A Treasure in Dysart
By Dallas Harrison

“This place is a treasure!” exclaims an entry in the guest book at Pure Prairie Western Giftware and Coffee Garden, and there are numerous such accolades in the book. Since opening in the summer of 2005, Pure Prairie has welcomed over 700 visitors from near and far, and many of them have expressed their admiration for this one-of-a-kind operation.

Run by Wayne and Rachel Ursulescu, Pure Prairie is located in the Village of Dysart, an hour’s drive northeast of Regina on Highway 22. The roots of Pure Prairie stretch back to 1989, when they were still living in Regina and Wayne was painting plaster figurines of wildlife and cowboys, which he began selling two years later at the Western Canadian Agribition. He exhibited his work there for the next 10 years.

In 1993, Rachel and Wayne bought a two-storey log house in Dysart, and slowly “phase two” of Pure Prairie “evolved like a giant jigsaw puzzle,” Rachel explains. Some of the pieces were the buildings of the old west village, named Buckeroo Boulevard, which features the requisite saloon, general store, post office, and sheriff’s office. Here you can “travel back in time,” relaxing in an antique barber’s chair in the saloon, which seats 12, or admiring a century-old woodstove in the store, which seats 10, or perusing other period artifacts.

Other pieces of the puzzle were raised garden beds, crusher dust paths, flower beds and shrubs and trees, a pump and pond, and a pergola. The catalogue of plants is extensive, from amur cherry to wayfaring tree, from beebalm to yarrow. And such an array of plants attracts birds of all sorts, kingbirds, hummingbirds, warblers.

But the last piece, the one that Rachel had long sought, was a coffee and gift shop, so they rebuilt an addition at the back of the house overlooking the garden and Buckeroo Boulevard. In keeping with the old west theme, Wayne finished the inside to resemble an old barn, complete with a sliding door, windows, ropes, pegs, and whatnot. The addition brings the seating capacity of Pure Prairie up to 100 people.

Wayne has converted their two-car garage into his woodworking shop, and there he creates, without working from plans, sturdy and unique furniture. Each is a work of art. “It comes out of my head,” he notes, and “I can change it at a whim.” And each is made with wood salvaged from old buildings—barns, houses, granaries—in the area.

Among his many impressive creations are an armchair assembled with wood recovered from the old Royal Bank building on Main Street, a cabinet and hutch, and a pie safe, both fashioned from the fir stair treads and baseboards of an old farmhouse west of Dysart. Wayne likes to work especially with the old-growth fir used to construct buildings early in the twentieth century as settlement spread across the Prairies. Not only its fine grain but also its evocation of “that bygone era” appeal to him.

The coffee and gift shop is full of his figurines, rustic picture frames, and furniture (visit their website at www.pureprairie.net for photos and prices), and their house itself doubles as not only a showroom of his work but also a natural history museum. Here you will discover on the walls everything from bear hides to wasp nests.

Pure Prairie is a tranquil retreat where you can stroll through the garden, visit the old west, enjoy coffee and cheesecake in the “barn,” and then purchase a finely painted figurine, a rustic-textured picture frame, or firmly crafted furniture. Pure Prairie has been called “the best-kept secret” of Dysart. It’s time we let that secret out.

(Published in Prairies North, vol. 9, no. 2, summer 2007: 18–20; see www.prairiesnorth.com.)

Goto the Pure Praire Website