Vantage Points in the Classroom – Turtle Mountain-Souris Plains Heritage Association

The Turtle Mountain Souris Plains Heritage Association provides a regional approach to heritage by working with a collection of towns, municipalities, Métis Locals, and interested citizens. Our membership (illustrated by the shaded portion of the map) includes the Municipalities of Boissevain-Morton, Brenda-Waskada, Deloraine-Winchester, Grassland, Killarney-Turtle Mountain, and Two Borders.

The following information is presented as a foundation document – a resource that teachers and researchers across southwest Manitoba can turn to when they need an overview of the general history of the communities in our region.

About a hundred million years ago southwest Manitoba was part of the Western Interior Seaway. The climate was a lot warmer than today, and huge reptiles called mosasaurs were the toughest beasts around. Then, about 66 million years ago, an asteroid crashed into southern Mexico. The blast was so strong that the dust and debris blocked the sun and slowly cooled the climate. In a short period 75 percent of all species on earth became extinct, including most of the dinosaurs.

About two million years ago we entered a series of Ice Ages. Giant glaciers covered the land, and then melted off. It was a long process and it created the landscape we know today
There were long periods between the visits of the glaciers. We’re in one of them now.

As the ice melted, material that was carried by the glaciers was deposited over Turtle Mountain. By about 12,800 years ago Turtle Mountain was free of ice. As the last glacier retreated it carved many shallow lakes and wetlands and shaped the hills. Many steep ravines were created by streams of run-off waters flowing from the high ground to the low plains.

Turtle Mountain, surrounded by the flat prairie of the Souris Plains, was one of the first things travelers to this region noticed. What is known as the Turtle’s Head, at the western end of Turtle Mountain, is the second highest point in all of Manitoba.

A traveler to the Southwest Corner can see Turtle Mountain from quite a distance. Another important feature of the region, the Souris River, is often hidden in a deep valley and might not be noticed until you are overlooking it.

Here in Manitoba we see only about a quarter of the Souris River drainage basin. It begins north of Weyburn, Saskatchewan. It travels through southeast Saskatchewan and northern North Dakota where it makes a giant U-turn (known as the Souris Loop) before entering Manitoba south of Melita. From the border to Souris the stream is gentle as it twists and turns its way through rolling hills. It then drops 480 meters in elevation by the time it empties into the Assiniboine River, picking up speed as it passes through a deep valley.

On these wide-open dry plains, the river valley offered wood, water and shelter. Plains hunters camped on the banks. They trapped and hunted the animals that also took shelter there.

In recent years, several dams have been built in an attempt to control the flooding tendencies of the Souris River but it has proven difficult to control. In recent years floods have caused a great deal of damage and expense. The Souris River is a commanding presence in Southwest Manitoba. Whether flowing mildly between its banks, or rising to threaten land and livelihood, it continues to be a central feature in the lives of those who live alongside it.

About 10,000 years ago, when the glaciers from the last ice age were melting, huge lakes were formed. Glacial Lake Hind covered the area around present-day Hartney. Huge deposits of sand formed a delta where a river ran into the still body of Lake Hind. Today they are the Lauder Sandhills.

As the climate kept changing, the land was at times marshes, lakes and sloughs, and at other times, sand dunes.
The nearby Souris River and surrounding grasslands made the hills a good place for the bison and for hunters.

Over time, trees and vegetation made this an attractive place to live.

The Lauder Sandhills Wildlife Management Area was established in 1971, originally to protect the winter habitat of the white-tailed deer.

When the glaciers that once covered all of Canada began to disappear about 12,000 years ago, they left huge lakes and rivers. Most of those lakes have disappeared, but Whitewater Lake is the last evidence of Lake Souris, which once covered the region between Turtle Mountain and the Souris River.

It is large, about 20 kilometers long, but shallow. It is fed by creeks from Turtle Mountain during heavy rains and the spring run-off.
Because it is shallow, a dry spell, or a few dry years, can really affect its size. It has gone dry on several occasions. In 1913 the lake dried up, and government engineers surveyed the land, reporting that it should be sold as farmland. But by the next spring it was a lake again! During the “Dirty Thirties” and the 1980’s the lake also disappeared and trails led across it as people made short-cuts.

The plains around Whitewater Lake were well-known to the Nakota, and later, to the Métis as a good place to find bison. The last bison anyone saw in the Turtle Mountain area was spotted just to the east of Whitewater Lake in 1883.

Fur-bearing animals, such as mink and muskrat, attracted trappers and traders to the region. The muskrat furs that came from Whitewater Lake were of especially good quality and fetched a good price.

With the arrival of homesteaders the frozen lake served as a road. Teams of horses transported loads of grain from farms on the north side of the lake to Whitewater village on the southern shore. Firewood from Turtle Mountain was hauled in caravans of sleighs to homes north of the lake, and the road across the ice often became a very busy highway.

Bird Sanctuary

Whitewater Lake was the traditional nesting grounds for the whooping cranes until their near extinction around 1880. Though the number of birds on the lake in modern times does not come close to the numbers found during settler days, it remains an important stopping place during migrations. The south shore is a popular spot among birders.

Grassland is the name of a municipality formed in 2015 when the Town of Hartney joined the Municipalities of Cameron and Whitewater. The name refers to the large prairie, between the Souris River and Turtle Mountain, that is another important geographic feature of Southwest Manitoba.

These plains were a vital resource to Aboriginal Peoples, to Métis hunters and traders, to pioneer homesteaders, and now to modern and large-scale farmers.

In the early 1880’s Killarney Lake, then called Oak Lake, was attractive to a group of settlers from Ontario. A town quickly sprang up there and the residents have always made good use of the lake for boating, fishing and swimming.

After the most recent retreat of the glaciers, humans, who had alread populated most other parts of the world, made their way to Turtle Mountain. It was the first place in the region to be free of ice. It was soon home to both the hunter and the hunted.

The Clovis Culture

The first to arrive were a group we call the Clovis Culture. That was about 12000 years ago.

They came from the south, around New Mexico and Arizona, and would have moved north slowly as the climate warmed and the ice disappeared. We know little about them, but can identify them by the tools they left behind, especially the stone points they crafted for the tips of their weapons.

Clovis points that have been found in Southwestern Manitoba were made of Knife River flint from southern North Dakota, and crafted into sharp points shaped like a willow leaf. Attached to sturdy spears, these points could be used to take down even the huge woolly mammoth.

Taking down a mammoth would take skill, teamwork, courage and the best weapon you could get. These spear points would have been very valuable.

Folsom projectile points

The next “settlers” were the Folsom people. Their spear points were smaller and thinner than the Clovis points. This may have been because they were hunting smaller animals. Mammoths had slowly become extinct. It was pre-historic buffalo that the Folsom hunters hunted.

From about 10000 to 70000 years ago the Plano people hunted buffalo and pronghorn here. Pronghorn are the only large mammals in North America to survive the coming of man. But buffalo were becoming the most important prey.

By about 6000 years ago, agriculture, which developed far to the south, had appeared in Manitoba.

The Pronghorn survived in Manitoba until about 1900, and now prefers the wide-open spaces of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

There was a time when mastodons, mammoths, camels, horses, and huge long-haired bison roamed the Souris Plains and sought shelter on Turtle Mountain.

Traces of them start to disappear at about the end of the last ice age – about 12000 BC, and by 6000 BC two-thirds of the species of North American mammals that weighed more than 60 kilograms at maturity had become extinct.

Could it have been that the climate was getting warmer and drier? The animals that travelled in large herds may have not been able to adapt.

Or the warmer temperatures may have disrupted breeding cycles.

If climate was the problem, why were the animals not able to move to a more suitable region?

Another possibility is that these large mammals faced a new threat – humans.

As the ice retreated, human hunters spread across the continent, continually improving and adapting their hunting practices. These humans, unlike the other predators, were able to organize and improvise. They were deadly enemies.

Perhaps the climate may have weakened the populations and the humans finished them off.

A mammoth tusk found in Southern Manitoba, on display at the Moncur Gallery in Boissevain

A mammoth skull

By about 4500 years ago the climate was similar to what we have today. In Southwestern Manitoba a series of cultures developed great skill in hunting and using the bison.

When the first European traders and explorers came to this land they found that the people here depended on the bison for nearly everything. It was their main food. The hides gave them shelter and clothing. Tools were made from the bones and sinews.

By drying the meat in strips and pounding in fat and they made pemmican – a food that was nutritious and would last a long time without spoiling.

The lifestyle was developed over hundreds of years.

The Oxbow culture were perhaps the first to stew or boil their meat by placing heated stones in a lined pit full of water, meat and bones. It was an especially good way of removing the rich marrow from cracked bison bones. They also left the first tepee rings, and they were the first to bury their dead. They lived in the region for a long time.

The McKean people continued to perfect methods for killing, processing, and using the bison. A well-known kill and butchering site at Cherry Point on Oak Lake has yielded important artifacts left there over 2000 years ago. They would drive small herds into the marsh at the edge of the lake where some would get bogged down and hunters could kill them with spears.

Cherry Point
The Pelican Lake People may have been the first to think of killing bison by driving herds over steep cliffs. They also seem to have perfected the use of the Pound – herding animals into a fenced enclosure where they could kill them with spears. They traded widely to the south and east, and crafted ornaments from the shells and copper they obtained.

The Besant-Sonata Culture was also a trading culture. Remains of their pottery have been found in dozens of sites throughout southern Manitoba, including sites along the Souris River, and at Clay Banks Buffalo Jump site near Cartwright.

The bison you might see in a zoo today would weigh no more than 1,500 kg and have a maximum height of 1.80 metres.

But its ancestors, who roamed the Souris Plains about 10000 years ago, were much bigger. Bison latifrons it was called. It was 2.5 meters high and his head held an antler more than 2.5 meters long.

An artist has imagined what the modern and the Ice-Age animals might look like side by side.

About 5000 years ago the bison cultures became the main residents of the plains. Vegetation and climate stabilized, evolving to what we know today.

