Municipality of North Cypress-Langford, Manitoba
World-renowned naturalist, artist and writer Ernest Thompson Seton was born in England. In 1882, he joined his brother on a homestead near Carberry, Manitoba and began to keep scientific records. He often referred to his time here as the “Golden Years” of his life and it inspired many of his later works. Housed in one of Carberry’s heritage buildings, the Seton Centre is a small museum, art gallery and gift shop dedicated to the life and works of Ernest Thompson Seton. Appointed naturalist to the Manitoba government in 1892, he founded the Woodcraft League and became the first Chief of Boy Scouts of America. He moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he founded the Seton Institute in 1930 and there spent the rest of his life.
He fell in love with wild nature from the time of his earliest memory and discovered a remarkable talent for art in his middle teen years. Combining the two, Seton briefly attended the Royal Academy of Arts in London, but achieved mastery of depicting animal forms from endless hours of life study. He became one of the most successful and highly regarded wildlife illustrators of his generation creating drawings, prints and paintings for his own books as well as for many other authors of his time. Roger Tory Peterson credited Seton’s bird illustrations for providing inspiration for his field guides: “It was on this idea that my Field Guide to the Birds, was based.”
This plaque in Seton Provincial Park along the Trans-Canada Highway, in the Municipality of North Cypress-Langford, was erected in 1959 by the Historic Sites Advisory Board of Manitoba. There are other plaques and signs around Canada, honouring Seton. Some are included here.
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