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University Archives & Special Collections, A-5450. (Patrick Hayes)

The Bowl

With the College Building at its eastern end, the bowl has always been the heart of the University of Saskatchewan campus.

This image depicts an unidentified woman standing in a field of oats in the late summer of 1913. That field is what would become known as the Bowl. The oats were harvested and the following year the area was planted in grass.

 It was not until 1923 that the oval was excavated to give it its present bowl-shaped contours. 

Though the shape has remained the same, the look of the bowl has changed with the addition of surrounding buildings and the planting and removal of various trees, shrubs and plants.

For example, at one point there were a number of fir trees, almost a mini forest, in the northeast corner.

In the 1960s there was a proposal to make radical changes to the bowl.  Drawings submitted by landscape architects Justice and Web show a series of ponds wheat sheaf-shaped fountains.  

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