Hunting practices probably evolved along with the bison.

From 1000 to 2000 years ago southwestern Manitoba was home to many seasonal camp and bison kill sites for hunter-gatherers.

Elsewhere in North America during those times Inca, Mayan and Aztec civilizations of Central and South America had erected large cities. The Anasazi, or Ancient Pueblo Peoples were building cliff dwellings in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. To the east the Iroquois and Huron civilizations flourished in their large villages.

The north-central plains were one spot in North America were agriculture wasn’t important. The climate wasn’t suitable and the huge bison herds provided nearly everything the people needed.

Of course they took advantage of other available large game, they trapped small animals, and foraged for seeds and vegetables.

They adapted to their surrounding.

The hunter / gatherer lifestyle was the logical choice for the time and place. In other places, and at other times, other strategies were needed.

Over centuries the Plains People found hunting methods that worked for them in their region. If there were steep cliffs or valleys, they might create a jump, by herding the animals over the edge.

If there were no hills they might build a pound – a fenced in area – and trap the animals inside where they could be shot by arrows.

The Brockinton Site along the Souris River near Melita, has been carefully examined and is one of many kill sites in Southwestern Manitoba.

The site was occupied by three different cultures over the last 1600 years. These occupations left behind valuable evidence about how the people lived. For instance, things like the type of pottery they used and the type of material they used for arrowheads tell us about where they traded, and how far they might have travelled.

Bison bones can easily be found today along the banks of the Souris River.

The Awesome Atlati

The spear is used all across the world.

The bow and arrow was created in Africa and the first people to arrive in North America brought them along.

They also brought along the atlati – a powerful weapon capable of sending a projectile over 120 yards and killing a wooly mammoth.

It was the first complex weapon system developed by humans. It originated in Europe over 30,000 years ago and spread wherever humans lived.

The atlatl consists of two parts: the atlatl itself and the dart. The atlatl is held in the hand, and acts as a lever to propel the dart with more force. The atlatl can be made completely of wood, bone, or both and some may incorporate weights made from stone or shell.

Projectile Points

Numerous detachable tips that were used on weapons such as arrows or spears have been collected. Stone points may be unifacial (one cutting edge) or bifacial and may be manufactured by flaking or grinding.
Projectile points are particularly useful time markers for the archaeologist because of members of a culture, often kept to a particular style.

For example, three styles of projectile points are associated with the McKean culture: McKean, Duncan and Hanna. The McKean has a concave base with no side notching, the Duncan has a similar base but includes side-notching. The Hanna point has wider corner notches.

Scrapers

Scrapers were also generally made of stone. They were used to scrape hides to remove hair and fat, and to soften skin. They were also used for cutting skin.

Scrapers are typically formed by chipping the end of a flake of stone in order to create one sharp side and to keep the rest of the sides dull so you could hang on to them.

The Turtle Mountain – Souris Plains area has been home to many cultures, and was on trading routes that connected those cultures to others far distant from here. In the past 2000 years the people living here increased their dependence on immense herds of bison.

The herds were always on the move and roamed a huge territory. To make use of them the hunters had to move with them. Permanent villages were not helpful.

By the 1700’s when explorers from New France began showing an interest in this region, it was often visited by hunters from Nakota (Assiniboine), Dakota (Sioux), Cree, and Ojibway people.

It was the Nakota, whom LaVerendrye encountered on his trips in 1838 and afterwards.

Over the centuries various cultures developed better weapons and sharper tools. They learned to use all parts of a carcass to provide food, clothing, shelter and tools. They developed hunting methods, relying on stealth, marksmanship, camouflage, and finally the mass killing fields allowed by pounds and jumps. They got really good at harvesting and using the most readily available resource on the plains.

A successful society is able to offer its people a fair chance at health and happiness. They were successful.

The Plains People were originally from the east where they had lived in villages, and existed by hunting, gathering and growing crops.

When they moved to the plains they had to be able to move with the bison. They developed portable houses called teepees.

Today we refer to descendants of these groups of people as First Nations. Their ancestors have a long history in this land.

Campsite and Villages

The Souris River and its valley had resources that both animals and humans needed. It offered a reliable source of fresh water, shelter, game, wood and wild fruit.

The river had been witness to the activities of the large-game hunting societies of the Clovis and Folsom people who closely followed the receding glaciers. These and later peoples left evidence of their travels and habitations in the area – tipi rings, fireplaces, medicine wheels, surface graves and stone circles are only some of the impressions that remain.

Turtle Mountain also afforded shelter and resources for campsites, both short and long term.

In 1805 Southwest Manitoba was mainly Assiniboine territory.

By 1877 when this map shows that the Ojibway were the main occupants of this land. The Assiniboine had moved west.

Assiniboine (Nakota) Camp, Manitoba, July 17, 1874

In the summer of 1738 a group of about 100 Assiniboine lodges camped beside Cherry Creek (near present-day Boissevain) had an interesting visitor. A group of French traders led by Sieur de la Verendrye came to them with a request.

He was looking for a route to what he referred to as a Western Sea. He knew of a tribe he called the Mandans who lived somewhere to the south. He wanted help in finding them.

Several of the Assiniboine agreed to travel with him to show him the way to the Mandan villages on the Missouri River.

The Assiniboine were good partners to the Europeans. They gained new trade goods, which made their work easier. In turn, the Assiniboine helped Europeans traders as middlemen, excellent horsemen, and providers of food to trading posts.

From the Lake of the Woods region, the Assiniboine moved west sometime before 1680. It was here on the prairies that the Assiniboine discovered the bison
.
They wintered in places like Turtle Mountain where shelter and wildlife were plentiful.

In the long run, the relationship with European traders had a devastating effect on the Assiniboine. Along with trade goods the newcomers brought whiskey, guns and disease – the guns proved useful but the whiskey and disease caused great damage.

One-half to two-thirds of the population died in the smallpox epidemic of 1780-81, before being cut in half again in the 1819-20 epidemic of measles and whooping cough.

By 1865, the Assiniboine were reduced to about one-tenth their original number. They migrated west and this once dominant nation were placed on reserves in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana. Manitoba has no Assiniboine reserves, only individual members living off-reserve.

Only a few hundred remain today and are known by their original name – “Stoneys”.

The fur trade in Manitoba began with the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670, and for nearly a century Aboriginal traders made the long trip to the shores of Hudson’s Bay to exchange furs for European trade goods shipped in from Britain.

In the 1870’s independent traders, and the Northwest Company from Montreal, started to trade in what used to be HBC territory. The HBC had to move out from Hudson’s Bay to compete.

For a time, Souris Mouth, where the Souris River empties into the Assiniboine, was an important centre with up to five trading posts operating within a few kilometres.

Starting in 1795, traders were building trading posts farther west, along the Souris River. Between Hartney and Lauder, four important posts have been identified. These posts were along the river and close to the grazing grounds of the bison. The production and supply of pemmican, was a big part of their business.

Fort Ash (Fort de la Freniere)

The first fur post established on the river was Fort Ash.

Canadian explorer David Thompson spent about two days in the region in December of 1797, on his way south to Mandan country. He recalled passing by “the old trading post called the Ash House from the plenty of those fine trees. It had to be given up from it being too open to the incursions of the Sioux.”

The American Fort

On the north bank of the Souris, almost straight north of Lauder, is a site locals referred to as the American Fort, likely built by the American Fur Company in about 1810. The size of its chimney mounds indicates that it was in operation for some time, but few records have been found to tell us more.

Fort Mr. Grant

In 1824 Cuthbert Grant built Fort Grant on the Souris River, about two miles south west of Hartney. He was encouraged in this venture by HBC boss, Governor Simpson, who expected Grant to keep American and independent traders out of the Souris Valley.

It is on the north bank of the river, perhaps fifty yards from the water. The cellars and chimney mounds were still visible in 1948.

Fort Grant operated from 1824-1861, part of this time as a winter fort only.

Fort Desjarlais, built in 1836 by Joseph Desjarlais, was located on the north bank of the Souris, north of Lauder and very close to the American Fort.

It featured a sturdy oak palisade surrounding a long log building and several smaller ones. The Souris River ran past the south wall. As the site was in the territory frequented by Dakota war parties it was well protected. At its peak there would often be over seventy men at the fort. It operated for about twenty years, and was likely destroyed in the great prairie fire that swept the region in 1856.

The fort was serviced mainly by Red River carts using the Yellow Quill Trail, which ran from near Fort Garry (Winnipeg), up the Assiniboine and Souris Rivers.

It is believed that Desjarlais and his men were also bison hunters – trading buffalo robes and selling pemmican to the Hudson Bay Company.

A Changing Economy

Around 1850 the fur trade was becoming a less important part of the economy of our country.

By 1874 the boundary between Canada and the United States was marked and both countries began surveying the land and dividing it into the section-township-range system – for use as farms.

In addition to the clusters of posts at Souris Mouth and in the Hartney-Lauder area, there were several other attempts to reach out to suppliers.

Lena House

In the fall of 1801, John McKay of Brandon House sent Henry Lena with seven men and supplies to Turtle Mountain along with instructions to “cut off every independent” fur trader in that area.

Lena House is one of two fur trading posts located near Turtle Mountain. It was close to the southeastern shore of Whitewater Lake and some distance east of Turtlehead Creek. It operated from about 1801 until 1802 but was not very successful in its aim of closing down rival trade in the area. The XY Company set up a trading post about a kilometre away, placing themselves directly on the path that the Assiniboine First Nations would take were they to cross Turtle Mountain to trade.

In 1846, Governor Simpson of the HBC informed the Company head office in London that a new post was being established on Turtle Mountain. This fort seems to have operated from 1846 to 1855.

Lena House wasn’t a big success. It did survive long enough, though, to provide the name for one of southwestern Manitoba’s small hamlets. Although there is little left of Lena the village, it is also the name of an international port of entry south of Killarney.

