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Mennonites disembark from a steamboat in in Manitoba in 1874.
News, Other

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION: Did someone steal my land?

A Mennonite’s journey to square history, reconciliation and cultural snobbery

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This story has been reposted in recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. For more stories of Indigenous farming, food sovereignty, challenges and triumphs in the ongoing work of reconciliation, see our Truth and Reconciliation landing page. Whose land was this? As truth and reconciliation have come to the fore of public
W.G. Dickson’s combine setup, pictured with his sons, Murray and Archie, in 1943.
News

Combining alone: Farming for the future with fewer farmers

Technology led to exponential productivity growth in the 20th century, but bigger, fewer and more advanced farms also had a role in rural migration

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It isn’t a setup you’d see any machinery company advise. The black-and-white photo, circa 1943, shows Murray and Archie Dickson atop their family’s Nichols & Shepherd Red River Special. The pull-type combine is hitched to a small, metal-wheeled tractor. There’s a long shaft with universal joints linking the tractor’s steering wheel to the one on
Gordon Goldsborough poses with the recently released third book in his Abandoned Manitoba series.  
News, Other

Teasing out the echoes of Manitoba’s abandoned places

Author kicks off 'Abandoned' book, highlights local history

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There are a lot of places in Manitoba that fit the definition of “abandoned.” There’s Smokey’s Tree Stump, a 10-foot-wide concrete sculpture sitting at the side of the TransCanada Highway east of Richer. There are rusting derelicts of Red River Cruise ships. Along the Assiniboine River, there are remnants of Hudson’s Bay Company trading posts.
Fair attendees of past generations at the Portage Ex cattle show.
Farmit Manitoba, News

PHOTOS: History and community as Portage Ex celebrates 150 years

The fair circuit staple marks the major milestone this July

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Many things have changed in the century and a half since the Portage Ex was established, but the Trimble family has been a constant for the bulk of those years. “I think somebody from our family has been on the board since it was incorporated in 1907,” said Paul Trimble, a current Portage Ex board
An elevator at Solsgirth was built in 1961 by National Grain. Sold to Cargill Grain in 1975, the elevator and its annexes were destroyed by fire on December 16, 1981, shortly after undergoing an extensive renovation costing some $750,000. It was replaced by a new composite-style elevator constructed in mid-1982. Traded to Manitoba Pool in June 1995, the elevator was closed by Agricore United in 2002. It is now used for private grain storage.
Country Crossroads, Local news, Other

PHOTOS: This Old Elevator: October 2019

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In the 1950s, there were over 700 grain elevators in Manitoba. Today, there are fewer than 200. You can help to preserve the legacy of these disappearing “Prairie sentinels.” The Manitoba Historical Society (MHS) is gathering information about all elevators that ever stood in Manitoba, regardless of their present status. Collaborating with the Manitoba Co-operator it is supplying these
One of the first ‘Fowler’ steel-framed boxcars purchased by the CPR. By the early 1900s, more powerful locomotives could haul longer trains, putting more stress on wooden cars. The CPR designed the Fowler cars in 1908 and by 1914 had ordered some 34,000 cars of this design. The CNR also purchased more than 30,000. They began to leave service in large numbers in the 1950s with the last car leaving in 1980. The number 127340 car in the photo was built in 1912 by the American Car and Foundry Company in Detroit, Michigan.
Country Crossroads, Other

When you needed a hammer and nails to load a car

Until the 1970s, all grain was shipped in boxcars which needed a wooden door

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Copies of photos donated by the Dickson and Henderson families of Boissevain have proven a treasure trove for the Manitoba Agricultural Museum. This photo depicts a portable elevator filling a CPR wooden boxcar, probably sometime in the 1930s. The man in the photo cannot be identified — it’s believed he is not a member of
A diagram of the plank drag Seager Wheeler was using on his farm in 1919. This drag had evolved significantly from the first drag he used when homesteading in Saskatchewan in the 1890s. His first drag consisted of two poplar logs pegged together. The bottom of the logs were cut flat probably using an adze.
Country Crossroads, Other

The plank drag was an effective field tool in its day

The goal was a smooth field that would allow easy operation of horse-drawn implements

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In the recent Manitoba Agricultural Museum article on the practice of backsetting, which was sometimes carried out when breaking virgin sod, the use of a plank drag in subsequent field operations was mentioned. A plank drag was somewhat more complicated than merely dragging a plank across the field and so deserves some further explanation. Seager
Gordon Goldsborough has spent many months exploring abandoned sites on the Manitoba landscape including this interior of the ballon annex of a vacant grain elevator at Tyndall.
Country Crossroads, Local news, Other

New tales told in ‘More Abandoned Manitoba’

Author Gordon Goldsborough is hitting the road with his newest release featuring 28 more fascinating stories about little-known places in rural Manitoba

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Manitoba author Gordon Goldsborough is on the road again — this time to launch the sequel to his 2016 runaway bestseller Abandoned Manitoba. More Abandoned Manitoba: Rivers, Rails and Ruins released in October contains photos and stories of more than two dozen sites he’s visited in the past two years. Wherever he goes, there’s always
This photo of Brandon in 1912 reveals many details about the early economy of the Wheat City.
Country Crossroads, Local news, Other

The Maple Leaf Flour Mill in Brandon

There were many early mills in Manitoba, but they didn’t last

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One of the photos in the Manitoba Agricultural Museum’s photo collection is a 1912 view of Pacific Avenue in Brandon, looking to the east. It appears to have been taken off the roof of the International Harvester Corporation (IHC) warehouse which still stands at the northeast quadrant of the intersection of 18th Street and Pacific
This 1972 photo shows the Manitoba Pool and United Grain Growers elevators at Medora, in what was then known as the RM of Brenda. The 177,000-bushel Pool elevator and crib annex dated from 1928 and 1967, respectively. The 131,000-bushel UGG facility consisted of an elevator from 1932 that was modernized when a crib annex was built beside it in 1963. The UGG elevator and annex, filled to capacity with wheat, flax, and canola, were destroyed by fire in December 1980. A replacement elevator was constructed in the fall of 1981 and opened for business in January 1982. It was closed by Agricore in 2000 but remains in use for private grain storage. The Pool buildings were demolished in 2002.
Country Crossroads, Other

PHOTOS: This Old Elevator: March 2018

The Manitoba Historical Society wants to gather information about all the grain elevators in Manitoba

By
In the 1950s, there were over 700 grain elevators in Manitoba. Today, there are fewer than 200. You can help to preserve the legacy of these disappearing “Prairie sentinels.” The Manitoba Historical Society (MHS) is gathering information about all elevators that ever stood in Manitoba, regardless of their present status. Collaborating with the Manitoba Co-operator it is supplying these

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