The Whirlpool School District was established in February 1926 and a one-room schoolhouse operated at SW10-19-18W in what is now the Municipality of Harrison Park. The school ceased operation in the summer of 1957 and the district was dissolved in 1964, with its catchment area becoming part of the Onanole Consolidated School No. 2402 and later the Rolling River School Division. The former school building was moved to Onanole where it was used for storage and classes.
Among the teachers of Whirlpool School were Mary M. Macdonald [McDonald] (Fall 1926 - Spring 1928), Annie Myrtle Young (Fall 1928 - Spring 1929), Mary Edna Booth (Fall 1929 - Spring 1931), Ivch? Lois Chambers (Fall 1931), Marjorie Elizabeth Johnston (Spring 1932), Mathilda C. Presch (August-October 1932), Muriel Doris Murray (November 1932 - June 1933), Harry Clare Pentland (Fall 1933 - Spring 1936), Miss J. E. Meldrum (Fall 1936 - Spring 1937), Hermina Johnson (Fall 1937 - Fall 1939), George Boyer Poole (Fall 1939 - Fall 1940), Ialo G. Johnstone (Spring 1941), Emily Ivadell Abel (Fall 1941 - Spring 1942), Eleanor Bergitte Lee (Fall 1942), Ina Irene Pallon (Spring 1943 - Spring 1944), Nina Evangline E. Benson (Fall 1944 - Spring 1945), Harold Langille Murray (August- 1945 - February 1946), Harold R. de Jersey (February-June 1946), Rita Doreen Wetteland (Fall 1946 - Spring 1947), Helen Agnes Kalakailo (Fall 1947 - Spring 1948), Helen Lorraine Bjarnason (Fall 1948 - Spring 1949), Rudolph Raymond Edward Usick (Fall 1949 - Spring 1950), Nancy Judith Mazur (Fall 1950 - Spring 1951), Gladys Ruth Wickdahl (Fall 1951 - Spring 1952), Shirley I. Hodges (Fall 1952 - Spring 1953), Audrey P. Burnett (Fall 1953 - Spring 1954), Phyllis Zemliah ? [Zemliak?] (Fall 1954 - Spring 1955), Carol Elveretta Sundmark (Fall 1955 - Spring 1956), and Orville Strand (Fall 1956 - Spring 1957).
A commemorative monument has been erected at the former school site.
Whirlpool School (no date) by W. C. Hartley
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 103.Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.61625, W99.90369
denoted by symbol on the map above
Wasagaming West topographic map, 62J/12 West, Edition 2, Series A743 [UFS Reference Collection].
One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
Onanole & District by Onanole and District History Committee, 2003. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5649.O63 Ona]
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Whirlpool School District No. 2146 - Daily Registers, GR2063, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Bob Turner for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 28 May 2025
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