Sourisford Area

A total of 18 posts grew and faded from the Souris River between present-day Souris, Manitoba and Minot, North Dakota. Almost all traces have been erased and few records remain, but we do know that an American Fur Company Trading Post was located near where North Antler Creek enters the Souris.

There is also a record of a post near Melita operated by Peter Garrioch, established in 1843, and at least one other independent operation in the Melita – Napinka area.

Beginning around 1820, large hunting expeditions from the Red River Settlement set out twice a year to supply the settlers and the Hudson’s Bay Company with pemmican and hides.

The hunt was very important to the food supply of the HBC and the settlers at Red River (now known as Winnipeg). The hunt got bigger each year until about 1840, when 1,210 carts were used. The larger hunt took place in summer and a smaller one in autumn.

Wintering Communities

In some cases Metis hunting communities located on the plains in temporary villages. Some were only several families large, while others could have 1000 people. The villages were made up of roughly-built sturdy huts. It often took no longer than a day or two to construct such a hut with the aid of a single axe and a knife.

A wintering community generally consisted of hunters, their families and a few fur traders.

The general locations of the some of the wintering communities that existed in southwest Manitoba.
Buildings were usually constructed in late fall in preparation for winter and abandoned in early spring. Sites of past communities were not generally returned to year after year because of changes in bison wintering ranges, and also due to the fact that rival First Nations would often burn the buildings to the ground as soon as they were unoccupied.

As the bison disappeared in the late 1870s, wintering communities were not needed and most of them simply disappeared from the prairies. Some Métis hunters and their families did stay and become the first homesteaders in the region.

In 1870 Canada made a deal with the Hudson’s Bay Company, and gained control of territory that included most of what today is Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The era of the Fur Trade was over. The plan was to open up this huge new territory for farming.

In 1876 the territory west of Boissevain wasn’t surveyed.

Before that could happen there were several questions to answer.

First: Who really owned this land? Canada purchased it from the Hudson’s Bay Company – but what about the First Nations people, the Ojibway, the Cree, and the Nakota and Dakota who had been living on this land for centuries? Wasn’t it really their land?

Second: Were these dry open lands in the west even suitable for agriculture? Some thought it was too dry and that the growing season was too short. Others felt that it would be perfect for growing wheat – the most important crop of the time. No one was really sure how farming would work here.

Third: How were these thousands of new farmers going to get there – across the thousands of kilometres of the rocky terrain of the Canadian Shield? In 1870 it was a difficult journey of several weeks. And even if they got here and grew crops, how would they get those crops back east where they could be sold?

Fourth: Would Ontario and British settlers really want to come to this cold and unknown land? It would mean leaving family and friends behind. It would mean taking a big chance.

Who owned the Prairies? The Government of Canada bought this huge parcel of land from the Hudson’s Bay Company. The HBC had been granted the use of the land by the British Government in 1670 for the purpose of trading in furs. The intent was to populate the land with farmers.

But what about the Aboriginal people who lived here?

The solution was to make deals called Treaties.

The First Nations communities knew that their old way of life was gone. The bison herds were gone. They were interested in securing a more certain future for themselves and generations to come.

Treaty 1 which covered the central and eastern parts of Manitoba, was signed on August 3rd 1871.

In exchange for certain payments and guarantees of services, the First Nations agreed to give up the use of all of their land except for reserves. They pledged that they and their people would “maintain peace between themselves and Her Majesty’s white subjects, and not interfere with the property or in any way molest the persons of Her Majesty’s subjects.”

Treaty 2, which included almost all of the Turtle Mountain – Souris Plains Region was signed on the 21st of August 1871.

Two other separate arrangements where made with the Dakota in the region. A small reserve (IR #60) was set aside on Turtle Mountain for a group of Dakota families.

Today most people would agree that the deals made with both the First Nations and Metis communities were not fair, and that the First Nations didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter.

The boundary between Treaty 1 and Treaty 2 land is close to where Boissevain is today.

The Numbered Treaties, in addition to the passage of the Indian Act in 1876, marked the beginning of a new relationship between western First Nations and the Canadian government.

Questions arose about whether the deals were fair and whether the Government of Canada was keeping its promises surfaced soon after the Treaties were signed, and in recent decades a series of official apologies, hard fought battles for reparations, and Supreme Court decisions have resulted from a determined effort by First Nations to correct a series of wrongs. Reconciliation is the aim.

In 1869, the area we now call Manitoba would likely have become part of the District of Assiniboia – a large district that would include present day Saskatchewan and Alberta as well. It would have been administered by a Governor and Council, it might well have been some time before it became a province. Alberta and Saskatchewan had to wait until 1905.

What the government overlooked was that there were already people here. The Metis people who had lived here for decades in well-established communities, quite naturally objected when surveyors arrived who seemed determined to re-draw the maps as if they weren’t even there.

For several generations the Metis made up the majority of the population in Red River. The Resistance in 1869 and the North West Resistance of 1885 uprooted Métis families from their homesteads and scattered them in all directions.

The Government promised that each Metis family would get a farm, but the way it was done has caused disagreements to this day, and many people feel that promises were not kept.

The Turtle Mountain Connection

The Métis have a long history of interaction with the landform known as Turtle Mountain. Turtle Mountain and Whitewater Lake to the north were prime hunting grounds.

During the summer and fall hunting seasons the Métis grew familiar with the plains surrounding Turtle Mountain.

Turtle Mountain provided resources from which temporary winter camps could be built: construction materials for simple cabins, firewood, and shelter from the stiff winter winds.

The first permanent Métis settlers moved to Turtle Mountain in 1908. The first group were descendants of the Red River Métis and came north from Belcourt, North Dakota. The following decades saw more families move into the bush land surrounding Lake Metigoshe, Lake Dromore and Sharpe Lake (at the time known as Long Lake). Some European settlers married into Métis families and the community grew.

It is a common perception that most plains Aboriginal peoples were all nomadic wanderers who existed without the use of agriculture.

Though this was true of some First Nations, we know that agricultural activities in Southwestern Manitoba did not begin with European settlers. However the constant movement of the buffalo hunting societies made agriculture difficult, and the abundance provided by those animals made it unnecessary.

The first European “settlements” or communities in western Manitoba were fur trade posts. We also know that they tried to supplement their provisions with some form of agriculture – and reported some success.

But could people make a living on these plains through farming alone?

The Canadian government sent Professor Henry Youle Hind, a Toronto geologist, to explore the region and answer that question. During the summer of 1859 he and his party of 13 men explored southwestern Manitoba. They noted the lack of timber, but found what they were looking for – fertile land.

In 1859 a British expeditions by Capt. Palliser also explored the Northwest Territories to examine the suitability of the region for agricultural settlement. He was impressed with the parkland along the Saskatchewan River but defined the large area south of that, including much of southwestern Manitoba as near-desert, unsuited for settlement.

His opinion was contradicted by a later report by John Macoun that essentially predicted that the prairie grassland would be the breadbasket to the world.

The Boundary Commission Trail

In 1873, the British and United States Boundary Commissioners followed a route along the 49th Parallel as they marked the boundary between the U.S. and Canada.

By 1920 rail lines crossed southern Manitoba.

The National Dream

The Conservative government led by John A. MacDonald had a long-time dream of building a railway that would span the country from coast to coast.

The settling of the west and the establishment of farms would depend on having this modern fast method of travel.

The Government of Canada negotiated Treaties with the First Nations. They had reason to believe that this land was suitable for farming, and had arranged a transportation system that would get people here and get farm produce to market.

One issue remained. Would the settlers come? Would large numbers of people leave their home and travel to an unknown land?

There were reasons to believe that many would take the step,

There were circumstances in Europe and Upper Canada that might cause people to want to leave their communities and consider Manitoba as an option.

Poor employment opportunities and shortage of good farm land might cause some settlers to leave established communities like those in Ontario.

In other parts of the world these reasons might also apply, while famine, war, disease, and a desire for political change might also be good reason to leave a place.

Some might just have had an “adventurous spirit” or ambition.
I’m Hearing Good Reports…..

There were also some good reports from people who had visited and thought the place was great.

The most famous of those was “The Great Lone Land”

How could one resist the land described as follows?

“The great ocean itself does not present more infinite variety than does the prairie ocean of which we speak. In winter, a dazzling surface of purest snow; in early summer, a vast expanse of grass and pale pink roses; in autumn, too often a wild sea of raging fire. No ocean of water in the world can vie with its gorgeous sunsets; no solitude can equal the loneliness of a night-shadowed prairie: one feels the stillness and hears the silence, the wail of the prowling wolf makes the voice of solitude audible, the stars look down through infinite silence upon a silence almost as intense…”

William Francis Butler had visited in 1870 and he was impressed. Many people in Ontario and in Britain read his book.

Others writing in newspapers gave first hand accounts of the great opportunities available in the new west.

In 1880 John and Letitia Mooney and their family came west to a farm near Wawanesa. Their six-year old daughter, whom we now know as Nellie McClung, wrote a good account of her family’s journey from their comfortable Ontario farm house to the Manitoba frontier.

This photo of Nellie Mooney was taken the day before her family left Ontario for their new home in Manitoba.

It started when their son Will told the family about a book he read called “The Great Lone Land” which told tales of the adventure and the beauty to be found in the west.

The family also saw newspaper stories that spoke of the wide open spaces out west. A visitor who had been to the west told of, “wild strawberries … so thick that they stained the feet of the oxen red.”

It sounded great.

The Mooneys were a large family and only had a small farm. There was no future where they lived. Nellie remembers her mom saying, “We have to go somewhere,

“John, there’s nothing here for our three boys. What can we do with one hundred and fifty stony acres? The boys will be hired men all their lives, or clerks in a store.”

Will knew people who had been west and talked of, “a plain a hundred miles wide, and not a tree or stone in sight.” Stones and trees had made establishing these Ontario farms quite an effort. The bald prairie would be easy to plow.

Of course, they also wondered if it was all too good to be true.

