Boissevain

(1885 – Present) Cherry Creek was the name of this town before the CPR came through and renamed it after a Dutch financier.

Stories

#Home of the Boissevain and Morton Library and Archives **Building: 1904—Present** *The Turtle Mountain-Souris Plains Heritage office in Boissevain is in the basement of the Civic Centre, which is attached to the Library building next door. This has made it simple for me to access the library’s reference materials and their archive collection. I have become quite fond of the library building over these last few years, though I understand that the building is no longer meeting the library’s needs. As the library looks forward to moving into a new space sometime in the near future, I wanted to take a moment to find out the history of the building whose future is now unknown.* [[inline:right:king-store]] ##The Importance Of General Stores [Enlarge Image>>](/photos/photo/king-store/) The first three buildings built in the new town of [Boissevain](item=boissevain) were all general stores. This is an indication of how central the general store was to early European settlement culture. The general store carried practical day-to-day items that everyone needed: clothing, groceries, hardware, tools, soap, etc. But it was also a gathering place, something like the present-day coffee shop. The general store usually had a wood stove which heated the building and provided a place for locals to warm themselves, catch up with neighbours, grumble about the weather, the state of crops or swap political views. The shopping experience of the general store was much different than we are accustomed to today. Many items were on display, but the shopper did not pick them up, instead …

(1882 - 1883) George Morton launched a cheese-making project west of Whitewater Lake. He may have been successful if he hadn't overlooked a couple of key factors.

(1905 - 1936) The Great Northern Railway covered the almost 70 miles between Brandon, Manitoba, and St. John, North Dakota.