Vantage Points Articles 

Vantage Points Booklets are a publication of the Turtle Mountain Souris Plains Heritage Association.
Each volume has about 40 short articles.

These resources and much more are available at: 
https://vantagepoints.ca

Online access to individual stories is currently being updated.

In the meantime contact Ken at storiekw@gmail.com for PDF copies of individual articles.



Stories from... Boissevain - Morton Minicipality

Volume 1


Turtle Mountain       Web      Vol. I, Page 1
The creation, habitiation and settlement of a unique area.

Whitewater Lake       Web      Vol. I, Page 2
The creation, habitiation and settlement of a unique area.

Boundary Commission Trail       Web     Vol. I, Page 4
The main highway - west.

Mandan Trail      Web      Vol. I, Page 5
The explorer LaVérendrye used the Mandan Trail on his expedition in 1738 to visit the Mandan villages along the Missouri, thus the trail quite possibly existed prior to the fur trade era.

Skull Swamp       Web    Vol.  I, Page 7
Skull Swamp is an example of the ingenuity possessed by post glacial societies in their bison hunting techniques and how they used the existing landscape to their advantage.

Lena House      Web   Vol.  I, Page 10
Lena House is one of two fur trading posts which were located on Turtle Mountain, though its exact location has never been determined.

The Boiler Trail
      Vol. I, Page 19
This trail branched off from the Boundary Commission Trail about a 2.4 kms west of Wakopa and met up with the Trail again at the Old Deloraine Land Titles Office

George Morton's Ventures    Web     Vol. I , Page  20
He persuaded businessmen in Kingston to invest in the Morton Dairy Farm Company and received (via his business connections with John A. MacDonald the right to purchase 72 square miles (184 kms²) of land west of Whitewater Lake.
 

Turtle Mountain City and Waubeesh   Web    Vol. I, Page 21
John Brondgeest envisioned Waubeesh becoming a thriving settlement, and by 1884, it was indeed a chief commercial centre for the region along with Old Deloraine.


Strathallen School      Web       Vol.  I, Page 28
The school was built in 1892 about seven miles (11 kms) southwest of Boissevain along the old No. 3 Highway.

Great Northern Railway       Web       Vol.  I, Page 30
Construction of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) began during the winter of 1905 and finished in 1906, covering the 69.5 miles (110 kms) from St. John's (Devil's Lake), North Dakota to Brandon, Manitoba.

Mennonite Settlement in Southwest Manitoba   /   Web      Vol. I , Page  34
Mennonites settle on the Canadian Prairies -  Post 1923


Dunseith Trail       Web     Vol. I, Page 35
The prohibition of beverage alcohol in the early 1900s paved the way for one of the area's most colourful chapters of thrill and intrigue.

Walter Zeiler – Rum-runner   Web     Vol. I, Page 36
He travelled in the dead of night, never under a full moon, and never after it had freshly snowed because of the tracks that would be left by his horse's hooves

Lorna Smith Nature Centre      Web       Vol. I, Page  41
The Lorna Smith Nature Centre just southeast of Boissevain was established in 1983 by the Turtle Mountain Conservation District as part of the reservoir project.


Volume 2


Oil Exploration      Web     Vol.  II, Page 46
The present-day oil boom builds upon a history of success in the oil industry


Volume 3


Mammoth Tusk       Web      Vol.  III, Page 8
This find is one of only eight proboscidean discoveries in Manitoba and one of three tusks, the other finds being teeth.

Eva McKay: The Dakota Experience    Web   Vol.  III Page 22
Retelling History: Elder, healer and activist Eva McKay tells of the gross misinterpretation of history as it describes her people

Old Wakopa        Web      Vol. III, Page 24
The first “stopping place” for settlers heading west


Lake Max Sawmill      Web      Vol.III  , Page 26
In 1880 Mr Bolton established a sawmill on the shore of Lake Max. The next year, entrepreneur George Morton bought the sawmill and used it to produce lumber for nearly every building in the then thriving village of Whitewater.

Lake Max Recreation      Web       Vol.III , Page 27
As the largest lake in what is now Turtle Mountain Provincial Park, Max Lake was the natural location of choice for summer holidaying.

All Saint's Church     Web     Vol.  III, Page 32
The All Saint’s Church and Cemetery served as a landmark and community centre for over 30 years before the numbers in the parish could no longer support it.

Turtle Mountain Forestry Reserve  
Web       Vol.  III, Page 41
In 1895 the Minister of the Interior set aside 75,000 acres as the “Turtle Mountain Timber Reserve.”

George King General Store
      Web     Vol.  III, Page 49
Built in 1904, it was once also the home of the Boissevain and Morton Library and Archives.