John wondered about the cold, about whether apple trees would grow, about mosquitoes and stories about the Aboriginal people who lived there. Would it be dangerous? Would they miss the comforts of their home?

They decided to give it a try.

The Trip

The Mooneys’ trip also followed a well-known pattern.

The quickest, easiest way to Manitoba in 1880 was by boat across the Great Lakes to Duluth, then by train to Winnipeg. From there settlers had the option of riverboat or ox-cart trail depending on their destination. Often there was a stay in Winnipeg while the husband or son scouted for a suitable homestead. Then on the trail there would often be a stop – perhaps at Portage for supplies. Almost all accounts mention both hospitality and hardship as swamps, creeks, mud roads and equipment failure made the trip interesting.

Mrs. Elizabeth Weightman, a widow from northern England, and her children, arrived at their homestead in the spring of 1882 after a fifty-six day journey from Edinburgh, Scotland.

They crossed the ocean on a crowded ship, then took the train to Lake Huron, where they caught a steamboat to Duluth, and another train to Brandon. At Brandon they bought the usual homestead supplies; oxen, a wagon, a plow, a tin stove, a tent and two cows.

They decided to search for land and headed south from Brandon with a few other newcomers. On the second day out, news reached the party about land recently opened for homesteading, so a delegation sped ahead on a horse-drawn wagon towards the Land Titles Office in Deloraine. The rest continued with the oxen and supplies. High creeks and wet ground slowed them down – on a particularly bad day they travelled just five kilometers.

The reward came when the group returned from the Land Titles Office with the papers entitling them each to a homestead. Two long days later the Weightmans found their plot of land. They were home.

As quickly as possible they broke some land and planted a few acres of oats and some potatoes. A sod barn was erected and a modest frame house was built – not quite finished for the coming of the first blizzard, but quite an improvement over the tents that had provided their only shelter so far.

Most of the first settlers started their homesteading life in a sod hut.

Trees were scarce and wood was expensive. Getting that first crop planted was the priority.

“Soddies” as they were called, provided quick shelter until a better house could be built.

Here’s how to build one:

Pick a little rise of land with good drainage to build your home.

Find a bit of lower land, a soggy slough bottom perhaps, where the grass roots are thick and tough – that’s where to find the best sod.

Use a plow to cut a smooth furrow 30 or 40 cm wide, then cut the sod into 50 cm lengths.

Start by laying two tiers of sod side by side, making sure the ends aren’t lined up. , Then lay a second course crossways, this hold it all wall together.

Try to include a few windows and a door by using planks as frames, when the wall reaches the proper height. One door is plenty and glass for windows might be hard to come by.

The Roof

Place strong poles down the centre of the building to support a ridge pole.

Place rafters of poles from the ridge pole to the walls.

Start with a layer of willow (hay could be used if necessary), then top with sod.

If lumber is available, a wood floor is nice, if not, packed dirt will have to do for now.

Interior walls can be smoothed and even coated with whitewash or plastered with clay.

Heavy cotton can be stretched over ceilings and wall to give it that cozy, finished look.

Today a trip from Hartney to Brandon takes less than an hour. In 1882 it could take over a day. Travellers needed places to stop for the night. There were few towns and no hotels, so some settlers who happened to be on well-travelled trails would turn their home into a Stopping Place or Halfway House.

Mrs. E. Weightman, at Westhall, must have noticed that she was about half way between Brandon and the busy Land Titles Office at Deloraine. It was a natural place for a Halfway House.

Often regular travellers to Brandon would plan their trips around the location of the stopping houses.

Even after decades had passed, an early resident of Deloraine remembered Mrs. Fox’s stopping house on the trail from Emerson to Boissevain as having especially good food.

Reservations were not required and there was always a way to squeeze one more in – even if the hayloft had to be used.

Halfway Houses were a combination; restaurant, motel, and livery stable. It was like a bed and breakfast with an extra meal thrown in – plus a gas station to fuel up your horse!

The first stopping place known to operate in southwestern Manitoba was at “Old Wakopa” where Bernard LaRiviere had set up shop in an abandoned Boundary Commission building. The shack erected by Elliott and Gould, the first settlers at Sourisford (further west along that Boundary Commission Trail), was soon recognized as a stopping place, as was the home of William Walker in the Lyleton district.

The John Renton home, within a mile of the Land Titles Office, was a natural place for a stopping place. It was also a natural place to hold church services – guests arriving on a Saturday night would likely have appreciated that.

The earliest stopping houses also acted as informal postal outlets until a proper post office could be applied for and established.

They had everything the traveller needed.

In the early 1880’s the main road from Old Deloraine to Brandon was the Heaslip Trail named for Sam Heaslip who established the trail and used it to deliver the mail.

Each week he picked up the mail in Brandon. His first stop after crossing the Souris River would be his own home, the site of a post office named after him. The home also served as a stopping house and store.

Sheppardvillle owned by Robert Sheppard was the next stop. From there it was on to Nimitaw where Mr. James Rae was Postmaster.

Turtle Mountain, the main settlement in what would become the RM of Morton would be the next stop – a busy one at that.

Heaslip’s route ended at Old Deloraine where mail for more distant spots was picked up by others. Some called the service a stagecoach, which probably meant Sam didn’t mind taking along a passenger or two.

The other main mail route ran from Souris, along the Souris River to Butterfield, stopping at Melgund, Napinka, Menota on the way. Few of these stops were even the beginnings of villages – just farm homes that had a post office.

Wakopa was the first of the villages that were to pop up in the first few years of European settlement – before the arrival of the railway.

Finlay Young’s first house NE 20-1-18

An Englishman named Barneby did a tour of the North American in 1883. He passed through Brandon and then went south. In the book he published he mentioned one of little villages that came and went in those early days.

“On our route we passed a store named Desford, where we watered our horses; but the water was bad. A road comes in here from Brandon. The Turtle Mountains are still to the south.”

That’s about all he had to say.

This map shows post offices in 1884.
The Desford community began in the late 1870’s along the Old Commission Trail about 12 kilometres south-southwest of Boissevain, and was, like Wakopa, one of the first trading centres in the area.

People living where Boissevain would soon be located would do their shopping at Desford. Sunday Church service was held at a local home.

Fox’s sawmill served the district in the early 1880’s and produced most of the lumber that was used for the first buildings in the region.

Like nearby Wakopa, Desford seemed ready to become an important town if only the railway would pass through.

That didn’t happen. The railway passed to the north and the town of Boissevain became the centre of the region.

But the Desford story wasn’t over.

In 1906 the Great Northern Railway was put down through the area and a small village, also called Desford, sprang to life.

In 1908 the hamlet consisted of the water tower for the trains, the Railway Station, elevator, section house, bunkhouse, the Methodist Church, the blacksmith shop, a Community Hall, a General Store and a few houses.

All traces of Desford, once located in this field, are gone. This sign, placed in 1970, is left to remind us

From the Winnipeg Times – May 5, 1881
In 1881 George Morton from Kingston Ontario applied to the government for a huge land grant on the north side of Whitewater Lake under the condition that he settle at least 75 families on the land. His plan was to create 108 dairy farms, 36 stock farms and a cheddar cheese factory.

By 1882 The Morton Dairy Farming and Colonization Company, had about fifty men employed on the farm and everything was said to be progressing as planned

He acquired a sawmill recently established at Max Lake, and built a store at the new community of Waubeesh. Before long equipment and cattle were making their way westward.

Mr. Morton had a very good plan – on paper.

As so often happened throughout the west, the railway didn’t come through with its promise; it actually built south of the lake, and not until 1885. By that time the dairy operation was long gone, for the first harsh winter killed most of his stock, and it was downhill from there.

The city newspapers which had devoted so many paragraph to the great plans, summed up the end result in one sentence

From the Winnipeg Daily Sun – May 31, 1883

George Morton

Mr. Morton however proceeded with his other businesses (stores, sawmills, and elevators) and did very well. The Municipality of Morton is named after him.

George Morton built this store in Whitewater and owned several businesses in Boissevain.

Ads like this one ran in Winnipeg newspapers regularly in 1881 and 1882.

It was a time called the Manitoba Boom. Everyone wanted to get rich by buying land and hoping that the price would keep going up. Then they could sell at a big profit.

These “cities” had several things in common. They all claimed they were going to be the main town of a region. They all claimed that the railways would pass nearby. They all simply lied about what was there.

An early settler was quick to have one such city surveyed on his land. He called it “Turtle Mountain City” and claimed it was “The Banner town of the far-famed Turtle Mountain country”

Turtle Mountain City actually consisted of a store, a post office and a Stopping Place.

By the time the railway arrived in 1885, Turtle Mountain as it was then called was just a post office. The railway passed to the north and the new town of Whitewater was created.

Waubeesh

Nearby an actual village called Waubeesh had been started with stores, a blacksmith shop and even a church. But even with those services, it couldn’t survive when the railway passed it by.

George Morton had a store there, and as soon as the railway came to Boissevain he moved it to the new town.

In 1880 the Dominion government established a Land Titles Office south of Turtle Mountain along the Commission Trail. It was a considerable convenience to settlers and a sure sign that many settlers were expected. George Newcombe came to establish the office, bringing with him his family, a governess, and the first piano to find its way into the area. Before long, in February of 1881, he was father to the first white baby (Louise) to be born there.

Today we call the location Newcombe’s Hollow.

All that remains of “Old Deloraine” is this stone bank vault. The rest of the village’s buildings were quickly moved to the new rail line a few kilometres away.

The location of the Land Titles Office, led, almost overnight, to the creation of a village nearby called Deloraine and before long it had “ two agricultural implement dealers, one general store, a grist mill, two blacksmiths, two ministers, agents of various kinds, a law office and a school.”

When the settlers chose to build their village near Turtle Head Creek they had been assured by the Canadian Pacific Railway that they could expect a railway soon.

But the CPR changed its plans and built the line a bit to the north.

