all!

Bill Waiser's book, Saskatchewan's Playground, A History of P.A.N.P. has continued to be my "P.A.N.P. bible" again for factual information. Thanks to Friends of the Park for commissioning Bill to do this book. I am very grateful that he has consented to write the Preface for Volume III.

I greatly appreciate the work and dedication of the Waskesiu Heritage Group (1998 to 2002) - Betty (Davey) McLeod Anderson, Betty Anne Kielbiski, lone Langlois, Marj Matheson, Ruth Nekurak and Daphne Stacey. They deserve much recognition and I thank them! Not only did they encourage people to send stories and pictures, they sold many of the first two volumes, and also brought alive "the good old days" in organizing three Heritage Days, 1998, 1999, and 2001.

Daphne Stacey, Sharlene Ferguson and my daughter, Carolyn, have eased my task by helping with some typing. Another friend, Marni (Paine) Bowman kindly assisted with the editing. I thank her and also, once again, Derek McNamara, whose infinite patience with my lack of computer know-how, and putting up with my papers and pictures for months is phenomenal.

I couldn't have put these books together without the help of Dr. Jim London and Alison Makkinga of Classic Memoirs. They were life-savers with their encouragement and professional help. I wish to thank them again, and also Herve Langlois. Without Herve's appeal for shack tent stories years ago, I likely wouldn't have written my original story, which, I suspect, is true of many other Volume I contributors as well. Thanks also to Will Chabun who again made a request for stories in his column in the Regina Leader Post.
Thanks to everyone who sold books on consignment; Friends of the Park, Kapasiwin Cabins, Wishing Well, Prince Albert Heritage Museum, PA Tourism, Amy's on 2°d Avenue South, PA; Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society, Regina, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Saskatoon; and North Battleford Western Development Museum. Also, a big thank you to those of you who bought books, helping to defray costs and letting us know that it was all worthwhile.

Thanks to three members of the crew of the H.M. C.S. Waskesiu and to Lynn Wright and Adrian Bull of the Maritime Museum in Victoria, for their input to help make Chapter II memorable. We hope they will have a wonderful reunion at their "namesake" this summer. Don Ravis is the contact for them, and they, and I, appreciate his interest. Also thanks to Mr. Greene of Capital Iron, who had his picture of the HIM C. S. Waskesiu on the wall for years and now finds it missing; and to Mr. David Freeman who wrote Canadian Warships for their assistance.

Thanks to all those whom I pestered to identify people in pictures in the three Volumes. I have attempted to present the names to the readers as best I can. With regard to the photographs, I have had to take a more economical way as in Volume II by putting pictures at the end of the Chapters. My preference is to have them accompany the stories, albeit to have the coloured ones in colour, but the expense is prohibitive. Unfortunately we could not put all the available pictures into this book, but I will put the extras into an album which people can access. Eventually, perhaps it will go into a P.A.N.P. Museum?!

Since this is my final publication, I am putting in articles and pictures other than "memories"- this'n that, a pot pourri. Thanks again to all the writers, and people who sent photographs, and to the Park Archives who allowed me to copy some of their photographs, and helped with some of the information that we were not sure of.

If, in the final analysis, if we inadvertently made any mistakes, left out any wording, or heaven forbid, any stories or pictures, or forgotten anything, please forgive me. I deeply apologize. I question my own organizational skills, but our main aim has been to get the stories and pictures `out there' before they are lost, or something happens to them... or me. We hope you enjoy reading about the love of this place, the family holidays, romances, weddings, honeymoons, confessions - and "coincidences" - as if they were "meant-to-be."

I had hoped to have this volume finished for the summer of 2002, but had a sad summer with my son in hospital in Vancouver. Sadly, he passed away on September 6, 2002. Perhaps in the long run, it is better anyway to have this book for the 75th Anniversary of the opening celebrations of P.A.N.P.

Finally, I would like to thank all of those P.A.N.P. visitors across the "generations," who have provided us with so many pleasant recollections. For my family and a few others I know of, those memories have been growing, since our grandparents first discovered Waskesiu, long before it became a national park. We hope that younger or future generations will carry on with this tradition and collect their own memories, and eventually form an historic society and museum.

Some of us have a fifth generation travelling to the Park now, and we hope and pray that this can continue for the enjoyment of the present and future generations of the Canadian people, as Mackenzie King said in his opening address.