MHS Centennial Farm Awards

Link to:
List of Centennial Farms | Application form | Questions?

Guidelines for Centennial Farm recognition:

• minimum size - 50 acres
• direct descendants - male or female, or by marriage
• current ownership
• proof of ownership - legal documentation (homestead records, Land Titles documents)

Each family must apply for this award and provide documentation of ownership of the same parcel of land over the course of a century or more, as well as family history. Titles records, family papers, Crown Lands homestead records and Hudson's Bay Company land sale records at the Archives of Manitoba, or the Canadian Pacific Railway land sale records at the Glenbow Archives in Calgary. When proof is found and wording is agreed upon, the Centennial Farm plaques are prepared then presented, most often at a family gathering, by the members of the Centennial Farms Committee.

Committee members have attended local fairs, community centennials, a community baseball tournament and family reunions to make these presentations.

In 1995, the committee amended its guidelines to include recognition with a Centennial Farm certificate for those family farms that were owned for 100 years or more but subsequently sold before receiving a Centennial Farm plaque. The first of these certificates were prepared in 1996.

To date, over 1,165 farm families have received this recognition since 1980 when the program was initiated under the presidency of Mrs. Alice Brown, to mark the centennial of the Manitoba Historical Society.

The Manitoba Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives can be contacted for the Century Farm Gate Signs.

Questions?

If you have questions about the Centennial Farm Award program, or wish to submit an application form, please contact the MHS office.

Page revised: 14 July 2009