In recent weeks, Terri Clark has fractured a cheekbone, broken a toe and had a fire on her tour bus, but a small dose of Medicine Hat made it all better.

Blues evaporated when family, friends and thousands of fans gathered to honor her in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Now there's a Terri Clark Park in her Canadian hometown, and the singer has the key to the city as well as its heart. "I don't see any flying objects coming at my head, I'm going to walk very slowly and try not to hurt myself, and my bus has smoke detectors on it now," she says with a laugh as the day-long celebrations begins. "This is a good end to the bad-luck streak."

Although Terri was born in Montreal, Quebec, and lived for a few years in Calgary, the energetic young star spent most of her youth in Medicine Hat, a small city north of the Montana border that natives call "The Hat." As Terri rode to stardom with songs such as "Emotional Girl," "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" and "Better Things To Do," she's put Medicine Hat on the map, mentnioning the city in everything from interviews to acceptance speeches.

One of the highlights of the afternoon tribute - and a reminder of where she's been- was a telegram from George Strait, the quiet superstar for whom Terri opened a series of concerts last year. It read: "You are a very talented entertainer and I know you have a bright future ahead of you. Love, George Strait." Terri suspects her manager, Woody Bowles, got those rare words from George. "I don't know how he did that," Terri marvels, referring to Woody. "That's nearly a modern-day miracle to get taht, I tell you. That was touching." "I'm not talking," her manager retorts, breaking into a conspirator's grin.

Earlier in the day, Terri had received the key to the city and had a park in her old neighborhood named for her. "Since this is my park, that means I can play in it any time I want," she says, beaming. The naming of Terri Clark Park was the day's biggest surprise. "It was great," Terri says. " I get so many letters from kids that it's cool to have a park where they're going to be all the time that has my name on it."

Kids and adults alike were thrilled to get a close look at their favorite singer. Jenelle Mahowich, 11, and her mother Lori drove five hours from their home near Edmonton just to see Terri. Jenelle caught the singer's eye with a shirt taht read, "We Love Terri Clark." The Mahowiches had phoned for tickets to the event when they read about Terri's homecoming in Country Weekly. Terrri's family shared her excitement. Her sister Tina, who's often mistaken for Terri, was delighted to see her big sister get teh recognition she has earned. "If anybody deserves it, she does," Tina says. "She's a wonderful human being and her music is very real. The lyrics of her songs - that's the way she lives. 'Emotional Girl' is Terri."

A couple of other Medicine Hat hometown heroes, hockey stars Murray Craven of the Chicago Blackhawks and Trevor Linden, who's captain of the Vancouver Canucks, stop to greet their favorite hometown girl. "If anyone asks you, we go way back, okay, Terri?" Linden teases her. But it was the fans who most touched Terri's heart. Fans such as little Nicki Buckley, who won a mountain bike for her essay about Terri. "Terri Clark is my hero, because with little money and a lot of work she made it from Medicine Hat to the top of the country music charts," it begins. "I've had a few moments where I had to stop myself from crying," Terri confesses to her fans at teh end of her day. "It's been awesome and wonderful. This has been the highlight of my career. You've done so much for me, if I died tomorrow, I'd die happy."

The gifts don't travel in just one direction. Terri gives teh city a copy of the Canadian double-platinum award, symbolizing the 200,000 sales in Canada, earned for her self-titled debut album. She lso dontates the outfit she wore on the cover of that first album to the Medicine Hat Museum. "I don't know why you'd want it," Terri says, "but you've got it."

By tributes end, Terri says, " A lot of memories were brought back taht had kind of faded. It's been a wonderful day." "It's funny, because there were so many years when I would have died to come home and get some sort of recognition." She takes a deep breath, and a smile illuminates her face. "I never expected something like this, though."