A Canadian literary icon, William Ormond (W.O.) Mitchell was born in Weyburn, SK., 13 March 1914 and died in Calgary, 25 February 1998.  Known for his seminal work Who Has Seen the Wind -- the story of Brian who learns at a young age the meaning of birth and death -- Mitchell spent his childhood in Weyburn but moved to Florida at the age of 12 in order to recover from tuberculosis.  The future author returned to Canada in 1931 where he studied at the universities of Manitoba and Alberta.  It was in the 1940s while teaching in Alberta that W.O. wrote his instant classic Who Has Seen the Wind, much of which was based on his childhood in Weyburn and where he spent his "litmus years."

W.O. Mitchell Trail

Knox Presbyterian Church
(Coteau Avenue & 2nd Street NE)
The Bens no longer sat in the second row of Knox church; any ties that might have bound them were rudely severed three weeks after the Ben's formal reception into the fold. . . [when] the Ben's still in the church blew up.
Pg. 142. Who Has Seen the Wind.

The Knox Presbyterian Church (1906) served as the place of worship for the city's establishment  figures including the Mitchells.

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W.O. Mitchell Residence
(319 - Sixth Street NE)

The privately owned W.O. Mitchell Residence is the very picture of the evocative words by its most famous native-son.  Built in 1903, and bought by Ormond Mitchell by 1914 the house remained in the possession of the matriarch, Margaret Mitchell, until her death in 1960.

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The Royal Hotel (1901)
(Railway Avenue @ 2nd Street NE)

"This is our one hotel," said Digby, "the Royal.  Oh -- that's Drew's Pool Hall. . . . Spittoons in the lobby of the Royal -- . . . . is the distinguishing badge of the town's three dissipations, beer drinking, snookering, and penny ante."
pg.147 Who Has Seen the Wind

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