The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2005, Qupperneq 24

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 59 #3
1 10
Siggi and Lizzie
badly, and he was forced to decline.
However, he became a skillful cowboy, and
became a rodeo champion, with prizes for
calf-roping.
In 1902, one dozen Icelandic men,
mostly young, but some nearing middle
age, rode north on a trip of exploration into
the Canadian mid-west. Their destination
turned out to be Vatnabyggd, the area to
the south of the Quill Lakes, Foam Lake,
Fishing Lake, Noop Lake, the tiny
Hoseason’s Lake, Birch Creek and
Milligan Creek - the Water Settlement.
Siggi was in that group, choosing home-
steads for himself (in his mother’s name),
for Steve, Jon and Bjorn. His cousins Sam
(Samsi) Samson and Joe Gislason also
chose land, as did many others. A huge
migration followed from the Dakotas into
what soon became Saskatchewan, leaving
behind 40 and 80-acre homesteads for the
160 acres that was being offered. By old
country standards, this was a grand estate!
Siggi, however, had other ideas.
Another cousin (Icelanders have so many
cousins!) convinced him that he should
homestead in Montana. Hence the
Saskatchewan property was registered to
his mother, while he built a ranch in
Montana, the Lazy-S Bar, from which he
worked to round up wild horses, break
them for farm work, and deliver them to
North Dakota and to Saskatchewan,
replacing the oxen that so many early
homesteaders used. The nearby Blackfoot
reservation provided help in rounding up
horses from the hills, and Siggi braved
spring blizzards and packs of wolves to
bring herds of horses through the Big
Muddy Valley, through the valley of the
Wood River, past Wood Mountain, and up
into the Vatnabyggd territory.
Siggi married Elisabet Petursson about
the same time he settled in Montana.
‘Lizzie’ was a strong, independent typeset-
ter for the local paper in Edinburg, N.D. In
her day she was not only a farm house-
keeper and gardener, but a practical nurse
and midwife. She once headed the
Saskatchewan Poultry Growers
Association, chosen because her fowl
repeatedly won prizes at city fairs. Some
were shocked to learn that her flock con-
sisted of only a couple of dozen chickens!
In those few were examples of many exotic
Lizzie, Siggi Tobba and Sophie in 1926 (Elfros)