The arrival of the first mixed train into what was called “Track End” on November 8, 1886, meant the end of the original Deloraine. Merchants, implement dealers, blacksmiths and millers all moved to take lots on the new townsite. But they did decide to keep the same name.

James Cavers was the first Postmaster in both “Old” and “New” Deloraine. He named the village after his old home in Scotland.

Southwest of Hartney on Melgund Road, there is a small cemetery at a crossroads. Established in 1887, it was the first graveyard in the region. Across the road, a cairn helps to mark the spot that was home for many people over many years.

Early in 1881 Samuel Long and John Fee came from Ontario to this area. The sod shack they erected that first season, soon known as “The Shanty” or “The Orphan’s Home”, was a stopping place and temporary home to many settlers over the next two years.

Both Melgund and Hartney appear on this map from 1887. There were no towns as yet – the map shows post office locations.

It would be nine years before the railway entered the district and the town of Hartney would be created.

In the meantime it was Melgund that seemed to be where things were happening.

The name Melgund first appears as a Post Office opened in 1882 in the home of W.J. Higgins. Rose School opened in, 1884, one of the first in the area. It was also used as a church before the Melgund Methodist Church was built across the road.

This small building served as the Melgund Post Office – and likely as a residence for a time as well.

Melgund Methodist Church, taken in 1946
When the first settlers arrived they had to build some shelter, break some sod, and plant some grain and vegetables.

Before long they would get together and build a school. They might build a church, and then, perhaps, a general store or a blacksmith shop might open for business.

But most such settlements never did become towns as we know them, with rows of houses and a main street for stores and shops.

In 1885, a 30-year-old priest named Jean Gaire decided to leave France for Canada and help others move to this new country.

By 1888, homesteaders from Eastern Canada, Great Britain and Europe had settled much of the land along the Souris River. Father Gaire, arrived at Oak Lake Parish on July 10, 1888 and set off in a southwesterly direction, in search of a suitable location to start a new community.

They found a large clearing that pleased the young priest. A few Metis families lived nearby.

Father Gaire applied for a homestead. He decided to settle and called the place “Grande Clairiere.”

He described his first church service in his memoirs: “At 9 o’clock my three Metis families were there – six adults and ten children. I have neither choir nor children to serve Mass; I say a low Mass, all the time admiring the simple, open piety of these brave people.”

Soon his new community had a few more Metis families and some settlers from Loire in France. The population tripled in three months!

By April 1889 settlers began to arrive. There were now 43 homes and close to 150 people!!

During the winter of 1889-1890, Father Gaire returned to France for a month as an “Immigration Agent” for the Canadian Government. On March 23, 1890, forty French and Belgian immigrants came to Grande Clairiere.

By 1893, the community had a post office, a church and rectory; and had started building a school.

Father Gaire’s dream was to have more than an ordinary school; he wanted a boarding school where children from distant missions, that had no educational facilities, could be accommodated.

In the spring of 1898, construction began on the first convent. The sisters arrived in Grande Clairiere on August 11, and the school opened on August 18 with 20 pupils registered.

In 1903, his dreams in Grande Clairiere fulfilled, Father Gaire requested a transfer to a new mission in Wauchope, Saskatchewan.

It all started with a river crossing.

About ten kilometers north of where the Souris River crosses the US border, a gravel ridge in the river bed forms a natural crossing that has been used for centuries. Bison herds in their yearly migrations, Aboriginal Peoples on their hunting trips, fur traders and Metis pemmican brigades, each used the site.

The Boundary Commission Trail

Modern use of the trail began in 1873. The British and United States Boundary Commissioners followed a route along the 49th Parallel in their trek across the plains to mark the boundary between the U.S. and Canada.

Sourisford

The crossing at Sourisford was the obvious place for a village. Soon T.B. Gerry set up a blacksmith shop – a necessity for a farming community. The Gould – Elliott Stopping House, was also a store and post office. Another store was operated briefly out of a tent by Warren & Snider. R. N. Graham, already established in Melita, established a branch store at Sourisford.

If the railway line that connected Brandon with southeastern Saskatchewan in1890 had crossed the Souris River here instead of Melita, a major town would have grown and Melita would have faded.

But Sourisford became a rural community with just a post office and store rather than a full village. In 1901 when another CPR branch stretched westward from Waskada and established Coulter a few kilometres away, Sourisford became one of dozens of Westman communities that had served its purpose and was no longer needed as a commercial centre.

Melita is one of many Manitoba towns that had its original location abandoned when a nearby site was chosen by a railway company. In this case, the town of Melita had only a short way to travel.

By 1882 three identifiable communities developed within a few miles of the current site of Melita. Sourisford at the old Boundary Commission Crossing, Menota, a store & post office to the east of where Melita would later be, and Manchester just west of the current town.

In 1881, homesteader Dr. Sinclair had a quarter section of his land on the west side of the Souris River surveyed as a town site. Lots were sold to buyers as far away as Winnipeg. In 1883 R. N. Graham started a store, which was quickly followed by another one, a blacksmith shop, an implement agency and a public school.

This house was the original school and church in Manchester.

The problem was the name they had chosen, “Manchester”. In 1884 when the townsfolk put together a petition to open a post office, they were informed that Manchester had already been adopted by a settlement in Ontario. They got together and chose Melita.

And so the town was born, and as usual the business owners and residents were content to move a kilometre or so east to be alongside the new rail line when it arrived.

Melita pioneer James Duncan started his first Blacksmith Shop in Manchester. He quickly moved to the new location when the railway arrived nearby.

The “Manitoba Boom” hits the Southwest Corner

John Dobbyn – Melita Pioneer and Businessman
Pioneer John Dobbyn had selected a homestead along the Souris River near where Melita would later be located. He, and many of the other settlers expected that a railway line would pass nearby, and that his land would be a good spot for a town. If that happened the land would be valuable.

Across the province there were many people speculating in land. They hoped to buy land that was now empty, but would later be a town, and be worth much more. They hoped to get rich. Knowing this, Mr. Dobbyn had “Dobbyn City” surveyed and marketed.

It was a typical example of the paper city. The ads were just believable enough to be sold, but full of wishful thinking and outright lies.

Apparently they worked… for a while. In March of 1882, The Winnipeg Daily Sun reported the sale of 80 lots at an average of $30 each. How much, if any, of that money made its way into Mr. Dobbyn’s hands, no one knows.

Have a look at the ad from the Winnipeg Daily Sun, March 9, 1882. People in Winnipeg or back east had no way of knowing that no railway would be built for another eight years, or that no real businesses or houses yet existed in Dobbyn City. It didn’t matter – they just hoped it would happen and their $30 lots would be worth ten times that much.

Winnipeg Daily Sun – March 9, 1 882

The railway did eventually come in 1890, but Dobbyn City was long forgotten and the river was crossed about a mile further downstream. Mr. Dobbyn had long since focused on his farm, and became a leading citizen of the new town of Melita.

Butterfield, a Post Office and Stopping Place on the Boundary Commission Trail, was one of the first “places” in the southwest corner to appear on any map.

Until recently, in a pasture a few kilometres southwest of Pierson, one could still see the remains of an old sod building by an old rutted trail.

Before the railway arrived in the southwestern tip of Manitoba, before Pierson was established, the mail came to Butterfield. The first post office was in a sod hut built by Dr. Joseph Dann, on his farm along the Boundary Commission Trail, and operated by his brother Henry’s family.

As often happened the Post Office was a likely spot for a Stopping Place and being on the well-used trail made the location even more convenient. Butterfield received its mail by stage coach.

Before the post office was opened in 1884, one of the settlers near Sourisford used to go to Brandon with an ox team about twice a month for everyone’s mail and supplies.

The exact location of the buildings is hard to find now, and the trails have been worn away by time.

The name Butterfield lives on as the name of the school built nearby.

Page 45: Tisdale

The CPR had surveyed their line through this district, and every one expected to have a townsite of their own, little else was talked about. But it was the Cameron Bros; who did more than talk, they, with the help of T. P. Murray, real estate man of Winnipeg, surveyed the town site of Tisdale on the west half of section 2-4-16, and things developed quickly. A large house of logs appeared. A portable saw mill was brought from Brandon, a Mr. Thomas, of Millford opened up a large general store.T. J. Lawlor also built a frame two-storey store, in which one could buy almost anything from a “needle to an anchor.” E. Machon built a house and shop in which he carried on a blacksmith’s business for some time. The proprietors of this site didn’t overlooked the comfort and necessity of the present and future generations, seven acres were surveyed and laid out for a public park and recreation ground.

Tisdale School
During the winter of 1883 rumors began to circulate that the CPR had changed their plans, and would take a more southerly route. Sure enough they soon began to grade the present line from Manitou, which had been the end of the track since 1882, the steel was laid through Killarney the fall of 1885 and Deloraine the next fall. From this time the town of Tisdale began to fade and the boom was over. T. J. Lawlor dismantled his building and moved it to Killarney.

A cairn marks the location of Tisdale Church

The railway line that now serves Boissevain was put into operation on January 3,1886.

When the line approached the spot then known as Cherry Creek, the CPR announced that they would erect a station there and a town appeared almost overnight.

Local businessman George Morton, quickly moved his general store from the earlier location of Wabeesh, in the Whitewater area, to the new town of Boissevain, where other buildings, stores and houses, were springing up.

The Boissevain CPR Station

Preston and McKay built a large Flour Mill in 1889, which proved to be an important boost to the local economy.

In 1906 the Brandon, Saskatchewan and Hudson Bay Railway, which linked Brandon with the Great Northern Railway system in the United States provided competition for the CPR and additional service. The CPR also provided additional service when it completed its Boissevain-Lauder extension in 1913.

In 1886, the new CPR line bypassed the established community of Waubeesh and created the new village of Whitewater.

The boxcar railroad station that had been established to service Waubeesh became the beginning of Whitewater village. Pioneer businessman George Morton built an elevator in 1888 along with a large general store and boarding house, using lumber cut by the Lake Max Sawmill.

