Prairie Oddities: Punkinhead, Peculiar Gravities and More Lesser Known Histories

WINNER - Manitoba Day Awards, 2025

In Prairie Oddities: Punkinhead, Peculiar Gravity and More Lesser Known Histories Darren Bernhardt recounts historical anecdotes from middle-Canada's past that were never given top billing, the ones that faded away in time but left their marks behind. Laden with archival images, Bernhardt's stories restore focus on the gunslinging fugitive who became a folk hero, the curious and chaotic battle for Kenora, the flower-bearing American spy, the ghost trail of the Bergen Cutoff, the lost bells of St. Boniface, how the bison were saved from extinction, Hudson Bay's missing gravity, and the many firsts accomplished in the northwest.

The stories of what was - and what could have been - arouse imagination and kindle interest in a complicated and colourful past.

Born-and-raised in Winnipeg, Darren Bernhardt was seven when he began scribbling stories in Hilroy  notebooks, recounting family outings and adventures with friends.

As a journalist, he still scribbles stories, now specializing in local history and the offbeat. He spent the first dozen years of his career in newspapers in Saskatchewan before moving back to Winnipeg where he now lives with his wife, two kids and a dog in a 112-year-old house.

He is the co-author of the JackPine Press chapbook To Kerouac and Back and co-author of the play Alison's Leather Couch and author of the best-selling The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent.