Rail lines of Manitoba's Interlake

Manitoba’s Interlake is unique in many ways, but few regions of 88,000 people can boast that they once supported four separate rail lines in a geographic area that is less than 70 mile wide. The four lines – Gypsumville, Fisher Branch, Arborg and Riverton – closely approximated the four main highways running north and south along the length of the Interlake – Highways 6, 7, 8 and 9, but each served a different purpose and a different ethnic community. All are now decommissioned, with only a portion of the Riverton line still operating (CPR operates from Winnipeg to Selkirk, while a private group operates the leg from Selkirk to Gimli), and a small length of the Gypsumville line (to Warren) owned and operated seasonally by the vintage tour rail line, Prairie Dog Central. Portions of the Arborg line, to Stonewall, as well as the PDC portion, have recently served as storage lines for grain and oil cars not in use. While the population has grown from under 15,000 in 1900 to just over 88,000 in 2016, changes in demand, transportation options, demographics and location trends have resulted in rail transportation companies seeing no rationale for maintaining the old lines.

For several years, locals fought to hold onto “their” rail spur lines, some because of nostalgia, while others looked for new uses for old routes and resources.

From east to west, change overtook the old steam engines and diesels. The Gimli/Riverton line had been constructed on two footings: the Riverton area provided fish to be transported and even some fish and limestone from the Hecla Island area found its way into the cargo being hauled. But the mainstay was the Gimli/Winnipeg Beach portion. In the early 1900s, both beaches were prime destination points for Winnipeggers seeking reprieve from hot summers at two of the sandiest beaches in the province. Private cars and buses killed the demand for the rail service by the 1960s. In the early 2000s, Riverton began working on its rail station museum, while the RMs of Bifrost and Gimli joined with them to develop a walking path from the Diego (Crown Royal) brewery stop to the Riverton museum.

Arborg’s rail line stopped operating in 2002, but was only decommissioned around 2009-10. There are no major structures remaining of that line, which had served the Icelandic, Polish and Ukrainian farming communities in the area.

The Fisher Branch line attempted the most ambitious projects. Also known as the “Prime Meridian Line,” because it ran almost exactly along the prime meridian, or centre, of the province, it had been built to bring timber (mostly poplar) from the aptly named Poplarwood area south of Fisher Branch to Winnipeg. It served a mostly Ukrainian and Metis or First Nations population.  Throughout the late 1990s, into the mid-2000s, a local group attempted to maintain a pristine nature trail along the route, passing close to the Narcisse and Inwood snake dens from Grosse Isle to Fisher Branch. Mostly recently, the trail has been fragmented into a walking trail, motorized sports vehicle trail as well as abandoned segments. The Chatfield Dairy Museum, operating for decades just south of Poplarwood, now has closed.

The Gypsumville line, too, faded away, except for the Prairie Dog Central portion. It had been built to haul gypsum rock from Gypsumville to Winnipeg, until the quarry was depleted. The Canadian Armed Forces Services operated a base at Gypsumville from 1962 until 1987, throughout the Cold War era. Now, the hamlet has fewer than 290 residents.

Remnants of the old rail lines are still evident, but, like animal tracks in the wilderness, these tracks, too, will disappear. Only the ghosts of the old rail lines will remain.

Manipogo -- Manitoba's Own Nessie

The lake may be only 8 meters deep, but it holds secrets and mysteries that keep locals enthralled and bars and party kitchens stocked with stories. Lake Manitoba, it seems, has its very own Loch Ness monster. More correctly, it has Manipogo, the serpent monster of the lake. Manipogo shares its lore with Bigfoot, recently spotted in Berens River on Lake Winnipeg and Carrot River near The Pas. Carrot River and OCN First Nations also lay claim to sightings of a Pterodactyl, observed by a local contruction worker and a minister on the same day. Yet, Manipogo has the most sightings, and even a portrait of sorts.

Like everything in this province, Manipogo seems passive, non-confrontational. A 1962 photo taken by two fishermen shows what is described as a 60-foot serpent-like creature, unafraid of the boat and outboard motors, but disinterested in making contact with the two. A day earlier, picnickers had spotted the creature a distance from shore in what is now named Manipogo Park.

The most recent sightings include numerous appearances in 2011 around Marshy Point, Delta Beach and Twin Beaches on the south end of the lake. The last reported sighting was in 2012 at Twin Beaches. The earliest sightings date back to the turn of the 20^th century, with a sighting in 1882 and one in 1909.

Manipogo may have a cousin, Winepogo, a resident of Lake Winnipegosis. However, if either exist, they may be one and the same, since Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis are connected, and there have been numerous sightings at their junction – The Narrows.

In typical Manitoba fashion, Manipogo is the perfect reason for a party. Actually, just about anything is reason for a party in the western Interlake, and, with winter starting in Octoer and ending in April or May, a mid-March party is a great way to disrupt the monotony of long, cold dark days. So, the Metis community of St Laurent holds its annual Manipogo Festival in the first week of March.

Manipogo may be a myth, may be real, or may be a misinterpretation of something more benign than a monster, but the truth is irrelevant. It is a great story, and an ideal opportunity to explore near-ghost stories. Like the discovery of gold in Bissett, it may be a treasure just waiting to be uncovered. Or it may be that Manipogo, like Bigfoot or Sasquatch, simply is too shy to ever be encountered up close. Even though its home is an extremely shallow, elongated lake formed from an old glacier, Manipogo adds a rich depth to the waters it calls its own.

Invasive Homesteading: Garlic, Hawthorne & Horseradish

When European settlers arrived in Canada, they brought more than their families, and the landscape, flora and fauna of North America has been changed forever.

We often think of scourges like smallpox when we think of early Canada’s history. Even though many Europeans continued to die of the disease, many had developed a limited immunity and became carriers. The North American native tribes had no such immunity, and the price for being in contact with, and often helping the white arrivals cost the First Nations people tens of thousands of deaths.

But smallpox has had, comparatively speaking, a minor impact on our western environment. Ships brought over numerous other stowaways, including almost every variety of sparrow. Most of the sparrows – one of the most numerous birds on this continent – actually are not native to the country, but are of European origin. Carp, found in all three of Manitoba’s great lakes, are also non-native, but have taken over our slow-moving waterways. Each spring, kids and many grownups spend days dip-netting these bottom feeding fish as they work their way up streams to spawning beds. This massive “kill” does little to control the carp population, and few locals eat the slimy-tasting fish (even though they are a staple on many European tables).

Dandelion, too, is non-native to our continent, but now is one of the most prolific and common weeds in the northern and western hemisphere. 1600s-era Europeans actually cultivated dandelion, using the flowering plant for medicinal and culinary purposes, drinking a coffee substitute made from its roots and steaming the greens. Every turn-of-the-century immigrant in the mid-1900s knew how to make excellent dandelion wine!

But other plants, introduced by settlers into their gardens, chose to stay “close to home” where they were planted. Hawthorne is one of those homebodies. The berries were much sought after by the settlers for their winter stores, but when the old homesteads decayed, large farms took over the small plots and the owners moved into the cities or died off, the houses and sheds decayed and collapsed, while the hawthorne shrubs thrived.

Two other staples of the European settlers’ diet were garlic and horseradish. Both continue to grow wild around the old footings and foundations of homesteads long disappeared. The plants propagate slowly, but sufficiently fast to maintain a continual supply of these dietary supplements. A wild harvester is sure to find her years’ supply of late-season hawthorne berries, garlic bulbs and horseradish tubers wherever an 1800s rural house once stood.