The elevator was the first of five that came to spring up in the town, making Whitewater a very important grain-handling centre.

Until 1894, the children of Whitewater attended Mountainside School, which was about 7.5 km to the south. In 1894 a schoolroom was set up above the general store in Whitewater. Petersburg School was built the following spring at the south end of the community.

The train pulls into Whitewater Station.

A brickyard started up in the late 1880s about a mile northeast of Whitewater which employed between 30 and 40 men. The bricks made from Whitewater Lake clay were of very high quality, and they were used for many buildings in the nearby town, including the Petersburg School.

By the early 1900s the village had a butcher shop, harness-making shop, livery, carpenter, and draftsman. There was also an open-air skating rink complete with a warm-up shack. Rail service was provided regularly by the CPR, with daily passenger and mail traffic.

When the first pioneers came and selected homesteads and village sites they considered several factors. Available wood and water and suitable drainage were important. The railway companies were often more interested in finding a good level route. Towns were located based on the distance between stations.

In 1885, the railroad reached Cherry Creek (Boissevain) and began the last stretch of the line. Instead of angling southwards towards the bustling community of Deloraine they headed almost straight west. The route across flat prairie was certainly easier to build than the path through the hills and valleys where Deloraine was located.

So a “new” Deloraine was created.

Deloraine immediately replaced Boissevain as the grain shipping centre of the Southwestern plains, receiving wheat for the next four years from as far as Pierson and Hartney.
The sites that pioneers chose near water and trees where often quite scenic.

But the railway often selected sites on a treeless prairie. In Deloraine it was Dr. Thornton, whose love of nature, and wide knowledge of horticulture, made him perfectly suited to the task of planting tress and creating parks.

Both the Presbyterian and Methodist Congregations built fine large churches. However in 1917 they united their congregations and only need one building. Both were still standing in 2917 with the Presbyterian Church having served many other purposes.

The railway companies usually put towns wherever they needed them. But in 1889 local farmers heard that the CPR was going to build a town to the northeast of where Hartney is today, settlers protested. They insisted that the new town should be near where James Hartney had established a post office and store on his farm.

Mr. Hartney moved to the area in 1882 with his family. He imported a carload of Red Fife wheat from Minnesota and soon had a good wheat crop. This gave the district a reputation as a first-class wheat producing area. His success attracted more settlers and Hartney’s farm became the centre of a new community. The post office, which he named after himself, and a store, were first operated out of his home. He brought men into the community to operate this business as well as a blacksmith shop that he later established.

When the surveyors did appear they selected a spot within a mile of the Hartney farm and, the settlers, were happy. When the C.P.R named the town Airdrie they made another request. They wanted the new place named Hartney already in use for the post office. Once again, the CPR made the change.

Hartney grew quickly on each side of the new railway track. The Mill and Elevators were important services.

When the train whistle sounded for the first train on Christmas Day 1890, there were already two elevators, a boarding house, a store and post office. Dr. Frank McEown had set up a practice and started work on a drug store.

As the town grew, two brickyards, a flour mill, and a sash & door factory contributed to the economy. In 1902 A.E. Hill built the two-story brick block that still stands on the corner of Poplar and East Railway.

The A.E. Hill store.

A second railway, the Canadian Northern connected Hartney to Virden to the west in 1900. By 1904, in addition to being the home of eight operating elevators and 10 clergy members, 51 businesses were listed in the town newspaper.

Until the railway passed through Hartney on a path to Melita, Melgund was where residents in the Lauder area got their mail. It had a school and church as well.

With the railway came the new towns of Lauder and Napinka. As soon as town sites were laid out there were people on hand eager to set up places of business and Lauder was no exception.

Before the end of 1892 there were numerous buildings and businesses. In 1893 records for the town show seven married couples, fifteen boys and ten girls, with ten children in school.

As was common in all too many of these new towns, there were setbacks. A fire in 1894 did a lot of damage.

The residents didn’t waste any time – they rebuilt.

By 1895 the town layout was firmly established. It had a rink and tennis courts, and its curlers and tennis players were well known in neighboring towns as were its baseball and hockey teams. There was a literary society and a bicycle club. Dances were held in Hamelin’s hall.

Another typical business venture in many new towns was the “Cheese Factory”.

In 1895 the farmers of the area met to make plans. General approval was received and the factory was located just north of town. The rise in the road at this point was known for years as the “Cheese Factory Hill”.

The milk was gathered daily in large barrels and the whey returned to the farmers for feeding pigs. Henderson Directory 1897 lists W. Brigden as manager.

It did not last too long – probably not more than year.

Other enterprises included a mill and a lime kiln just north of Grand Bend School.

In 1892 Napinka was a boom town located at the junction of two busy CPR branch lines.

The first building appeared in July of 1891 before the tracks were laid through the area, and before the townsite had even been surveyed.

A year later after the first railway line (from Brandon to Pierson) created the town, the line from Deloraine was finished to Napinka. Nearby Melita, had sent a delegation to Winnipeg to argue for the junction to be placed in their town but Napinka won.

Trains came in every day from Brandon, Winnipeg, Estevan and the many small towns along the line. To service the trains, the CRP built a water tower and pumped water from behind a dam the railway built on the Souris River.

A coal dock, tool shop, roundhouse and bunkhouse were also built to serve the CPR. The passengers and crew on the trips that stopped overnight in Napinka used the hotels and stores built along Railway Avenue. In 1892, an article in the Brandon Sun mentioned Napinka having “…two general stores, three hardware stores, two butcher shops, one flour and feed store, one watchmaker, two dressmakers, builders, coal and wood dealers, one elevator, two lumber yards, a drug store and a barber shop…”

It also had boarding houses, two hotels, two banks, a blacksmith, doctors, a Massey-Harris dealership, and eventually, with the arrival of the automobile, two garages.

A beautiful two-story stone school now a designated Heritage Site, was built in 1900.

Sports teams, social clubs, and women’s organizations were set up. An open air skating and curling rink was built in 1896, while a newer curling facility was built in 1906, and curlers from Napinka achieved great success in bonspiels across Manitoba.

By the time the current town of Melita appeared in 1890, the region itself had a long and interesting history. Three communities existed within a few kilometres. Sourisford lives on as a location and a part of our heritage. Dobbyn City never really got started, and the district of Menota lives on as a school site.

Manchester, renamed Melita, moved to be along a new rail line, and became the commercial centre of the region.

Before the first train whistle sounded, Mr. G.L.Dodds had moved his Hardware & General Store to the site of the new town and everyone else followed.

Melita’s first CPR Station

More buildings were built quickly from materials readily available via the new rail line. Within a few years they were replaced by more ambitious structures such as the Northern Bank, the I.O.O.F Hall and the Crerar Law Office; all of which are still in use.

By 1892 numerous business blocks lined Main and Front Streets.

As early as 1892, sidewalks were to be laid on Main Street. By 1898 Melita had a population of over 500 people.
1905 saw street lighting by gasoline lamps.

In 1916 permission was granted to R. N. Wyatt to place gasoline tanks at business on Front Street. Garages were replacing Livery Stables.

As the town grew, its selection of businesses attracted customers from some distance

C.P. Holden’s Furniture Store

One of the first homesteaders in what came to be known as the district of Elva was H. J. Archibald and his family. They settled northwest of where Elva was later built. Archibald established a post office out of his home, which received the mail once a week from Brandon.

In 1891 James Skelton agreed to sell some of his land to the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was looking to continue the line west from Melita. An unincorporated village grew on a corner of Skelton’s land. The community was later named after the first baby to be born in the district: Elva, the daughter of James Modeland and his wife.

Elva continued to grow, and by 1904 it had a population of 100 people. Four years later the numbers had grown to 150 people.

Elva seemed to be on the road to becoming a very important town—its elevators serviced farmers as far south as the United States boundary.

This elevator in Elva (the oldest still standing in Canada untill it was torn down in 2022) was built over a century ago.

The Lake of the Woods elevator was built sometime between 1892 and 1899. Before the turn of the century, the Lake of the Woods Milling Co was one of Manitoba’s top companies in the grain industry. Their elevator shared the business with three other elevators, all built near the turn of the century and operated by different companies.

Matt Pedden, Lake of the Woods agent in 1912

The CPR laid tracks through what would be the village of Pierson in 1891 and surveyed a town site. Merchants Alfred Gould and David Elliot from Sourisford were the first to buy lots. They established Pierson’s first business, a grocery store

Pierson quickly became the service centre for the southwest corner.

February of 1892 saw the first train rumble down the tracks. In short order, three grain elevators were built beside the tracks by different companies. In 1900 this number had risen to four.

The usual assortment of services followed in a building boom that provided the shops and businesses necessary to make the community flourish: a blacksmith shop, millinery shop, wheelwright, livery barn, butcher shop, lumberyard, drug store, jewellery store, bank, barbershop, and café, among others.

Around 1900, the businessmen of Pierson, especially J. F. Dandy, saw a need for more accommodations for the travelling public. Dandy owned the first hardware, furniture and lumber businesses. In 1900 Dandy financed the building of the Leland Hotel, which catered to travelling businessmen, doctors, dentists and incoming settlers.

In the fall of 1891 Sherriff’s and Company built a large warehouse, with the lower part housing machinery, sleighs, cream separators, parts and feed and the upper part was used as a hall.

Today it is a private home.

Minto got its start when the Canadian Northern Railway came through in 1898 and it grew quickly.

Farmers were now able to ship their grain and livestock closer to home instead of hauling to Boissevain or Hartney.

The town soon had all the shops that a community needed to thrive. These shops included everything from a butcher shop to a Chinese laundry.

In 1906 a second rail line from the North Dakota to Brandon made Minto and even busier place.

On October 14, 1930, this booming town met a harsh reality that many communities had to face in those days. A huge fire swept through the business section and razed everything in its path.

