In 1900, William Duncan “Bill” Halliday (1874-1962) canoed down the Whitemouth and Winnipeg rivers and claimed the land in what is now the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet upon which this stone cairn is situated. He filed the first homestead in Lac du Bonnet. He passed on the land to his son, John Alexander “Jack” Halliday (1904-?), and it remains the property of the Halliday family.
The cairn was first erected on 18 July 1970 by the Lac du Bonnet Boy Scout Troop as their Manitoba centennial project. It was restored in 1995 by the municipal government.
Halliday Homestead commemorative monument (August 2010)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Halliday Homestead commemorative monument (August 2025)
Source: Jean McManus
Plaque on the Halliday Homestead commemorative monument (August 2025)
Source: Jean McManusSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.28014, W96.01975
denoted by symbol on the map above
Canada 1911 census, Ancestry.
Marriage registration [John Alexander Halliday, Norma Elizabeth Hawkins], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Logs & Lines from the Winnipeg River: A History of the Lac du Bonnet Area by Lac du Bonnet History Book Committee, 1980, page 197.
We thank Jean McManus and Tighe McManus for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 6 September 2025
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