The Blue Flea     Web     Vol.  III, Page 51 
The Lauder Subdivision of the CPR (which came to be known as the Blue Flea) was constructed due to a request which came from one Thomas Dand.

Ben Arde: Mountainside Store Operator      Web      Vol.  III, Page 53
1949 - 1962
Ben Arde was born in Saskatchewan in October of 1926. His parents farmed there until the 1930s. When Ben was eight his father, originally from Wakopa, moved his family back to Manitoba, this time settling south of Mountainside.


Volume 4


Railway Schemes and Dreams     Web     Vol. IV, Page  10
While many of the railway proposals may have been based more on hopes than on available investors, most were practical, indeed modest, attempts to address a local Manitoba need.

A Disturbance in the Classroom - By Edith King      Web         Vol. IV   , Page  12
At the blackboard the young teacher determinedly was writing an exercise for the class. From behind her came a sudden but definite flip, flip, flip of an inkwell.

The Anchorage       Web      Vol. IV , Page  14
The Anchorage was not, as one might expect when first hearing of it, a public hall. It was a private home.

Sam Heaslip - The "Stage Coach" Mailman    Web       Vol.  IV, Page 17
In the early 1880’s the main road from Old Deloraine to Brandon was the Heaslip Trail named for Sam Heaslip who established the trail and used it to deliver the mail.

A Tale of Two Mill Fires     Web      Vol.  IV, Page 18
The story of milling in Boissevain begins shortly after the town was established as an important commercial centre on the new CPR line. In those days a progressive town needed a mill.

From Trails to Rails     Web       Vol. IV , Page  19
Whole villages like Deloraine, Waubeesh and Wassawa were moved to new locations when the rail line passed them by.

The First Phone in Boissevain      Web        Vol.  IV, Page 28
In 1904 a local exchange was located in Hilton's Drug Store, but only a few residences were hooked up. Then in 1906 the Bell Telephone Company began installing its own phones in Boissevain homes.

Cricket Anyone? : The Waubeesh English Settlement        Web       Vol.  IV, Page 38
There were many attempts in Western Canada for groups from Britain to duplicate the sort of life they were used to in their home country.

Mr. Bryan's Whistle Stop      Web       Vol.  IV, Page 58       
“One time, Mr. William Jennings Bryan, a noted politician in U.S.A. was trying for the presidency. He came to Canada on the Great Northern Railway..."


Volume 5


The Three Bridges at Riverside    Web   Vol.  V, Page 10
This well-used crossing of the Souris River has seen a few changes.

The Two Desfords       Web     Vol.  V, Page 14
The Desford community began in the late 1870's along the Old Commission Trail about twelve kilometres south- southeast of Boissevain.

Snow Plane to the Rescue!         Web      Vol.  V, Page 26
Simply put, a snowplane was a sleigh with a body on it and a propeller on the back end of a motor. Like the horse and sleigh before it, it didn’t need roads.  

Nurse Halladay and Boissevain’s First Hospital    Web      Vol.  V, Page 31
When the time came to open the doors on this new and much appreciated service, Nurse Halladay was appointed Matron.
scibing him.

Murder for a Homestead      Web     Vol.  V, Page 37
Two murders, a national manhunt and a near escape. It all started on a farm near Boissevain.

Boissevain’s Dr. Bird    Web   Vol.  V, Page 42
Dr Bird had to deal with many emergency procedures by the dim light in a homesteader’s bedroom.

Home Delivery - The Drayman        Web     Vol. V, Page 44
In addition to doing the daily deliveries from the station, the draymen did deliveries from merchants to customers and from the train station to merchants.

Volume 6


From Sheppard’s Ferry to Sheppardville  Vol. 6, Page 17
On early maps of southwestern Manitoba, and in the earliest reminiscences
by pioneers, the name Sheppard keeps popping up.

Safeway Stores – Changing Small Town Shopping  Vol. 6,   Page 28
Safeway stores were the first widespread attempt at placing “Chain
Stores” in rural communities.

Mr. Udall & The International Peace Garden
  Vol. 6,   Page 29
Boissevain's Billy Udall and the creation of the International Peace Garden.

Police Point  Vo.l 6Page 36
The NWMP patrols the Border from a Depot at William Lake.

A Trip to Orthez   Vol. 6,  Page 38
Local history books relate many accounts of the benefits of reliable, inexpensive train service in those days before everyone had cars.

Dring Laminated Structures  Vol. 6,  Page 51
Innovation and Business in Boissevain. Vol. 6.  Page 51

Bill Moncur – Boissevain’s Historian
  Vol. 6,  Page 55

Building Excellence in Women’s Sports  Vol. 6,  Page 56
Women's hockey has deep roots in Westman.





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