Like all small towns in the 1930’s, some of the businesses that had been very important in the early days, were no longer needed. People could take their cars to nearby larger towns to shop. So many of the businesses didn’t rebuild and Minto’s “downtown” was no longer as busy. It did however keep its basic services and continues to serve the local people today.

Fairfax

In 1899, after the railway was built, a survey was made of the village of Fairfax and building lots were sold.

The first general store was built in 1900 was operated by Mr. J. L. Hettle, who also became postmaster and Justice of the Peace. Three grain companies were quick to build elevators.

Fairfax school was established in August 1902. It became the Fairfax consolidated school in 1913 when it merged with Crown, St. Luke, and Plainville schools.

Underhill

The A.E. Hill Store in 2016

The ghost community of Underhill took its name from Mr. John Underhill who arrived during the rush of settlement to this part of the prairies in the early 1880s.

Three elevators were swiftly erected with the arrival of the railway. Mr. A. E. Hill, who operated a store in nearby Hartney, opened a general store in Underhill in 1897.

The first school in the area was called the Berber School and was constructed over a kilometre south of the village in 1886. In 1909 it was moved into the village where it stood until 1928. A new school was built on the same site and used until the district consolidated into the Souris Valley School Division.

The school building was always a social centre for the district. Activities such as amateur plays, Sunday School, card games and dances were held.

Passenger service to the Underhill station was discontinued in 1954. Soon the railway line was abandonned and rural schools were consolidated further, shifting the focus from the small community to the larger surrounding centres.

Argue

Argue was known as the “Trackend” for a year as it was the most westerly station on the Winnipeg-Cameron-Hartney Branch of the Canadian National Railway until 1900 when the line continued to Hartney and Virden.

The community was named after pioneer John Argue.

Elgin is another story of rapid growth. In 1898 when the railway came through, there was not a building on the present site. By 1900 the population of the village was about 400, and there were many more families in the district than at present. By 1913, as progress continued, Elgin had a school, four churches, an active band, and 34 places of business.

Most communities – even small ones, had a community band.

In 1912, Elgin Consolidated School was formed when the local school, started in 1884, joined with Alice, Gilead, Maguire, and Millerway Schools. In 1951 a new modern school was built. That school closed in 1986 and a monument now commemorates it.

Built in 1904 this Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce building, to the left in this photo, was originally two stories high, providing accommodation for the bank manager. The second level was removed in the 1950s. After the bank closed in 1995, it became the Elgin and District Museum.

The three-story convent in Grande Clairiere was built in 1906.

The Grande Clairiere community, which was established in 1888, got a new look when the Canadian Northern line from Hartney to Virden passed through in 1906.

The train brought better mail service and better delivery of supplies.

Already known for its large church, and convent, it now became a village with
stores, garages and even a bank.

Store operated by Claude Rey and Marcel Martine.

The Bank of Hochelaga opened as “la Banque Nationale” by Father Pierquin and originally located in the Rectory. Later changed to La Banque d’Hochelaga.

The Bank of Hochelaga has been preserved on a local farm.

The gas station

Settlers in the area of Waskada and Goodlands in southwestern Manitoba waited in great anticipation for a branch line to be built through their communities. It arrived in 1900.

Goodlands

The town of Goodlands was first started in 1899 by Bert and Ernest Goodlands who built the first store. In that same year a lumber yard, boarding house and blacksmith shop were established.

The local school was called Lennox School – it had existed long before the town was created.

Cranmer

In 1928 Cranmer made the news when one of its elevators collapsed. Workers had heard the building creaking and groaning and evacuated in time. No one was hurt.

When a new rail line was built into a region the plan was to have a town about every fourteen kilometres. But as years went by those farmers between Deloraine and Goodlands who still had some distance to haul their grain started wondering if perhaps service couldn’t be better.

In 1906 an extra stop, called a siding, was built, at about the midway point and in 1913 the first of two elevators was open for business.

The U.G.G. elevator collapsed in 1928 and was rebuilt. Both elevators continued to serve the grain trade as well as being depots for the sale of coal. The loading platform was also used for other shipping needs, notably the shipping of cream to creameries.

Farmers to the north and south of the new Cranmer siding appreciated the shorter trips to deliver grain.

A Post Office named Waskada was opened in 1883 a few kilometres south of where the town is today.

When it was confirmed in 1899 that a rail line was coming nearby and that a new town to be was being surveyed they decided to keep the name.

Until this time businesses such as stores, post offices, blacksmith shops and gristmills were operated on the individual properties of homesteaders. The railway brought the creation of towns, and towns then became the most logical place to do business.

When Charles Sankey arrived in Waskada in the fall of October 1899, the townsite was bare prairie. Sankey was a dedicated community worker, and in fact appointed by the municipality to look after general public interests in the town.

Waskada quickly became the commercial centre for the region.

On a walk south of the townsite one day, a vision presented itself to Sankey: a recreational park, surrounded by trees, with space for sports activities and community events. From this initial dream, a combination of hard work, determination and good lick accident brought the Waskada Park into being.

The Waskada Park in 1946, looking southwest.

Over the next two years funds were being gathered for the purchase of trees. In the meantime Chambers planted potatoes and other vegetables in the strips of land. He did an excellent job, and left the soil in good condition for receiving trees.

The first version of the blacksmith shop, now featured in the Waskada Museum is visible on the left side of this photo from around 1909.

Dalny

Dalny was the first stop after the train headed west out of Waskada. Soon two elevators were doing a thriving business and a third was added in 1925.

Coulter

Coulter was the next stop and it did become a busy little village with a school, a church and a large general store.

The Coulter School was built in 1915.

The General Store built by pioneer Alfred Gould.

Coulter in 1959

This elevator, now in the middle of a field is all that is left of Cameron Siding. There were once three elevators and a store here.

In 1902, when the railway branch finally arrived near the Lyleton Post Office, close to the US border south of Melita, another new town was created. In fact that was what they called it at first, “The New Town”. The streets were placed on what had been a field of grain just two months before. Andrew Lyle’s farm home was the first post office; because of this, the district had been known as Lyleton for some time. Soon the town took that name as well.

A comfortable station was provided by the Canadian Pacific Railroad

Before long the town was booming with all the stores and services the region needed.

The foundation of the new Presbyterian Church, which still existed in 2017, was laid and the main street was lined with businesses.

Little towns like Lyleton owed their existence to the homesteads around them and a shopping trip to town was something the whole family would appreciate.

Fire was the enemy of these new towns, and Lyleton had its share. On August 19, 1904, the entire business section portion of Lyleton was wiped out by fire, caused by lightning.

And like other towns before – they set out to rebuild.

The Home Bank
A visitor to Lyleton today might find it hard to believe that it once had a thriving bank and a busy hotel.

Fire was to strike Lyleton again in 1910 and again large portion of the business section was destroyed. The fire fighting equipment of the day could do very little to check its progress.

The improvement in transportation and communication brought large towns of Melita and Brandon closer. There was already less of a need for some businesses. The store, school, church, elevators, post office, garages and lumber yard continued to serve the village for some time. Much of the community life continued to revolve around the church, school, hall and rink.

Wakopa

In 1886 the CPR railroad reached Killarney and Boissevain, and Old Wakopa began to fade. Then in 1905 the Canadian Northern from the east gave it new life.

The Wakopa Village site in 2010 – the village was relocated here when the “Wakopa Branch” of the C.P.R. was build from Greenway in 1904.

Adelpha

Adelpha originated as a post office in the home of an early homesteader, John A. Hurt who settled just to the north of the Turtle Mountain Forestry Reserve, right next to the Boundary Commission Trail.

In 1905, the Canadian National Railway built a rail line heading southwest from Greenway. The rail passed just to the northwest of Hurt’s home. Construction stopped there and the train station was named Adelpha.

Since Adelpha was the “end of the line”, it became busy place for a time. A “wye” was built at for turning trains around so that they could head back east. In 1914 the Canadian National Railways extended their Greenway Branch to reach Deloraine and other villages attracted the business.

Mountainside

In 2017, the Mountainside Store – now used as a house, stands as a reminder of the little village that once served the needs of the surrounding district. At one time, in addition to the store there were nine houses, the school and two elevators in town.

They had church in the school and there was also a public dance hall in the basement.

In 1906 the Brandon, Saskatchewan and Hudson’s Bay Railway, a part of the Great Northern Railway from the U.S., began service from Brandon to the small North Dakota town of St. John’s, where it made connections to destinations across the United States.

The line was important to several communities south of Brandon.

Anything that would reduce the length of those trips to the elevator was welcomed by farmers.
A Ride on the Great Northern

The train departed from St. John’s, North Dakota, just a few kilometers south on the Manitoba / US border.

Charlie Bryant, long time conductor, well-known to folks all along the line, was a man who wouldn’t hesitate to make an unscheduled stop or other accommodation for a good customer.

Before long it reached the border and four kilometers past that was the new village of Bannerman.

Of all the newly created villages along the line, the rise and fall of Bannerman was the most dramatic.

In 1905 it was a field. In 1906 it was a brand new village.
Soon a hotel with large dining room and bar encouraged visitors. A feed and livery barn and a lumberyard were open for business. A poolroom and barbershop, a store and post office, a blacksmith shop, a harness and shoe repair shop, all were built. Soon a second grocery store and additional blacksmith shop were needed, along with two dealerships for the fast growing farm implement business.

Because it was the first stop in Canada it was an official Port of Entry with a Customs and Immigration Office.

When the railway line closed in 1936 Bannerman became a town without a purpose. There were several other towns nearby that till had rail lines. It faded away quickly and is now back to being a field.

Desford

In 1908 the hamlet of Desford consisted of the water tower for the trains, the Railway Station, elevator, section house, bunk house, the Methodist Church, the blacksmith shop, a Community Hall, a General Store and a few houses.
The population exploded to near thirty.

A few kilometres out of Desford is to Fairburn. These “sidings” as they were called were put in place to accommodate local farmers, and were never intended to become villages.

The site of Fairburn School, now a park alongside Highway 3.

