In looking at our theme “Welcome”, it’s pretty obvious that, despite the promotional efforts of the government, new settlers often didn’t find the climate that welcoming.
The topic comes up often in the reminiscences of pioneers.
But the tales of hardships caused by the climate are told with the same sense of pride we see in all tales of overcoming obstacles.
One thing is for sure, facing adversity does often bring out the best in people.
A small entry in the April 10, 1947 edition of the Deloraine Times And Waskada News under the byline “Bidford” informs us that, “The volunteer shovel brigade opened the three and one-half miles of road on Thursday and Friday. Yessiree, but we still can’t make the weather.”
Here are a few of the more notable weather incidents we learn about from local histories.
1892 - Hartney
Andrew Duncan came to the Hartney area in 1892 from Ontario. He tells of his first spring in Manitoba when a snow storm at the end of April brought two feet of snow after the wheat was all sown and the cattle turned out to graze. Following the storm the cattle were found eight miles away, having travelled ahead of the storm.
1903 - Goodlands
Albert Loyst rented a farm in the Goodlands area in 1903 and his first crop was splendid, but in September a bad snowstorm covered the stooks. Neighbour John Leeson assured him it could still be threshed. And it was.
The effects of that storm on Sept. 12, 1903 were widespread across western Manitoba - from Baldur to Birtle and beyond. Hal Leonard, in his book The Southwest Corner, tells of the disaster it caused when a herd of cattle were driven into Whitewater Lake.
An incidental casualty of that storm was the loss of 100,000 bricks at Deloraine’s brickyard.
1949 Wakopa
Improved roads, better plows, and good railway service may have made transportation easier, but there were times when nature put up a pretty good fight.
The big snowstorm of January 1949 was such a time. It raged for about two weeks with high winds and low temperatures making snow removal difficult. Just as a patch was cleared, shifting winds would plug it up again. Along the Wakopa line from Neelin to Wakopa both roads and rail lines were plugged for a few weeks, causing quite a bit of concern as supplies, including the coal many people relied on to heat their homes and businesses, dwindled.
In Wakopa, after 15 days of isolation, the snowplows reached the village and trucks carrying 18 tons (16.3 metric) of coal and 1½ tons (1.36 metric) of flour were greeted with relief.
And as the article from the January 27 Free Press tells us:
“Probably the first person out of there was Fred Dietrich. His wife had given birth to a son in Killarney
after being taken out by snowmobile - both her and the son, Robert, were doing well”.
There were a few scary moments in Mountainside, where a plow jumped the track and stopped a few feet from the section house where the family of the section foreman, Jim Flecknor, lived, and where the youngest member, Jerry, was watching from the living room window! In a less threatening mishap, the station platforms were ripped up at both Mountainside and Wassewa when the snowplow operator failed to pull in the plow wings soon enough
1959
Some of us remember the fall storm in 1959 that brought an early taste of winter to our part of the world.
Evelyn (Nestibo) Cavers also has a memory about that storm.
“During construction of Hwy. 21, from the corner west of Deloraine to the U.S. border, the 12 man crew of Bolduc Construction and the six engineers ate their noon meal at our house. On Oct. 6, 1959 a heavy snowstorm called a halt to construction. It also left us without hydro, telephone or a road for a whole week. Until freeze-up, travel on the road under construction was virtually impossible. One evening about this time, the Finlay children and our own son Shawn were not yet home from school and it was getting dark. Howard Adolph set out on horseback to find them. He did. They were stuck so secure in the mud, he had to hoist them on his horse. When they arrived at our place we bathed them, dressed them in clean clothes, fed them and put them to bed.
Personally there was a bright side to that storm. Later in October a bit of a heat wave melted much of the snow, creating runoff that filled the slough near our yard. It then froze - giving us a very convenient skating rink for the rest of the winter.”
“Yessiree, but we still can’t make the weather.”
*Sources Local History Volumes Winnipeg Free Press Jan. 27, 1949
Sept 13, 1903 - Boissevain*
