DiscoverWinnipeg.ca - Winnipeg History, Manitoba, Canada

Winnipeg History

Winnipeg is a city with many appellations, bestowed by various cultural sectors. The name Winnipeg, which stems from the aboriginal word win, meaning muddy, and nipee, meaning waters, was first used on the masthead of Manitoba's first newspaper, The Nor'wester, in 1866. Prior to this time, the Nor'wester called the community Red River Settlement, Assiniboia.

As a prairie city gaining its origin mainly because of water travel, the city is known to some as the River City, as in The River City Brewing Company. The internationally acclaimed Forks Market is located at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. It is here that Miles Macdonnell and 36 Scottish and Irish laborers founded the first Red River settlement.

Beginning in 1776, when there was nobody around except for a few natives and fur traders, there were five floods before The Great Flood of 1826. This flood caused the evacuation of all the town's settlers, which by this time still tallied less than 1000. There were then six more floods before the Great Flood of 1950. This flood caused an estimated $115,000,000 in damage. Winnipeggers had now had enough and resolved to build the Red River Floodway, an architectural wonder that diverts floodwater around the metropolitan area at the expense of the surrounding villages and farms. This structure was completed in 1962, ensuring that the city would never again have to be evacuated.

But floods were not the only strife early settlers had to suffer before a permanent settlement became viable. Before 1821, the North West Company, its employees and Metis allies practiced a form of protectionism that would land them all in jail today. They killed the competition, which included settlers the company viewed as a threat to the fur trade. They felt, quite correctly, that rising population in the area would quickly deplete the area of its resources in fur bearing animals. On June 19, 1816, in what became known as the Seven Oaks Massacre, 70 mounted, armed North West Company employees and Metis, attacked the settlement at Selkirk, gruesomely murdering, disemboweling and scalping 21 of the settlers there. They then smashed in the skulls and left the bodies on the plains to be scavenged by wolves. That is the way it was done during the earliest struggles between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. In 1821, the rival companies agreed to bury the hatchet', merging their interests and bringing an uneasy peace to the area. However, this did not guarantee the settlement's success, and until agriculture became sustainable in the late 1840s, the people relied mainly on the buffalo hunt for sustenance. The fur trade remained strong until about 1875, when expanding commerce and trade, effective flood control and agricultural practices became attractive enough to induce a short period of brisk colonial growth. A population of 215 in 1871 grew to 3700 in 1874.

Yet, in 1870, Winnipeg was still less significant than the Red River colonies. These consisted of Scottish, Irish and French settlements located in feudal arrangement all along the Red River. There were three distinct colonies: at the Forks, at Point Douglas (now the somewhat famous corner of Portage and Main Street), and at Selkirk (now located about 15 miles north of Winnipeg). There was still the odd skirmish between colonists trying to secure their livelihoods; but The Red River Rebellion (in which Louis Riel secured the rights of Metis and consequently martyred himself) of the 1860s resulted in Manitoba entering Confederation in 1870. From the mid-1870s on, the area settled into a slow but steady growth.

The Manitoba Act was signed in 1870; Fort Osborne Barracks were founded in 1872, much increasing local trade; 1872 also saw the inauguration of the Winnipeg Free Press, still in business today. The town grew as a trade centre to meet the demands for goods the colonists needed. The first fortunes made here were made by real estate speculators, who correctly predicted a boom, purchased huge tracts of land and parceled them out to the immigrating colonists. In January of 1872, the first issue of the Manitoba Trade Review is published, and calls for the town's incorporation. On November 8, 1873, The Forks and the Red River Colony merged into an incorporated Winnipeg. The Act of Incorporation followed Ontario's lead; consequently, the remaking of Manitoba in Ontario's image began in Winnipeg. By late 1874, a civic government was well established, and the city's motto became Commerce, Prudence, Industry. Considering the counterproductive endeavors of early settlers here, the term prudence is a terrible irony.

In 1907, Winnipeg's Stock Exchange was chartered, and by 1913 manufacturing concerns achieved sales over $50M. In May of 1919, more than 35,000 union employees and unorganized laborers (almost a fifth of the city's population) went on strike in response to poor trade conditions and a recessed economy, paralyzing Winnipeg commerce. Riots and bloodshed ensued, and before it was over the union leaders were jailed. The following year the Manitoba Legislative Building was erected and topped with a standard symbol of Winnipegthe Golden Boy.

Travel on the rivers was vital to commerce in the early development of the city. Before this time, however, aboriginal hunting parties, early traders and explorers used these rivers. The forks' also became a meeting place and area devoted to ritual practices. This rich history is represented in the current Forks development and factors largely in continued development. These rivers continued to be vital until the development of the Red River Cart, a sturdy two-wheeled wagon that could withstand the brutal overland routes used in westward expansion. In addition, the coming of the railroad in 1881, removed the necessity of river commerce. Today, the Red and Assiniboine are used almost entirely for pleasure travel and recreation. The Splash Dash Water Bus is an exception, which makes it possible to get quickly from one river attraction to the next.

It was for these reasons that this city became known as the Gateway to the West; it remains a major distribution centre to this day. Connected to this is the notion that Winnipeg is the proving grounds of Canadian commerce. It is said by many industrialists and entrepreneurs that, if it works in Winnipeg it will work anywhere.

Finally, the Peg is known as the dining capital of Canada. It is widely rumored that this city has more restaurants per capita than any other Canadian city. While it is hard to find verification of this rumor, a trip downtown, especially down Corydon Avenue, seems to bear out this assertion with relative ease. The Yellow Pages here have over 25 pages of entries for restaurantsnot bad for a city with little more than 600,000 people.