To us in modern times It may seem odd that a place like Fairburn was even on the map. It was just a lone elevator on the open prairie.

But although it had no stores or streets it was a community. A Post Office had existed nearby for many years.

Boissevain & Minto

By 1906 Boissevain and Minto were already well-established and already each had one railway line. The new line gave them a direct route to Brandon and another elevator to choose from.

Healslip had existed as a post office since the earliest pioneer days. It got a big boost when the Great Northern began operations in 1906 and the Heaslip community developed into the beginnings of a village, with a station and general store.

A Big Project

Just past Heaslip, the line angled north-westward to Bunclody. Along the way it had to cross two deep ravines that ran into the river from the west.

They built temporary trestles and dumped in earth to create a road-level earth dam, complete with huge pipes designed to let the runoff through. The pipes soon had to be replaced with concrete tunnels two metres square – still quite visible today. Local childhood adventures often included a dare to go through these tunnels.

A concrete tunnel under the crossing.

Bernice

ln I902, the The Canadian Pacific rail line from Lauder to Tilston was surveyed and in about 1905, the townsite of Bernice was established.

In its prime, Bernice had a large general store with a basement hall in which fowl suppers and community gatherings were held. The store also contained the post office.

The town also had a lumber yard, a blacksmith’s shop, implement agency and machine shop, a C.P.R. (boxcar) station, a section house, a railway water tank, an open air skating rink, a church, and at least three homes.

Bede

Bede School
The rail line continued from Bernice westward. The next siding that sprang up was named Ruth and it remained with that name until the Canadian Pacific changed it to Bede in 1925.

The village consisted of an elevator, a school, and a store. The elevator closed in the late forties.

The cemetery, along busy Highway #83, is still in use.

Broomhill

The tiny village of Broomhill never did get very big.

This large old concrete block building in Broomhill might make you wonder: Why such a large building in a tiny village?

Kilkenny’s General Store – Broomhill, 2011

Perhaps when local Postmaster William Kilkenny and his brother John built it in 1908, they expected the village to grow, or maybe they were just ahead of their time.

The Broomhill post office had been established in 1892 on the Kilkenny homestead. When the CPR arrived nearby they moved to the new townsite and build their store.

It was more than a store – more like a shopping centre with a post office, a garage, gas station, and even implement dealership.

Tilston

The first settlers to the region had chosen a site roughly two miles east of the present village of Tilston and established a community they called Eagleton. When the C.P.R. brought the railway through in 1907, they established the town at the current location, and the new name was chosen.

Soon, more settlers arrived and among the early buildings was a boarding house, a hardware, a blacksmith shop, a small school building, and a box car for a station.

Railway Avenue, Tilston

This small building is the former R.M. of Albert Municipal Office. Tilston is now in the Municipality of Two Borders.

In November 1913 the first train followed the route from Boissevain through stations at Sanger, Schaffner, Orthez, Croll, Regent, Hathaway and Dand before reaching Lauder.

The Blue Flea, as it was called, ran a passenger service connected small communities with the big passenger trains out of Winnipeg. The trains also transported hay, grain, milk or whatever was needed.

Sanger, Schaffner, Orthez and Hathaway were sidings with elevators and they never did become villages.

Croll had just an elevator and a store while Regent and Dand had a few other services.

Dand United Church was originally the Chain Lake Quaker Meeting House.

The Regent Store and the home of the owners.

A Cairn marks the location of Croll

Croll

Croll School wasn’t in the village. It was over three kilometres away, where it had been for many years before the village was started.

Regent

Of the many small railway villages that came and went, Regent’s just might be the only one that was named by mistake. The CPR bought the original homestead of John Riley for the town they were creating and proposed that Riley would be the name. Someone along the way made a mistake and Regent was the name used. As Riley was long gone, the locals appeared quite OK with that.

Soon a large store, Post Office, Imperial Oil Dealership, hardware store, blacksmith shop/garage, poolroom, and barber shop were open for business

A Presbyterian congregation used the school for services and built a Manse for the Minister. Later, in 1957 a United Church was built in the village.

West Hall / Hathaway

Back in 1912, it was important for farmers that they have an elevator nearby. Many were still using horse-drawn wagons to deliver grain and each trip took up valuable time. The railway and elevator companies tried to provide the service every 6 – 8 kilometres. There was no real need for towns at every stop. Places like Hathaway, in between the village of Regent and Dand, just had one elevator and used an old railway car as a station.

Dand

The station at Dand was at first known as “Landmark” before it was renamed to honour the Dand family’s role in getting the railway to come through the region.

Thomas Dand found hauling grain to the distant rail line was quite a job, often made worse by blizzards in winter and heat and mosquitoes in summer.

He asked his friends from his former employer, the CPR, to build a railway line that would connect Lauder with Boissevain and the CPR agreed. They were having trouble deciding exactly where to place the route so Mr. Dand, who had experience with railways, walked a line from Lauder to Boissevain and the CPR followed his path.

The End of the Line

After the railway stopped in the early 1960’s, the communities lost much of their purpose. Before long schools, churches, stores and grain elevators began to disappear.

Except for Grand Clarieire, of most of the new communities in Southwestern Manitoba were British in nature for the first twenty years.

After 1900, that began to change as people from other cultures moved here.

The first permanent Métis settlers moved to Turtle Mountain in 1908. Descendants of the Red River Métis came from North Dakota and settled just north of the USA-Canada border on the western end of Turtle Mountain. The following decades saw more families move into the bush land surrounding Lake Metigoshe, Lake Dromore and Sharpe Lake. Some European settlers married into Métis families and the community grew.

The Metigoshe community was a tight-knit group of people. The relatively isolated location of the community meant that neighbours lived, worked and played together.

They pitched in and helped each other in times of need. They created a lifestyle that did not require much money, and many children grew up not knowing, or caring, that they weren’t well off.

They made use of what the land provided, hunting, fishing, harvesting wood, trapping, gardening and farming.

The children of early Metis families around Lake Metigoshe were faced with a trip of up to eight kilometres to Marsden School, which had been established in 1908. In 1938 a second Marsden School, operated by the same board was built to accommodate them.

Student at Marsden School #2

Marsden School #2

While children of European settlers living on the level farmland to the north attended Marsden No. 1, Marsden No. 2 served Métis children living closer to the border. The school, which also served as a community centre, helped local people affirm their heritage.

The first immigrants from Belgium arrived in Southwestern Manitoba in the two decades before the First World War, reaching over 2000 a year by 1906. Lack of opportunity in their overcrowded European homeland, and the devastation of Belgium by the invading German armies in World War I caused many more to leave their homeland.

St. Paul’s Catholic Church
Most of the settlers in Southwestern Manitoba were of Flemish descendent, while the French-speaking Walloons were more likely to settle in Quebec or St. Boniface where they could continue to speak French. For the newly arrived immigrants, language was always an issue. Many of the men that arrived learned both English, and how to farm on the Canadian prairies, from already established farmers. The children of Belgian immigrants would be taught English in small, one-room schools that dotted the landscape, most of which at the time had very few natural English speakers besides the teacher.

Many of the Belgian immigrants would become farmers in Southwestern Manitoba, and would become important members of the community, working with many organizations and community endeavors. They mostly settled around Deloraine and Medora

In the spring of 1917 the Belgian community living on the slopes of Turtle Mountain and their priest, Father P. E. Halde decided to build themselves a church wherein they could pursue their worship of the Catholic faith. The spot they chose was high up on the mountain where it could be seen for miles and miles.

Whitewater Mennonite Church, located by the Cemetery, was built in 1939.
Mennonites are a pacifist group of Christians. Before World War One, the Mennonite colonies in Russia were quite well-to-do with beautiful homes and gardens, plentiful orchards, and rich land upon which they produced good crops.

After the war the Soviet Revolution brought imprisonment, plundering, mistreatment and murder upon the Mennonite people.

This was followed by famine and then the new communist government began to tax the Mennonites very heavily and further harass them.

Groups of refugees were eager to find new lives on the Canadian prairies.

Herman Lohrenz – a teacher from Russia, was one of the first Mennonites to arrive in the Whitewater District.

Some came to southwest Manitoba near Whitewater Lake. Many arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs and Bibles in their hands. Though they had no money to speak of, they managed to secure tens of thousands of acres of land including essential start-up goods without making so much as a down payment. Instead, they promised half of their gross annual income until the purchase price and interest were covered.

Petersburg School – Whitewater
Schooling was very important and two schools in the region, Petersburg and Strathallan were soon filled with children who knew little English. It was a challenge to find teachers who were trained for such a situation.

In their new communities, the Mennonites took pains to preserve their own culture and religious heritage. Church was the hub of the Mennonite community.

The Chinese were unlike any settlers the prairies had seen. They were single men who came into towns and villages in small numbers to run the local laundry or set up a restaurant. They spoke a markedly different language their customs were unfamiliar to the other settlers.

CPR Workers – 1883.

When the Canadian Pacific Railway was being built between 1881 and 1885, Chinese men were encouraged to immigrate to work on the project. As soon as the railway was completed, however, the Canadian government wanted nothing more to do with them and moved to restrict Chinese immigration by imposing a $50 head tax. No other group in the history of Canada has been forced to pay such a tax.

Chinese men continued to immigrate regardless of the head tax. They often faced poverty at home. China had too many people.

For many years the Chinese Immigration Act prevented men already living and working in Canada from bringing their families from China to live with them.

Chinese first began settling in Winnipeg around 1870. Soon afterwards Brandon and rural prairie towns saw Chinese men in their communities as well. Many worked in the laundry or restaurant business. Those with higher levels of education and better English skills could work as travelling salesmen.

In rural Manitoba, the restaurant is most commonly associated with the Chinese as an occupation.

They learned English to make friends with their customers and others in the community. Yet the hard work and long hours made little time available for socializing.

Most towns in western Manitoba had a Chinese restaurant at least until the 1950s. They made important contributions to rural Manitoba and fostered fond feelings among their customers and neighbours.