Unsolved Mysteries Web site Receives Pierre Burton Award

The University of Victoria-based 'Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History' website (www.canadianmysteries.ca) is the 2008 winner of rhe Pierre Berton Award, presented by Canada's National History Society for outstanding work in popularizing Canadian history. It's the latest honour for the popular project that invites students to 'solve' mysteries plucked from Canada's rich history while developing their research skills.

Launched in 1997, with one mystery, the 1868 murder of black settler William Robinson on Saltspring Island, British Columbia, the website has now grown to a dozen bilingual mysterie including “DEATH ON A PAINTED LAKE: The Thom Thomson Tragedy, to which Clemson was a major research contributor. "Setting out to make Canadian history more accessible, more popular more fun, this award suggests that the site has succeeded.

Unsolved Mysteries invites students to sift online through archival photographs, maps, news articles, court testimony and other materials to come to their own conclusions about the mysteries posed by the website. In the process students learn that prevailing attitudes towards race, religion and social structure often influence how justice is served or history preserved. They also discover that Canadian history is exciting, lively and engaging. The website receives 200,000 unique visitors from 50 countries each year.