Visiting Winnie the Pooh's birthplace

Forever filled with honey
White River, ON
June 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In the leadup to the First World War, a trapper catches a black bear near the Ontario town of White River. He then sells it for $20 to a Canadian soldier and veterinarian, Harry Colebourn, at the train station as he’s on his way to meet his regiment in Quebec before they all ship out to the U.K.

Harry names her Winnipeg Bear, after his hometown. Winnie, for short.

In England, Winnie becomes the regiment’s mascot, and the soldiers often play with her while they wait for their deployment orders. But when those orders come to ship out to France, Winnie must stay behind. So she’s loaned to the London Zoo, where she becomes a beloved attraction. Eventually, the loan becomes a permanent donation.

In 1921, British writer A. A. Milne takes his son, Christopher Robin, to Harrods department store and buys him a stuffed bear. The little guy first names it Edward, but soon changes it to Winnie in honour of that same cool bear he had seen so often at the zoo. He adds Pooh after a family friend’s swan.

Five years later, Milne publishes the first Winnie-the-Pooh book - a collection of stories featuring characters based on his son’s stuffies, including Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Owl and Rabbit. Tigger comes along in the second book.

In the town of White River, along the Trans-Canada Highway, the Winnie the Pooh Memorial stands in the shadows of a gas station and a fast food joint. Whenever we’re passing through, we’ll visit him in his honey tree and reflect a little before continuing on.

I’ve lost count of how many children’s cartoon characters came and went throughout my life. But only one remains into adulthood. Only one feels as deeply personal as this unassuming bear and his (not-so-) merry band of lifelong friends. This one’s ours. We can drop in and revel in an origin story that’s based not so much on fantasy as it is on a colder reality where soldiers facing their worst fears found comfort in a gentle cub from the woods.

May we all find similar comfort among life’s journey, wherever we may be headed.

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Related:

The Toyota Tao of Pooh, March 2020

This would make Pooh very happy, August 2013

On some more Pooh wisdom, December 2011

On the wisdom of Pooh, November 2011

Sad Pooh, June 2005

Tuck in, March 2005

Pooh self portrait, July 2004